Introduction to Conservation Biology

EEB 2208: Spring 2009

This course will provide an introduction to the discipline of conservation biology. The first two-thirds of the course, will focus on the biological aspects of the discipline. Topics covered will include patterns of biodiversity and extinction, causes of extinction and population declines, techniques used to restore populations, landscape level conservation planning, and the role of conservation in protecting ecosystem services. The final third will cover the practical aspects of implementing conservation actions and will include lectures on conservation economics and conservation law.

Basic course information

Credits: 3

Instructor: Chris Elphick (office: BioPharm 300A , behind the elevator at the north end of the building) Email: chris.elphick [ AT ] uconn.edu

Teaching assistant: Trina Bayard (office: BioPharm 310) Email: trina.schneider [ AT ] uconn.edu

Your emails to us must contain the phrase "EEB 2208” in the subject line; emails received without that phrase, and especially those with a blank subject line, will probably get treated as SPAM and be deleted without being read.

Lecture: M, W 2:00-3:15 PM

Location: BPB 131

Pre-requisites: There are currently no prerequisites for the course, but it is aimed at students who are at least sophomores.

Text book: Essentials of Conservation Biology (R.B. Primack, 4th Edition, Sinauer) is strongly recommended reading. On exams I will assume that you have read this material and may ask questions (though not many) about topics that are not covered in lectures.

Research paper readings: In some lectures, I will provide supplemental readings from the primary research literature to augment the text book readings. These readings will be the subject of class discussions and graded in-class questions; they may also appear on exams. See the syllabus below for more information on when these discussions will occur and what is expected of you.

Optional reading that might be helpful: Other introductory textbooks that might be worth looking at for supplemental information are Fundamentals of Conservation Biology by Malcolm Hunter and Conservation Biology by Andrew Pullin. If you are interested in more advanced information, then look at Principles of Conservation Biology by Groom, Meffe and Carroll. Finally, if you are really interested in this topic, then you will be well served if you check out recent issues of the journal Conservation Biology (note that to read articles you will need to be connected to the UConn system).

Questions: Please ask lots of them! Class is much more interesting (for me and you) when people ask questions. If you send me questions over email, I will post them (anonymously) along with the answers on this web site (see below), so that everyone can benefit from the answers.

Office hours: I do not have fixed office hours because they inevitably do not work for someone. But, I will try to always be present for at least 15 minutes before and after each lecture to answer simple questions. I’m also happy to meet at other times by appointment. The best option is to email me, telling me (a) what you want to discuss and (b) when would be good times to meet (Mon, Tues, or Wed are best). The TA is also available to answer questions by email and by appointment.

My course objectives: In general, my goal is to provide you with a basic understanding of the scientific field of conservation biology and the application of science to solving conservation problems. If you are just taking this course out of general interest, then hopefully it will provide you with a sense of how the biological sciences can be applied and will give you a better understanding of the main issues in conservation biology. For those of you wishing to pursue a career in conservation biology, I hope that this course will give you a solid foundation on which to build with future courses (e.g., EEB 5310). If this is your goal, I’d also encourage you to check out EEB’s joint BS/MS program in Biodiversity and Conservation Biology. There are also links to good sites for finding internships and jobs (short-term and permanent) in conservation biology below.

Overall teaching philosophy: My primary goal is for you to learn and understand basic concepts and general ideas, rather than for you to learn lots of very specific facts (though to get an A or a high B, you will need to know plenty of details too). I will expect you to know examples relating to each major concept, so that you can relate the theory to practical, real-world situations. I won’t expect you to know, for example, exactly how many species have gone extinct in the last 500 years. But, I will expect you know approximately how many (i.e., whether it is closer to 6 or 20,000). The text book readings are intended to complement the lectures. My lectures will not repeat verbatim what is in those readings, and I will often use different examples or cover somewhat different topics. Both the lecture material and the readings, however, are important and could appear on exams.

Schedule of lectures and examinations (subject to change)

For a printable version of the syllabus click here (print double-sided to save paper!)

