B5567 - CONSERVATION PALEOBIOLOGY: L’USO DEI FOSSILI PER MONITORARE GLI ECOSISTEMI ATTUALI

Learning outcomes

This course is designed to introduce students to the emerging discipline of Conservation paleobiology. It involves the use of historical data and fossil records to address questions related to biological conservation. Paleoecological data can provide highly detailed records of ecosystem changes and variations over a long period of time, which is beyond the limits of ecological monitoring. This helps in the reconstruction of ecological baselines and the long-term trajectories of ecosystem states. Through this course, students will learn about the fundamental concepts of conservation paleobiology and its applications to habitat restoration, invasion biology and biodiversity management. They will also gain knowledge of the importance of the time perspective in conservation biology and acquire the necessary skills to utilize the historical and fossil records for conservation science.

Course contents

The course focuses on the fundamental principles of paleontology, historical ecology, and conservation biology. Students will be guided through the development of hypotheses, the identification of appropriate methods to test them, the collection and analysis of real-world data, the observation of living, dead, and fossil specimens, and the interpretation and communication of results.

Main topics of the course:

• Introduction to the fossil record: from recent to deep-time archives

• Is the past the key to the future?

• Baselines and shifting baselines

• Live-Dead analysis as a tool for detecting human impacts

• Measuring biodiversity: methods for assessing it in fossil (and modern) ecosystems

• Dating Quaternary fossil remains

• Oxygen isotopes as indicators of Quaternary climate dynamics

• Conservation paleobiology as an applied science, with case studies:

  • Santa Monica Bay (California)

  • Everglades restoration (Florida)

  • Ecosystem changes in the eastern Mediterranean

  • The Adriatic Sea as an urban sea

Readings/Bibliography

Book chapters and scientific articles listed in the provisional course syllabus (available on Virtuale).

Teaching methods

Classes will be held primarily in the classroom. A one-day field trip is planned for late May or early June. All details will be communicated during the course.

Assessment methods

Open-ended and multiple-choice questions.

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible ( https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

Projector, PowerPoint presentations, videos, fossil collections

Office hours

See the website of Daniele Scarponi