Conservation Biology
Course content
The course will provide an introduction to conservation issues,
concentrating on their fundamental biological basis, and the role
of scientific research in conservation management.
1. The goals of conservation
1a. Threats to biodiversity: Habitat destruction, degradation and
fragmentation, Invasive species, Exploitation.
1b. What are we trying to protect? Genes, Species, Communities,
Habitats, Regions, Ecosystem services.
1c. How do we measure our success or failure? Monitoring schemes
and threat categories.
2. The biological basis of conservation
2a. Ecological and behavioural (social) effects of habitat change:
metapopulation dynamics, patch connectivity, environmental and
demographic stochasticity, Allee and rescue effects.
2b. The (in situ and ex situ) conservation of single gene pools:
genetic and behavioural aspects of inbreeding and genetic erosion,
evolution after man made changes, how much genetic variation is
needed, artificial breeding, reintroduction and translocation
programs, genetic management tools.
2c. The conservation of species assemblages: Island biology
revisited (area, edge effect and distance), why island biotas are
special and vulnerable, management of rich and poor assemblages of
species, invasive species and their devastating effects.
2d. Taking long term stability into account: effects of climate and
global change, dynamic food-web interactions, population cycles.
3. Practical conservation
3a. The need for scientific information for management strategies:
Trade-offs between collecting data and active management.
3b. How to preserve biodiversity? The need for shortcuts: keystone
species, flagship species, indicator species, indicator groups, the
higher-taxon approach, abiotic indicators (the landscape approach).
3c. Practical harvesting issues in animals and plants:
Density-dependence and trophic interactions, migration patterns,
harvesting models, disease problems, optimal yield and the tragedy
of the commons.
3d. Human activities and how to select nature reserves and
management areas – the need for making priorities: the hot-spot of
richness approach, the hot-spot of endemism approach, the
complementarity approach and the ecosystem approach.
3e. The advantages and disadvantages of using citizen science to
provide data on and highlight conservation issues.
MSc Programme in Biology
MSc Programme in Environmental Science
MSc Programme in Forest and Nature Management
MSc Programme in Nature Management
This course has a triple objective.
First, to offer a broad conceptually orientated overview of current
key issues in conservation biology and to train students in the
application of these concepts to practical conservation.
Second, to give students the essential background to be successful
in MSc-level jobs in management, administration, and the
dissemination of knowledge on Biodiversity and Conservation.
Third, to give those students that continue with MSc and PhD
degrees the necessary entry-level for advanced courses on more
specific issues.
Knowledge:
By completing the course the student can:
Explain the intrinsic value of conservation of species, groups of
species and high-biodiversity areas and of the economic realities
constraining practical conservation.
Integrate basic knowledge from population ecology, behavioural
biology, population genetics, evolutionary biology and macroecology
in questions of practical conservation.
Provide a general overview of the population biology of invasive
species, of the traits that these species have in common, and of
the typical ways in which they threaten native biodiversity.
Relate the key variables for optimal harvesting of economically
important populations of wild animals and plants.
Skills:
By completing the course the student can:
Make qualified contributions to the “priority-driven” conservation
management of single species and species assemblages (guilds &
communities), taking into account issues of habitat fragmentation,
genetic erosion, reproductive value of cohorts and individuals,
controlled breeding, reintroduction, and climate change.
Critically assess information from monitoring schemes and similar
biodiversity databases for the purpose of conservation of species,
groups of species or entire species assemblages of areas.
Explain the rationale behind national, European and global
conservation initiatives and the impact that they have, and of the
difficulties that they face.
Distinguish between scientific results reported in the primary
literature and in general textbooks and reports.
Competences:
By completing the course the student can:
Critically assess the appropriateness of statistical methods and
interpretations in the scientific literature.
Explain and evaluate the relative value of experiments, theoretical
concepts and the comparative analysis of literature data.
Provide and outline an overview of the field of Conservation and
formulate a qualified opinion on the discipline to non-biologists.
Independently retrieve and select information from the scientific
literature and other relevant sources.