The schedule below describes the order in which we will cover material. Not every topic fits nicely into the time set aside for a lecture, so be prepared for us to start some topics a lecture early, and for others to take longer than the syllabus suggests.

For each lecture I will aim to post an outline ahead of time (linked to the topic titles in the syllabus below). Reading these notes before each lecture should help you to follow the material, and some people like to print them out so that they can spend more time listening and less time writing. These outlines, however, ARE NOT a substitute for coming to class, making your own notes, or doing the text book readings, and you should not expect them to include everything covered in class (e.g., none of the graphics will be in the web notes).

My advice is to look the notes over before class, make supplemental notes during the lecture, and then look over all the information again before the next class. Then, if there is anything that you do not understand, ask me about it at the start of the next lecture. In exams, you will be expected to know about all the things I talked about, not just the information in the web notes. Based on past experience, you can expect to drop at least a grade if you choose to rely only on the web notes.

The symbol ** in the "Reading" column means that there is important supplemental reading from the primary literature that we will discuss in class (and, yes, you really do need to read these articles as I will randomly pick people in class to answer questions about them). Links to the relevant papers can be accessed by clicking on the **. These links might not work if you are not using a computer that connects to the UConn network. It is possible to connect your home computers to the network by going to this site and signing in using your netID.

In the syllabus I have also noted special lectures (in green) that will take place on campus this semester and that are at least loosely connected to this course.

Because conservation biology is a fast-moving field, with the latest research constantly changing, all of my course notes are updated annually. Links to the documents in the syllabus below will work as soon as each set of notes is updated - usually this will be a day or so before the relevant lecture.

Lecture	Date	Topic	Reading	Announcements
1	21 Jan	What is conservation biology?	Chapter 1	Grading policies
2	26 Jan	Interpreting statistics (when there’s an agenda)	Chapter 6	Discussion papers
3	28 Jan	Forms of biological diversity CLASS CANCELED TODAY (SEE HERE) - I WILL COVER THIS TOPIC ON MONDAY.	Chapter 2
4	2 Feb	Patterns of biodiversity	Chapter 3	FIRST DISCUSSION POSTPONED UNTIL WED 4TH
5	4 Feb	Global change	pp. 205-212; ** Root et al. 2003	FIRST DISCUSSION (ORME ET AL.) IS TODAY!!! USFS climate change atlases for trees and birds
	5 Feb	TEALE LECTURE: Bridging the Science/Journalism Gap (?) in a Time of Epochal Change (Bud Ward)		4:00PM, Konover Auditorium, Dodd Center
6	9 Feb	Extinction rates	Chapter 7 **
7	11 Feb	Patterns of extinction	Chapter 8	Project and poster guidelines
8	16 Feb	Causes of population decline	Chapter 8 **
9	18 Feb	Habitat loss & degradation	Chapter 9
10	23 Feb	Over-exploitation	Chapter 10 **
11	25 Feb	Invasive species	Chapter 10	Exam info and sample questions
12	2 Mar	Disease	Study lectures 1-12 **	I'll post answers to sample questions here on Monday.
	4 Mar	Mid-term Exam	Study lectures 1-12
	5 Mar	TEALE LECTURE: Forest carbon stocks and land-use: Reconciling the international agenda with the needs of indigenous populations (Catherine Potvin)		4:00PM, Konover Auditorium, Dodd Center
	9 Mar	No Class: SPRING BREAK	Next discussion paper	.. which is long!
	11 Mar	No Class: SPRING BREAK
13	16 Mar	Small population conservation	Chapter 11 **
14	18 Mar	Conservation genetics	Chapter 12
15	23 Mar	Population viability analysis	Chapter 13
16	25 Mar	Ex situ conservation, release programs	Chapter 14 **
17	30 Mar	Conservation reserves	Chapter 15
18	1 Apr	Reserve networks	Chapter 16
	2 Apr	TEALE LECTURE: Sun Tzu and the Art of War: How the Battle of Museums to Survive has a Negative Impact on Nature and the Environment (Michael Mares)		4:00PM, Konover Auditorium, Dodd Center
19	6 Apr	Conservation in the matrix	Chapter 18 **
20	8 Apr	Management	Chapter 17
21	13 Apr	Habitat restoration	Chapter 19 **	This discussion will take the form of a debate
22	15 Apr	Economics of conservation	Chapters 4,5
23	20 Apr	Conservation law	Chapter 20
24	22 Apr	International legislation	Chapters 21, 22 **	Another debate
25	27 Apr	Poster presentations: session 1	Study everything (LOTS)	Class will be in Wilbur Cross Building (North Reading Room)
26	29 Apr	Poster presentations: session 2	Study everything (LOTS)	Class will be in Wilbur Cross Building (North Reading Room)
	May	Final exam: confirm time and date* here	Cumulative

