BIOL 363: Conservation Biology

This course investigates the conservation of nature at the population, species, and ecosystem levels. Students discover nature provides many services for humans such as purification of water, carbon sequestration, pollination, and foods, all necessary for human health and survival. Lectures, student investigations of the primary literature, and discussions lead to the factors such as over-harvesting, habitat loss, and climate breakdown are causing the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem disfunction. Students learn about the people engaged in conservation work and the broad-scale efforts underway to protect, restore, and rewild nature. In this applied interdisciplinary course students contribute their own biodiversity observations to the global biodiversity knowledge network and draw on social sciences to understand conservation policy and actions.