Conservation Biology
U4810 (99-2)
Overview
Since 21st
century, many environmental problems (e.g. pollution, global warming, hazardous
wastes and ozone depletion) have arisen resulted from the rapid population
growth and extensive economic development in the last decades. Among all these
environmental threats, the
increasingly rapid loss of biological diversity is the most serious problem. It is
because this loss is irreversible on a human timescale
and will reduce the options available to all future human generations.
Conservation Biology is the science of preserving biological diversity. It is a
newly developed, applied, mission-orientated, multidisciplinary science
bringing together elements from ecology, genetics, forestry, animal husbandry,
resource management and many other fields. Conservation biology is obviously
the most essential knowledge for all students who intends
to work in a field directly related to biological conservation, but it is also
relevant to almost any biological or environmental career.
Schedule
Lectures
for Conservation Biology will be
held at 2:20pm on Monday throughout the second semester (Week1–18). The lecture
will take place in BSE Lecture Room 202 (生工202). The course schedule
is given below.
|
Week |
Date |
Topic |
|
1 |
2/21 |
No lecture. |
|
2 |
2/28 |
No lecture. University holiday. |
|
3 |
3/7 |
What is biodiversity? |
|
4 |
3/14 |
Threats to biodiversity. |
|
5 |
3/21 |
Impacts
of climate change. |
|
6 |
3/28 |
Animal
rights. |
|
7 |
4/4 |
No lecture. University holiday. |
|
8 |
4/11 |
Ecological
economics. |
|
9 |
4/18 |
Ex-situ conservation. |
|
10 |
4/25 |
Ex-situ conservation workshop. |
|
11 |
5/2 |
Conservation priorities. |
|
12 |
5/9 |
Population
viability analysis. |
|
13 |
5/16 |
In-situ conservation. |
|
14 |
5/23 |
In-situ conservation
workshop. |
|
15 |
5/30 |
Conservation and sustainable development. |
|
16 |
6/6 |
No lecture. University holiday. |
|
17 |
6/13 |
International
conventions and conservation. |
|
18 |
6/20 |
Final examination. |
*Schedule is subjected to change according to the class progress.