* Questions about exam rescheduling MUST be directed to the Dean of Students Office: 486-3426.

Please note that these lecture notes are intended for students in EEB 2208 at The University of Connecticut, and may not make sense in other contexts. If, however, you are not a UConn student and they are useful to you, please use them - but kindly let me know first if you intend to use them for anything more than your own on-line reading. If you find errors, please let me know that too.

Poster topics

The following topics have been taken:

• Polar bear population declines (Catherine, Dan, Justin)

• Overfishing in the oceans (Alexander, Debbie, Zachary)

• Mangroves (Evan, Alex, Eric)

• Captive breeding and condor conservation (Sarah, Sara, John)

• Conservation effects of genetically modified plants (Lindsey, Maria, Rick)

• Bee declines (Jaclyn, Keith, Prajwel)

• Conservation of yellow-eyed penguins (Jessica, Amy, Tiffany)

• Rockhopper penguin conservation (Keila, Laura, Alexandra )

NO MORE PENGUIN PROJECTS!!

• Supplemental feeding of elk (Westin, James, Assana)

• Gorilla declines (Jamie, Ryan, Ginna)

• White-nose fungus and bats (Tyler, Aaron, Scott)

• Salamander declines (Joe, Ted, Lance)

• Lion conservation (Paul, Stephanie, Ben)

• Wolf effects on ecosystems (Nick, Emily, William)

• Light pollution/tower kills (Justin, William, Sabrina)

• Climate change and tropical rainforest species (Kate, Elizabeth, Michael)

• Loss of medicinal plants (Daniel, Mary, Alessia)

• Tropical deforestation (Heather, Bryant, Josh)

• Tiger conservation (Kelly, Laurel, Kathryn)

• Anadromous fish conservation (Kevin, Tom, YOUR NAME HERE!)

• Coral reef conservation (Kristen, Allison, Meghan)

• Habitat fragmentation (Sara, Sarah, Jessica)

• Conservation effects of hybridization (Brian, Lauren, Drilon)

• Elephants and the ivory trade (Aaron, Tara, Donald)

• Snub-nosed monkeys (Joe, Kaitlin, Bijal)

• Sea turtle conservation (Nick, Collyn, Bernard)

• Ocean acidification (William, Jennifer, Andrew)

• Lynx conservation (Phong, Vincent, Jason)

• Sea otter conservation (Samantha, Mayuri, Hyonju)

• Jaguar declines (Matt, Meghan, Kelly)

• Frog declines (Alison, Jennifer, Lauren)

• Effect of CO2 on the rainforest (Ariel, Brian, Matt)

• Zebra mussels in US waters (Anne, Daniel, Anna)

• Invasive seaweed (Dharma, Robert, Kimelyn)

• Cheetah conservation (Michael, William, Dominique)

• Tasmanian devil conservation (Stephanie, Sachin, Anna)

• Giant panda conservation (Arriana, Robert, Mark)

• Chestnut conservation (Nadia, Brian, Garrett)

• Long horn beetle invasions (Emily, Michael, Tyler)

• Rhino conservation (Stephanie, Drew, Kevin)

• Primate conservation (Dan, Marlena, third)

• Kiwi conservation (Neil, William, Alyssa)

• Right whale conservation (Erika, Paul, William)

• Parrots and the pet trade (Yvonne, Bailey, Alex)

In a few cases groups are looking for a third. If you are interested in joining one of these groups, let me know and I will connect you to the right people.

