FALL 2007 HONORS COURSES

HONR 248N Extinction Risk: Where Biology, Geography and Mathematics Meet
Tuesday/Thursday, 2:00-3:15 pm.
Dr. William F. Fagan, Department of Biology

Most students have heard of the impending biodiversity crisis and know that many species are at risk of extinction. But how do extinctions actually occur? In other words, what changes to a species’ abundance and spatial distribution occur as it declines toward extinction? And how can human interventions alter these trajectories? Likewise, what biological traits put some species more at risk of extinction than others? And how do these traits interface with the underlying biological and physical processes that govern extinction risk? The science needed to answer these and related questions blends biology, geography and mathematics.

We will explore issues related to extinction and extinction risk using a combination of lectures, group projects, readings from synthetic books and selected journal articles. Specific issues related to extinction risk include thresholds for population collapse versus gradual declines, the use of vaccination to eradicate disease, biodiversity databases, stochastic processes, conservation intervention, nonlinearities in difference and differential equations, issues in spatial mapping, and conservation reserve design. These may seem like difficult topics, but they will be discussed at levels appropriate for first and second year students with diverse backgrounds. Each week one meeting will consist of a lecture presentation while the second meeting will consist of guided discussions of weekly readings from texts and primary reference papers. Students are responsible for participating in class discussions, completing one individual paper, completing a small-group project, and completing a final exam.

Reading List:
1) Douglas Erwin. 2007. Extinction: How Life on Earth Nearly Ended 250 Million Years Ago. Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN: 978-0691005249
2) Amie Brautigam and Martin D. Kenkins. 2005. The Red Book: The Extinction Crisis Face to Face. Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company. ISBN: 978-9686397642
3) William F. Morris and Daniel F. Doak. 2002. Conservation Biology: Theory and Practice of Conservation Viability Analysis. Sinauer Associates. ISBN-13: 978-0878935468
4) A wide selection of original research articles as assigned

CORE: Interdisciplinary and Emerging Issues [IE]