***Remember - EXAM 1 will be given in Woodward 216***
Exam 1 Study Guide
Class 1 - What is Conservation Biology? - Excel Exercise 1 Reading
What is the definition of Conservation Biology (we answered this in class)?
What scientific and non-scientific fields are important to conservation biology?
What are some of the defining characteristics of conservation biology?
What are the goals of conservation biology?
What are the definitions of each statistic of central tendency (i.e., mean, mode, median)?
What statistics describe the dispersion or spread of a data set (don't worry about the
mathematical formulas, just the get the general ideas down)?
How do the mean and standard deviation affect the shape and position of the normal
distribution?
Class 2- History
Who are the major figures in the history of the American conservation movement?
What did each of these figures accomplish and why are the important?
What is preservation?
What is conservation (or resource-conservation?
How are preservation and conservation different?
What are the differences between western ideas on conservation (i.e., European origins)
and eastern and native peoples ideas?
What ethical principles provided the foundation for conservation biology?
Who are the important players in modern conservation and conservation biology?
Class 3 - What, where, and why of biodiversity?
What is a definition of biodiversity (be sure to consider species, genetic, and community
diversity)?
What are Alpha, Beta, and Gamma diversity and how are these measures of diversity
related? Pay close attention to Beta diversity and how Alpha and Gamma diversity affect
it.
What is a species, and how is one defined (i.e., morphological definition and biological
definition)?
What are the theories that describe why most of the world's species are found in Tropical
Regions?
How are biodiversity hotspots used in conservation efforts?
Class 4 - Ecological Economics
What is economic valuation and why is assigning value to biodiversity important?
What are direct-use (may also be called consumptive use) values? Be able to list several
examples.
What is a cost-benefit analysis and how is it used in conservation biology?
What is non-consumptive use value?
What factors (i.e. ecosystem productivity and ecotourism) are used in the calculation of
non-consumptive use value?
Willingness to pay for open space conservation is determined by what factors?
What are the costs (i.e. loss of ecological value, destruction of aesthetics) associated with
the loss of open-space?
What methods have been proposed (i.e. Dr. Swallow's talk) that attempt to pass the costs
of open space loss onto developers?
Class 5 - Ecology Basics: Genetics and Conservation
What is a gene?
What is an allele?
What is the difference between a phenotype and a genotype?
What is heterozygosity, what are its origins and why is it important to a population?
What is a mutation and how often do they occur?
What is inbreeding and outbreeding depression?
How does heterozygosity change as population size changes? What are the implications
of this in a conservation setting?