(Course Code: 106KEY, Course outline)
(Course Code: 106KEY, Course outline)
Semester: | 5 | Teaching Credits: | 3 | ECTS Credits: | 6 | Type: |
Optional Compulsory |
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Prerequisite Courses: | Course type: | Special background
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Instructor: | Konstantinos Theodorou |
On satisfying the requirements of this course, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
Weekly topics: | Biodiversity crisis: the sources of the problem. Consequences of biodiversity crisis. Conservation of threatened species and ecosystem services. Conservation Biology: description and aim.
Major threats to Biodiversity: current situation and projections. Habitat loss and fragmentation. Major threats to Biodiversity (con’t): Climate change. Overexploitation. Major threats to Biodiversity (con’t): Biological invasions. Pollution. Lab 1: The impact of global changes on species’ distribution. Population dynamics: Demographic models according to life cycle. Extensions: density-dependent and stochastic processes. Population dynamics: monitoring techniques to assess population abundance and survival rates. Population extinction: processes leading to extinction (environmental and demographic stochasticity, natural catastrophes, Allee effect). Population Viability Analysis: aim and description of different approaches. Extinction indicators. Lab 2: Population Viability Analysis with the use of software (Vortex). Conservation Genetics: aim and tools. Genetic processes and population extinction. Conservation Genetics (con’t): Genetic management of threatened populations. Metapopulation dynamics models. Population viability and management in a fragmented landscape. Conservation and ecological integrity: biodiversity indicators as a tool for conservation and management. |
Theory – Lectures (hours / week): |
3 |
Exercises – Laboratories (hours / week): |
(One laboratorial exercise) |
Other Activities: | – |
Grading: | Problem solving: 20%
Essay: 30% Final written exams: 50% |
Notes: | – |
Basic Textbook: |
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Language: | The course is taught in Greek. For exchange students, English literature is proposed and examinations are given in English |
Internet Links: | Biology 65: Biodiversity and Conservation
http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/bio65/ Online course of the University of California (2004) – Professor P. Bryant. IUCN Invasive Species Specialist Group Biodiversity Hotspots http://www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/Hotspots Inquiries to Conservation Genetics |
Department of Environment
“Xenia” Building
University Hill
81100 Mytilene
Lesvos, Greece
Τηλ.: 22510 36200,
22510 36202
Fax: 22510 36209
E-mail: secr-env@aegean.gr