Course Objective: This course will present how concept of minimum viable population and metapopulation organization can help in maintaining species and species communities despite deteriorating effects of anthropogenic influence. The aim of this course is to provide an insight into the theory and practice of metapopulation organization and minimum viable population size – the foundations in prevention of biodiversity loss.
Course Outcome: Students should gain broad knowledge on the identification of metapopulation organization in the field and on the necessary prerequisites for maintenance of metapopulation structure. Additionally, they will learn about concept of minimum viable population size and its application in conservation practice, particularly about theory and practice of population viability analysis. During the course students will get training in using RAMAS software package for population viability analysis using demographic data, but also in some brief statistical procedures for using more limited data sets.
Literature:
Hanski, I. 1999. Metapopulation ecology. Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution. Oxford University Press. Morris, W.F.,
Doak, D.F. 2002. Quantitative conservation biology: Theory and practice of PVA. Sinauer.
Lacy, R.C., Miller, S.P., Traylor-Holzer, C. 2015. VORTEX 10: A stochastic simulation of the extinction process. Version 10.1.
User’s Manual. 2015 IUCN SSC Conservation Breeding Group & Chicago Zoological Society, 132-148.
Shultz, S.M., Dunham, A.E., Root, K.V., Soucy, S.L., Carvol, S.D., Ginzburg, L.R. 1999. Conservation Biology with RAMAS ecolab. Web School of Science, Setanket, New York.