UMass Boston

Course Overview

Description

This course accompanies the lecture course Bio 363 (¿Conservation Biology¿). Students use the campus and Harbor Islands as a living lab to learn about biodiversity analyses and implementing conservation biology policies. They are introduced to the discipline and challenges of field work. Survey techniques include standard taxonomic and ecological methods, and new techniques using phone apps, camera traps, audio recorders, telemetry, drones, and eDNA. Students develop skills to clean, visualize and analyze biodiversity data using RStudio¿s data wrangling, graphing, mapping, and statistical libraries. Students are introduced to population viability analysis and regional conservation assessments. Because conservation biology is an applied discipline, the lab course emphasizes teamwork and engaging with other UMB classes, university administrators, government agencies, NGOs, and the public. Course discussions cover management approaches, policy development, and communication techniques applied in conservation biology. Students carry out a final, collaborative biodiversity project.