Conservation Biology
General
This is a course for master level students enrolled in the “Biologia Evoluzionistica, Ecologia e Antropologia Applicata” degree at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. It is worth 6 CFU for a total of 48 hours to be administered in person (or remotely, depending on the evolution of the pandemic) during the second semester of each academic year. Students participating to this class should have a good knowledge of zoology, ecology, population biology, genetics, and molecular biology.
Topics
Here is a brief overview of the topics covered in class. These are not set in stone and may vary throughout the course. Also, they are not always covered in the same order they are presented here.
- Introduction to conservation biology
- Biodiversity
- Biodiversity and extinctions
- Populations
- Basics of conservation genetics
- Genetic drift
- Effective population size
- Inbreeding depression
- Population structure
- Hybridization
- Applying genetic information to conservation
- Managing genetic diversity in captive populations
- Managing genetic diversity in the wild
- Population viability analysis
- Invasive species
- Conservation and climate change
- Future climate impacts
- Conservation economics
- Conservation technology
General content
The course is structured in 4 main blocks.
Resources for the course
I am a strong advocate of accessible knowledge for everyone. That is why I usually build the material on-line and make it available for all my students. That being said, I also strongly encourage all my students to deepen everything we cover in class with books authored by prestigious scientists. A short list of very interesting book that I tell my students to refer to is presented below.
- Introduction to conservation genetics (Frankham, Ballou, & Briscoe, 2010)
- Conservation Biology for all, free downloadable book from Sodhi & Ehrlich (2010)
- Conservation Biology (Dyke & Lamb, 2020)
- Conservation and the Genomics of Populations (Allendorf et al., 2022)