Spring 2008: Conservation Biology (BIO 415/615), TTh 12:30-1:50, 318 Lyman

Syllabus
Course website (password protected)
Synopsis: This course focuses on the biological attributes of populations and communities relevant to their conservation.  Secondarily, this course covers a selection of statistical issues that are increasingly integrated into the ecologist's toolkit.  This is not a course in inferential statistics, and you are not required to have a strong mathematical background (although it wouldn't hurt).  However, by the end of the course you'll appreciate the integral role that data, models, and analysis play in modern conservation.  More specifically, the objectives of this course are to: (1) Understand the conceptual underpinnings of conservation biology (population biology, community ecology, biogeography, landscape ecology); (2) Understand the science behind the need for conservation (habitat loss, pollution, invasive species, climate change); (3) Be able to identify when management decisions are based on sound science — good data, appropriate models, quantified uncertainty—and when they're not; and (4) Become a sophisticated reader of the scientific literature.

Fall 2008: Geology and Ecology of Regional Environments (BIO/GOL 485, with D. Siegel)

Weekly field lab in Syracuse environs, Wed afternoons. Syllabus TBA.