Academic rules and conduct

All students should be aware of the guidelines on academic integrity contained in the Student Conduct Code. The Conduct Code is available here.

Conservation biology in the news

Recent news articles that relate to the topics covered in this course are posted on a separate page, here.

FAQs

If people send me questions about things that affect everyone I will post the questions (anonymously) and my answers here. Please check here before emailing me to make sure that I haven't already posted an answer. Some items are rewritten to make them more general to the entire class. The most recent additions are at the top.

Q: Here's several links to scholarly articles. Hope they work.

A: The first and fourth articles are news articles, not pieces of scientific work, and certainly not peer-reviewed, the third is not a journal article (and so may not be peer-reviewed), the fifth url doesn't seem to work. The second article (the one I talked about in class) is the only one that I can accept. It's enough for the 5 points for this assignment, but you should make sure that you know the difference between peer-reviewed journal articles and other types of articles. On the posters themselves I will be taking points off anyone who uses inappropriate articles.

And, as fair warning, on exams, when people give me 5 pieces of information, four of which were wrong, they generally get very few points even if the fifth was the answer I was looking for. This approach to answering exam questions sends the message that the respondent doesn't really know the answer and is just putting down everything they can think of in the hope that something sticks.

Q: I am having a bit of trouble finding peer-reviewed articles about my topic. Do you have any recommendations? In addition, do all articles need to be peer-reviewed?

A: All of the information you base your poster on MUST be from the peer-reviewed literature. The reason for this is that there is no filter on most of the stuff just out on the web - which means that there's lots of complete rubbish out there. Peer-review does not guarantee accuracy, but it provides at least some level of assessment. The goal is to help you to discern the difference. Varying your search terms might help you find more - think about synonyms for your terms, and use "wildcard" terms like "declin*" to broaden the search (the * means that any word beginning with "declin" will be picked up - giving you "decline", "declines", "declining", etc. all in one search). You can also use regular Google to find web sites on the topic - although you can't just use these sites, they might refer to peer-reviewed articles. Web sites might also give you ideas for more specialized search terms that you can try.

Q: I was unable to come to class today because [insert excuse here]. Can I send you a response to the discussion paper by email or make it up some other way?

A: I'm sorry that you missed the class, but the grading rules are set and say "If you are not present for an assignment you will not get any points" and "Responses can only be given during the assigned class time (no email responses allowed)" (see The Discussion Guidelines on the syllabus, above). It would not be fair to others if I used different criteria for different people. As also noted in the guidelines I do make accommodation for a very limited number of circumstances, but only for these circumstances, and only with the required documentation (see the Discussion Guidelines).

That said, I do recognize that everyone has occasions when they can't make class. For this reason, the grading is set up so that anyone can miss one session and still get an A for the discussion portion of the class. Likewise, there is the opportunity to gain extra points for especially thoughtful answers (again, see the guidelines).

Q: I can't find any peer-reviewed articles related to the news article I've chosen for my poster project. Can you provide some guidance?"

A: Most (but not all) topics will have relevant peer-reviewed literature, but it might be hard to find if you've not done literature searches before. First you need to decide what your topic is. E.g., you might read an article that compares the threat of climate change to polar bears to the threat to species in the tropics. Based on this, you could do a project that focuses on how threatened polar bears are, or one that focuses on how climate change will affect tropical species, or on how the threat to different species around the world varies, etc. Any one of these would be fine (trying to do all three would likely be too much). Next, you need to identify some key words (e.g., "climate change" and "polar bear" or "global warming" and "tropical species". Then do some searches in Web of Science (available through the UConn libraries) or Google Scholar. DO NOT use the regular Google search engine or you'll get a lot of stuff that is not peer-reviewed. There are tips on how to identify peer-reviewed papers in my guidelines for the project.

