Biodiversity deals with patterns of biotic distribution and abundance. Why do we observe the diversity of organisms, how did it get there, and what maintains that diversity? These questions lead us to analyze how organisms interact within populations, how populations interact in communities, and how those interactions are regulated by the physical environment. Understanding the controls on populations is critical for developing sustainable harvest strategies, for anticipating exotic invasions, for biological control of pest species, for managing rare and endangered species and their habitats, and for preserving biodiversity in the face of rapid global change. In this course we will examine the "state-of-the-art", including goals of biodiversity science, how those goals are approached, what we have learned, and how they are applied in management and conservation. We will see many examples where poor understanding of science stands in the way of progress on pressing environmental problems. The course will consist of lecture meetings and a lab section that will be used for field trips. Lectures and labs focus on major issues in community ecology and ecological principals. Mechanisms that determine the distribution and abundance of plants and animals: geology, climate, physiography, soils, competition, predation, and history.
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