Applied Population Biology

5 units · Undergraduate upper division (100-199)

Lecture, three hours; laboratory, one hour. Requisite: Life Sciences 7B. Exploration of ecological and evolutionary concepts central to understanding how natural populations evolve over contemporary timescales and to solving urgent conservation and management problems, with an emphasis on practical applications. Topics include species distribution and abundance models, population growth models, and population genomic approaches used in conservation. Emphasis on critical discussion of the primary literature and computational analyses in R. Students gain hands-on training on common research methods in population biology and conservation genetics, then integrate and apply these skills to design and complete a group research project analyzing real-world data. Additional training on scientific communication and best practices for computational research is offered. Letter grading.