Biology 565--Conservation Biology--Spring 2015
Tuesday & Thursday
12:30 to 1:45 pm
107 Wilson Hall
See also the class website:
web.bio.unc.edu/courses/2015Spring/Biol565/default.htm
Instructor
Peter White, Professor, Department of Biology
Director, North Carolina Botanical Garden
Biology phone: 919-962-6939
Garden phone: 919-962-0522
Campus Box 3280 (Biology)
Audience—Who Should Take This Class:
This is a class that draws from all aspects of biology to construct a knowledge base for those at the upper undergraduate or graduate student level who are interested in conservation, whether from a biodiversity or ecosystem perspective. Often students are majors in Environmental Sciences or Biology, but they have come from diverse backgrounds, including law, government, city and regional planning, geography, and anthropology. Students learn from the discoveries of past science (including recently published work), but are also encouraged to think creatively about new questions and to design projects that might answer those questions.
Prerequisites:
A basic course in ecology and population biology is required (Biology 201) but seek permission of the instructor if you have special interest in conservation biology, are taking that course simultaneously with this course, or have other reasons to want to be in the class now.
Course Goals and Learning Objectives:
The goal of this class is to review all the biological knowledge that is essential to conservation, ranging from genetics to ecosystems and from small scales to broad ones. Some of the material is review, albeit with new conservation-themed examples, and some will be new to you because the work in question is only carried out in a conservation context. Examples of competencies gained are the following: ability to evaluate the relative contributions of niche-environment relations and spatial-temporal constraints to biodiversity patterns and the consequence of these patterns for conservation design; understanding how genetic diversity is affected by effective population size; understanding how extinction risk is affected by the size, number, and distribution of populations; ability to construct, in a conceptual sense, population and metapopulation models; understanding concepts of ecosystem dynamics, resistance, resilience, and adaptability; ability to critically analyze modern conservation issues like invasive species, climate change and change in other ecological processes, habitat loss and fragmentation, trophic cascades, ecological restoration, and ex situ conservation. The key competency to gain is to think critically about scientific findings, to see where uncertainties and opportunities for new research lie, and to use the findings of biological science as a conservation tool box.
Course Requirements:
You should read the assigned chapters before the class in question, as we will devote some of the class time to questions and discussions. You should attend lecture because the material will illustrate, clarify, and extended the readings. You will find advice on doing well and links to all class requirements HERE.
Other Class Policies:
If you must miss an exam, please contact the instructor in advance—arrangements will include taking an alternative version of the exam. The final exam will be given in compliance with UNC final exam regulations and according to the UNC Final Exam Calendar. Late work may be accepted with permission of the instructor, so please contact the instructor if you have any questions. All work submitted must be your own (you will be asked to acknowledge this), with sources credited and cited—the UNC Honor Code is linked HERE.
Course Philosophy:
Conservation biology seeks principles from all parts of biology (genetics, population biology, ecology, evolution) that contribute to conserving biological diversity. During lectures, we will discuss a broad amount of material, including updates with current literature, and you will be tested on that. You will also do a semester-long project in which you will become creative and do original research—you will be writing a proposal for a PhD level project in conservation biology! See the section of this website called Grading and Doing Well (click on the link to go to that information).
We have four ambitions: (1) to discuss the biological principles and findings that all conservation biologists should know; (2) to integrate the latest research and information from the web and key journals with class discussion; (3) to connect the concepts and research findings to real world conservation problems; and (4) to go beyond the material we discuss by defining and proposing to answer original questions.
Conservation Biology is an applied field—and a particularly intriguing one because the information we need focuses on the basic understanding of how nature works. Though a considerable amount of knowledge has accumulated, this course also seeks to push towards the unanswered questions and to test the assumptions and the empirical basis of principles that have been presented. We will attempt to go beyond the simple to the deeper issues.
The current state of and threats to the natural world are discussed, but this course does not focus on this year’s headlines. Rather, we attempt to define the principles and findings that constitute conservation’s tool box—a tool box that is universal rather than focused on particular places or times.
