ZOOL40510 Conservation of Biodiversity: Theory and Practice

Academic Year 2021/2022

One of the few universal rules in ecology and evolution is extinction: sooner or later any species on Earth faces the risk of extinction, both locally and globally and, if we consider deep time, almost all the species that have existed on Earth are now extinct. But humans are dramatically accelerating rates of extinction in natural populations, loss of tropical forests being only one of the most evident and tragic examples. Humans directly cause loss of habitats for hundreds of thousands of different species globally and are indirectly causing even more extinctions through the global change effects triggered by alteration of natural landscapes, including fossil fuel extraction and consumption, deforestation and conversion to intensively managed agricultural land. The latest Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has revealed that at least 1 million species are threatened with extinction. In terrestrial habitats, species diversity has fallen by at least 20% since 1900 and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened. Most species threatened with extinction are plants and animals, and the extinction of these species will have enormous consequences on how the global ecosystem works. We need to take actions. Conservation biology tells us how we can stop the current extinction crisis and save biodiversity. In this module, students will learn what are current threats to biodiversity and how they can be handled. Students will learn to interpret and critically evaluate the literature within the field of conservation biology. They will learn the theory behind the most important methodologies in the construction of models used in conservation biology. Students will also learn simple solutions to the most basic problems and will be able to critically analyse the most complex problems.