Conservation Biology - Ecology & Evolutionary Biology



Conservation Biology (ECOL 406/506), 12 December 2009

Suggested Review Topics for Third Portion of Course

Cumulative Final Exam: 2pm on Thurs 17 December.

Please review your readings and lecture notes for material since the second midterm. The following questions were generated as I looked through my lectures, notes, and the course website (there may be information about a topic in more than one lecture). If there is a topic we didn’t discuss in lecture then I probably won’t ask about it on the exam; unless it is a major concept or idea from your assigned readings.

Conservation Legislation, Tues 03 Nov

1. Where do Sonoran Pronghorn live? What are threats to SP populations? What legal protections do they have? What actions have been taken to help SP populations?

2. When was much of our current environmental legislation signed in to law?

3. What is NEPA? Under what situations are NEPA policies invoked?

4. Explain what an EA is and the implications of FONSI. What are CatEx and EIS?

5. The US-Mexico border is experiencing a boom in recent construction, especially of walls. What are the implications of such walls for wildlife? What role has NEPA played in the construction of the wall?

6. What is the ESA? When did it become law? How are animals protected relative to plants? What agencies enforce ESA regulations? What is “take”? What is an HCP? How is the SDCP related to the ESA?

7. What is important about sections 4, 7, and 10 of the ESA?

8. Explain the conservation implications of the ESA’s ‘critical habitat’ requirement.

9. How did TVA vs. Hill change the ESA?

10. What are some species under ESA protection in our part of Arizona?

11. What is involved in ESA recovery planning?

Landscape Conservation, Sky Island Alliance, Thurs 05 Nov (Skroch)

12. What is a Sky Island?

13. Why is the Sky Island region in southeast Arizona so biologically diverse?

14. What does SIA do? How do they do it?

15. What are the main points of the Noss and Armsworth readings?

16. What tips did Matt Skroch have for practicing conservation?

Landscape Conservation, SDCP, International Agreements, Tues 10 Nov

17. How was the preferred SDCP map generated? What were some of the explicit approaches?

18. Why are species with either very small or very large distributions less useful for determining priority areas for SDCP planning?

19. What habitat type seems most important for SDCP success?

20. Why is there a gap on the SDCP planning maps in the middle of Pima Co?

21. Who was Maeveen Behan? Why is the SDCP conservation lands system named after her?

22. Why do plans like SDCP emphasize inventory, monitoring, and adaptive management?

23. What is CITES? How does it work?

24. Why is the Ramsar Treaty unique?

25. What is the relative importance of incentives and coercion for different countries in the context of international conservation agreements?

International Agreements, Protected Areas, Thurs 12 Nov

26. What is the Kyoto Protocol? What event is presently taking place in Copenhagen?

27. How do GATT, and the WTO impact international conservation efforts?

28. What is dolphin-safe tuna?

29. What is a conservation easement? How do they work? How can they potentially benefit both landowners and biodiversity?

30. What are three of the four typical origins of protected areas?

31. How much of the earth’s surface is under some sort of protection? How do ‘paper parks’ relate to this conservation?

32. The IUCN has issued guidelines about levels of protection in different protected areas. What are some of the components that differ across categories of protected areas?

33. How are different areas prioritized for conservation attention?

34. What are different approaches to defining protected areas?

35. What is the goal of Gap Analysis?

36. Explain the four different ‘R’s considered in establishing protected areas?

37. What are some of the many rules of thumb about the shape and location of protected areas?

38. Why are corridors considered important in conservation? Are corridors always helpful to plant and animal species?

39. How much area is required to protect populations of different size animals? Why?

40. What lesson did we talk about with respect to marine reserves?

41. Explain the logic behind the different land use designations in biosphere reserves.

Professional Panel, Tues 17 Nov

42. What three organizations were represented?

43. What do each of the guests do on a day-to-day basis in their respective careers?

44. What suggestions did they have for appropriate preparation for a successful conservation career?

45. What did you find to be most helpful/inspiring/frustrating/depressing about their visit?

46. Why did the panelists assign the Pister essay to you?

Conservation Philosophies, Thurs 19 Nov

47. What three points of view were represented?

48. Which approach do you think was most realistic?

49. Are there elements of all three approaches that you think are important to promote?

50. What is the lesson about SPARs that Rosenzweig argues is important for his approach to conservation?

Conservation Practice, Tues 24 Nov

51. What conservation is being practiced at Eglin Air Force Base?

52. What is the conservation-relevant conflict in the northern Gulf of California? In old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest?

53. Explain ecosystem management. Is there consensus on what EM comprises?

54. Explain the instrumental-value argument supported by the findings in the Kellerman et al. paper. What would you argue should be conserved based on this paper’s results?

Creativity, Tues 01 Dec

55. What is useful about invoking creativity in conservation thinking?

56. What art pieces were most powerful? Why?

57. Which pieces did not elicit much reaction from the audience? Why?

58. Would you be willing to loan Biosphere 2 your creation for display in 2010?

Conservation Practice, Thurs 03 Dec

59. Explain the motivation behind the Pleistocene Rewilding proposal. What species went extinct in the last 20k years in North America? Why?

60. What are the pros and cons of the Pleistocene Rewilding proposal?

61. What are the relative merits of being proactive vs. reactive in conservation?

62. What results did we discuss from a study of gila monster translocation?

63. Should we continue to devote resources to California Condor conservation? Why or why not?

64. What are some high-profile examples of ex-situ conservation being practiced in North America?

Restoration, Tues 08 Dec

65. What long-term ecosystem changes in the lower Mississippi River did Hurricane Katrina help illuminate?

66. What are the pros and cons of mountain-top-removal mining? How does ‘valley-fill’ alter stream ecosystems?

67. What does the Wisconsin Arboretum claim they practiced first in conservation? What methods did the arboretum use? What was their original source of labor?

68. What are some of the considerations that shape approaches to restoration?

69. How do restoration ecology and ecological restoration differ?

70. How is restoration defined? What is the appropriate reference condition for restoration projects? What is the appropriate desired future condition?

71. What are some of the changes that need to take place to restore the Everglades ecosystem to something akin to how it was in 1900?

72. What conservation conflict complicates ecosystem restoration of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon?

73. How is sustainability defined? What are some of the criticisms of the definition? What are some of the criticisms of the concept?

74. How is economic growth different than economic development? What is sustainable development?

75. Why do large dams get built? What are the pros and cons of dams for biodiversity conservation?

76. How does spending for agricultural subsidies and the military compare to spending for conservation?

77. Which author, Chan, Lackey, or Noss, do you most agree with and why?

Suerte!

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