We warn you that the literature often presents conflicts. Often this is because conservationists have limited time and money and must choose between alternatives. For example, Does genetic diversity matter more than current population size? Are corridors the answer or does isolation provide benefit? Is it better to conserve a single large area or several small areas of the same total area (the so-called SLOSS debate, see also below)? The obvious answer to these questions is “sometimes” or “it depends”—an answer which feels unsatisfying when presented in those terms. Rather, we should learn to examine these questions more deeply. For example, the question isn’t “does genetic diversity matter?”, but, “When does genetic diversity matter?” If the answer is “it depends”, what does it depend on? Use of corridors is one tool in the conservation tool box—the question isn’t if we should use it, but when we should use it. So, heed our warning: Do not expect universal and simple answers (though we will be excited to find some of these!) in the face of nature’s complexity. Learn to think critically about the questions posed.
We cover all levels of biological organization: genetics, species, ecosystems, and landscapes. Some of the material reviews information from other courses, but hopefully with a new slant and examples drawn from a new literature. We hope that this material, whether old or new, is drawn together in a new way and focused on a common set of questions.
Subjects
Why conservation? Toward a Conservation Ethic; History of conservation in the US
Why conservation? Can we produce a taxonomy of conservation goals? What can we learn from the history of conservation in North America and elsewhere? How do we formulate a conservation ethic?
This is a course about science, so we won’t spend much time on the history, philosophy, or ethics of conservation. However, conservation is many different things, some of them contradictory, to different people. Unless we organize our thinking about these issues early on, we will find ourselves trying to sort them out later while trying to talk about the science of conservation. In these discussions, we explore the many seeming contradictions—all of which ultimately have to do with the relationship between humans and nature: Conservation as sustainable use of resources vs. Conservation as wild areas with no human use; Conservation through direct management vs. Conservation as hands-off protection; Conservation of species vs. Conservation of ecosystems; Conservation as naturally occurring biodiversity vs. Conservation as building the ark; Conservation for change vs. Conservation against change.
Biodiversity
What is biodiversity? How do we measure it? What is the scale dependence of species richness? What is the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function? What are the threats to biodiversity?
Biological diversity has become a label for conservation goals. Narrowly defined it is species richness or the number of species present. However, the persistence of species is affected by population size (one individual makes the species “present”, but rarely is sufficient for persistence), genetic diversity, habitat quality, species interactions, ecosystem processes, and landscape pattern (not just what is present, but how it is arranged in space). Broadly defined, biological diversity encompasses composition (species, genes, or ecosystems present), structure (arrangement, size, or amount of what is present), and process (functional interactions) for each of four levels: genes, species, ecosystems, and ecosystems.
Island biogeography, SLOSS, Fragmentation, Corridors
What is the theory of island biogeography and what is the history of the application of this theory to conservation biology? What is minimum dynamic area? What is gained by size and numbers of conservation areas? Does good conservation design reduce the cost of management and increase conservation success? Do corridors work?
Island biogeography has been a central idea in conservation. Though primarily concerned with species richness as a function of the size and isolation of islands, the ideas of island biogeography find relationshpis to many other conservation issues: viable population size, area-sensitivity of particular species, metapopulations, the nestedness of species lists. Island biogeography is perhaps best known from the Single Large or Several Small (SLOSS) debate: given a fixed amount of financial or political support, should we conserve a single large tract or several small tracts that sum to the same total area as the single large tract? SLOSS has been erected and laid to rest many times. Because size and numbers of reserves maximize different components of biodiversity, the debate can never be resolved. Human occupation of the landscape results in the outright loss of habitat and the fragmentation of surviving habitat. Fragmentation has its own consequences, beyond those called by direct human effects on habitat quality. Conservation biologists sometimes propose corridors to reduce isolation.
Species conservation
What makes some species endangered? How do naturally rare species and those species on which humans have imposed rarity differ? Are species equal or are there keystone, linking, or indicator species? Where are the hot spots of diversity and do these matter? Are hot spots and diversity patterns correlated across taxa? Does the umbrella species concept work?
Genetics
When does genetics matter? What are inbreeding depression, outbreeding depression, and optimum breeding distance? Should we worry about genetics in species reintroduction or translocation? What is the value of ex situ conservation?
Populations and metapopulations
What is effective population size (Ne) vs. census population size (N)? How do we determine minimum viable population size? What tools do we use to predict population size? What is a metapopulation and how do we conserve and manage for metapopulation dynamics?
Why are some species invasive? Are some ecosystems more invasible than others? Can we predict invasions? Does biological control work?
Communities, ecosystems, and landscapes
What natural processes control community composition and dynamics? What is natural process or ecosystem management? What is the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis? What are qualitative and quantitative concepts of dynamic equilibrium? What are the Historic Range of Variability and the Natural Range of Variation as used in ecosystem management?