Q: Are we supposed to read the extinction rates discussion paper or is that pushed back to Wednesday?

A: The paper is for Monday 9th, as stated on the web site. For future reference, always follow the web site - any changes will be posted there. I will also notify you by email if there are any changes that relate to assignments (using whatever email address you have in Peoplesoft).

Q: I wanted to let you know that i am having difficulties trying to access the pdf discussion file we are supposed to read before class. I did sign into VPN, and i still could not access the file you wanted us to read. I was wondering if you could attach the pdf file in an email.

A: One of my goals with this assignment is to ensure that you are able to access peer-reviewed literature on your own. You will need to do this for assignments throughout the course, and I won't be able to always do it for you. Without more information on the problem you had I can't easily determine how to help you.

I'd suggest that you start by exiting your browser completely, then go to the vpn site and sign in (you need to do the sign in, then click the "start" button on the right, then wait while the computer connects). If the problem is that you can't connect, call the UITS help center as I won't be able to help you work this problem out. Once you've connected, return to my class page. Most papers should be accessible directly simply by clicking on the two red stars. In some cases you might go to a page with just the abstract - if this happens there should be a link to a pdf somewhere on the page.

If none of this works, then you can simply look the paper up when you are on campus (e.g., in the library or a computer lab) as none of the stuff described above should be necessary on campus - the links should all work without need for the vpn. If all else fails, you can always look up the paper versions of the journals which are all in the library.

Q: I dont know if its just me but im a mac user and i cant open any of your notes but the first one. it says Not Found The requested URL /eebedia/images/d/dc/EEB2208_04_biodiversity.pdf was not found on this server. can you help me??

A: If you only looked at the web page after the first lecture, then the problem is just that I had only posted the first set of notes at that time. As noted immediately above the syllabus (the red text), I usually post notes a few days before the lecture to enable me to ensure that they're up to date, and account for any changes in the lectures. Links for future lectures will remain broken until I put up the notes. Try looking at the page right now (refresh the page first to ensure you're looking at the current version - that might be your problem). You should be able to access notes for the first 4 lectures. After that the links will be broken, but the notes will appear before the lecture. I hope to get a few more sets of notes posted today. I don't think that being a Mac user should make any difference, and I've never heard of any Mac-specific problems with any part of the web site in past years. <FOLLOW-UP: THIS PROBLEM WAS SOLVED SIMPLY BY REFRESHING THE BROWSER>

Q: I am having problems getting to the info about the class, I am a Mac user and it does not let me log in! I have been trying to get my Mac wired to the UConn system with no success. I did try from home and still not good.

A: You shouldn't need to log in to anything to access the course web site. The EEBedia site, does have a log in button - but logging in is not necessary if you just need to view the content - which should be accessible from any machine connected to the web. The only parts of the web site's content that would require a log-in are the ten papers that we will discuss in class (identified on the syllabus by ** in the "Readings" column). To get to these from an off-campus computer you would first need to log-in to the VPN (log-in shouldn't be needed if you are on campus). Instructions on how to do this log-in are given just above the syllabus.

Q: I am currently enrolled in the EEB 2208 class but it is not showing up on huskyCT. Is there anyway we could make it show up?

A: Sorry, but I don't use HuskyCT. You shouldn't need it for this class. For general questions about the HuskyCT systems, I'd suggest that you try the help line info on their log-in page.

General student help

Counseling and mental health services: 486-4705 (24 hours).

Alcohol and other drugs services: 486-9431.

Dean of Students Office: 486-3425.

Other information

For information about EEB's Joint B.S./M.S. degree program in Biodiversity and Conservation Biology click here

For information about the Society for Conservation Biology click here

For information on jobs in conservation biology click here

For information on jobs in wildlife biology click here