The lectures take place over 7 weeks (weeks 47-51 and weeks 1-2). Each week involves 4 hours of lectures and 2 two-hour theoretical exercises (computer exercises or discussion/presentations of papers). Each week the student completes an on-line assignment or critically presents a conservation issue or scientific paper.
See Absalon.
It is recommended that the student has taken courses covering
Biodiversity, Population Biology and Mathematical Biology, or
equivalent.
Academic qualifications equivalent to a BSc degree is
recommended.
Supervised choice of seminar papers and questions. Feedback from teacher and peers (class) on oral seminar presentation and answers to seminar questions, and collective feedback from teachers and discussion of on-line assignments in the week following completion.
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Type of assessment
-
Oral examination, 20 minutes with 20 minutes preparation timeOn-site written exam, 2 hours under invigilation
- Type of assessment details
- Multiple choice: (Not at ITX)
Will take place in the last week of the teaching of the course.
Oral exam:
will take place in the exam week
Each examination event is assessed and weighted individually, and the final grade is determined based on this. The oral exam and the multiple choice exam will be given equal weight in the final assessment.
Passed examination events do not have to be repeated. They will be included in the assessment of the re-exam with the result obtained when they were taken the first time.
Unsuccessful examination events are conducted for the re-examination. - Examination prerequisites
-
Students must attend at least 80% of the exercise classes in order to
participate in the oral exam. Students may be given leave to attend
fewer exercise classes at the discretion of the teachers if there are
extenuating circumstances.Students who do not meet the 80% attendance requirement will be required to do an additional written exercise to be able to participate in the oral exam.
The student must complete an assignment for each of the first five
weeks (regardless of whether they were present at the exercise class
or not). Students will receive an informal grade and feedback from
teachers on their assignments. All assignments must be completed
and approved no later than two weeks before the oral exam, and a full
set of approved assignments is a precondition for participation in the
oral exam. - Aid
- Only certain aids allowed (see description below)
Multiple choice exam:
Aids: No aids allowed (except a glossary of translations from English to Danish, which will be provided during the exam)Oral exam:
Aids: Written aids, including the students own notes during the preparation time. - Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
Two internal examiners
- Re-exam
-
The same as the ordinary exam.
Multiple choice exam:
Takes place the week before the re-exam.
Aids: No aids allowed (except a glossary of translations from English to Danish, which will be provided during the exam)Oral exam:
Takes place during the re-exam week.
Aids: Written aids, including the students own notes during the preparation time.If the student was not eligible to take the ordinary exam because not
all exercise assignments were completed, the missing assignments
must be completed at least three weeks before the oral re-exam (there
is no need to resubmit those exercises that were previously submitted
on time).If the student was not eligible to take the ordinary exam
because of falling below the 80% attendance threshold at exercises,
students will be required to submit an additional written exercise at least three weeks before the oral re-exam.Each examination event is assessed and weighted individually, and the final grade is determined based on this. The oral exam and the multiple choice exam will be given equal weight in the final assessment.
Criteria for exam assessment
In order to obtain the grade 12 the student should convincingly and accurately demonstrate the knowledge, skills and competences described under Learning Outcome.
Single subject courses (day)
- Category
- Hours
- Lectures
- 28
- Preparation
- 147
- Theory exercises
- 18
- Practical exercises
- 10
- Exam
- 3
- English
- 206
Kursusinformation
- Language
- English
- Course number
- NBIK12003U
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Programme level
- Full Degree Master
- Duration
-
1 block
- Placement
- Block 2
- Schedulegroup
-
C
- Capacity
- No limitation – unless you register in the late-registration period (BSc and MSc) or as a credit or single subject student.
- Studyboard
- Study Board of Geosciences and Management
Contracting department
- Department of Biology
- The Natural History Museum of Denmark
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Science
Course Coordinator
- David Richard Nash (6-4a787467796e46686f7534717b346a71)
Teacher
David Nash, Elodie Mandel-Briefer, Anders Tøttrup . Four to six guest teachers every year.
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