What are the challenges and techniques of ecological restoration? What do succession and assembly rules tell us about restoration?
What are the currently unanswered questions of conservation biology?
Doing Well in this Class
Do the Readings BEFORE the class on which they are assigned…Come to ASK AND ANSWER QUESTIONS, PARTICIPATE IN DISCUSSION, and SOAK UP the lectures…Get intellectually engaged in the material…Ask questions, engage in discussion, including with professor Peter White and the grad student TA…Look for new unanswered questions…Learn the theory and think about applications to current problems.
Grading
IMPORTANT NOTE ON ELECTRONIC NAMING CONVENTIONS: as you will see, you will be emailing your assignments (research project, exam 1, exam 2-take-home, exam2-in class, service assignment, and participation in the North Carolina Botanical Garden tour) to the graduate TA. To help us stay organized, please put your last name as the first word in the subject line of the email and, as will be repeated in the body of the exams, use your last name as the first word of the name of any attached files).
Grading has 3 larger and 1 smaller components (for a total of 100 pts).
The 3 larger components:
Independent Research Assignment (30 pts). GO HERE for a description of the Research Project.
Exam1 (Mid-Term, 30 pts) (this is a take home exam, see Syllabus for schedule).
Exam2 (Final, 35 pts) (this has both a take home and in-class portion, see Syllabus for schedule). The final will address the second half of the class in detail, but will also include questions that integrate across the two halves of the class.
Smaller component (click on the links to find out more):
Service Assignment (5 pts)
See Announcements for periodic announcements of service opportunities and tours and email Peter White if you have a problem with scheduling.
The 2 Exams
The exams are open notes, open book, open google, and open mind. As a result I will ask questions that depend on understanding and using the material, rather than just repeating it. You should keep up with the material and email Peter White if you feel that something is not clicking. Coming to class and engaging in the lectures is important to doing well in this class.
I want you to engage in the material and, as long as you know how to get the facts you use, it doesn’t matter where you get the facts—you MUST, of course, cite your sources (you do NOT have to cite our lectures, readings, or powerpoint slides, however, in your exam answers). I should point out this is how your professors work—open library, book, open notes, open google, and hopefully open mind. But the thinking and work, your exam answers and research project, that are based on your notes, google searches, and class materials must, of course, be yours and yours alone—see Honor Code.
Independent Research Project (30 pts): Your PhD Proposal
This project is a major part of your grade and you should start working on it early in the class.
The project is intended to engage you inquiry-based learning-and to go beyond the survey of the material in the lectures. If the lectures represent the trunk and main branches of conservation biology, the research projects represent the latest questions and findings. If we have steered away from the headlines and crises of the day, here you get to jump into immediate problems to solve. If we have not taken time to apply class concepts to real world situation, here is hour chance to apply them.
For handouts from the UNC Writing Center (these may be helpful to you, if you don’t have much experience), click HERE for handouts on writing for specific fields (look for science) and for handouts on specific writing assignments (look for grant proposals).
ALSO, it is your responsibility to know what plagiarism is and to not use materials inappropriately! Click HERE for the Writing Center’s handout on plagiarism.
The finished product, due on the last day of class at midnight, can be presented as a paper (Word file or pdf, that is) or in web page form. See below for the outline you should follow (the outline topics become links from your project home page if you do this in web page format).
The finished product should be about 6-10 single spaced pages of text or the equivalent information on a series of web pages (not including the last section—the bibliography). Illustrations, graphs, and tables of data are welcome, but don’t count towards page totals.
All of the topics of conservation biology are fair game, so you can develop your own enthusiasms and interests. The questions can draw on more than one lecture or chapter. If the question has been answered elsewhere, you are free to apply that question to a new situation or a new place—for example, to UNC, North Carolina, or the Triangle Area.
Ideal questions would:
--Be interesting scientific questions that are covered or raised in our course readings or lectures and that can be phrased as answerable questions.
--Result in original work and synthesis, not just a literature review, and would take the course material into the present and into the real world.
--Would be useful in that they would have application somewhere—but including in the Southeast, North Carolina, Chapel Hill area, or for the University.
Your project will take the form of a PhD proposal! That is, a document that a PhD student would be expected to produce by the end of their 2nd year as they formulated a research plan for their dissertation. I know most of you are not PhD students…but think of yourselves as creative and critical thinkers who are going to add knowledge and solve problems.