Syllabus

Course Objectives:
The course is intended to introduce students to major concepts in population ecology with an emphasis on their application to conservation of wildlife species.  Topics will include mathematical models of population growth, population viability analysis, habitat fragmentation and metapopulations, dispersal, population harvesting, predation and population cycles, competition, and estimation of population parameters in the field.  In addition, several experts will give guest lectures on land use and mammals, habitat selection and source-sink dynamics, wildlife diseases, and invasive species.  Lab time will be used to provide students with a clearer understanding of the principles and purposes of population models and parameter estimation techniques, to improve scientific writing skills, and to discuss relevant journal articles.  Questions and opinions from students will be genuinely welcomed.  Many important issues in population ecology have not been resolved, so constructive debate is expected.

Students will not be experts in specific areas of population ecology at the completion of this course.  Entire courses could be offered on certain topics that we will cover in one or two lectures.  However, students will have a solid knowledge of fundamental concepts, controversies, and analysis techniques in population ecology and how these relate to management of wildlife species.

Readings:
Required readings will be from two texts and from additional journal articles and book chapters.  The required texts are (1) Mills. 2007.  Conservation of Wildlife Populations, and (2) Akcakaya et al. 1999. Applied Population Ecology, 2nd ed., which is available as a PDF for downloading from the course web site (password required).  We will use Mills as the primary text for lecture.  Akcakaya et al. will be a supplemental text for lecture and the primary text for lab.  Akcakaya et al. is integrated with the software ‘RAMAS EcoLab’ that we will use frequently in lab.  Other readings will be posted as PDFs on the course web page.

This is an upper-level course and there will be a good bit of reading.  Assigned readings are meant to reinforce concepts or to provide empirical examples of concepts applied to wildlife conservation.  Students are expected to keep up with readings and to contribute to discussions we will have on certain topics.  Main points of all readings are fair game for lecture exams.

Lecture Exams:
There will be two exams during the semester plus a comprehensive final exam. Each exam will be worth 100 points. 

Lab Exercises & Discussion:
I will collect nine lab write-ups (10 pts each) that will be based on exercises using the software RAMAS EcoLab or MARK. There will be three discussions of journal articles (5 pts each).  

Lab Report:
There will be one research report (50 pts) based on demographic analysis using matrix population models.

Term Paper:
Each student will write a concise term paper (≈8 pages) that will be worth 70 pts.  I will provide details on the requirements of the paper early in the semester.

Attendance: 
I expect that students will attend all lectures and labs.  There will be no make ups for exams or lab exercises other than for documented illnesses.

Final Grade:

The final grade will be based on a total of 525 points.  Approximate letter grades will be based on the following scale:

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