This course is intended to give students a deeper understanding of the evolutionary and ecological principles that operate in population- and species-level time scales. We do so by focusing on theory and empirical analysis of microevolutionary processes and speciation, with emphasis on fishes and amphibians. Concepts are applied to contemporary topics and conservation issues.

This option is assigned to block S2-A. There are normally two 2-hour sessions of timetables on-campus teaching held on Mondays. 

None

The course will be assessed by a 90-minute examination (50%), an in-course assessment consisting of a poster based on a concept and an empirical example from published paper (30%), and an in-course test assessing skills developed in genetic practicals (20%).

The aim of this course is to help students to gain a deeper understanding of the evolutionary and ecological principles that operate in population- and species-level time scales and how they relate to applied issues in conservation biology. This will offer students the opportunity to draw conceptual links from across their degree programme and relate those to fundamental and applied issues in biodiversity research. 

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

■ critically discuss the ecological conditions that promote adaptation, divergence, and speciation of fishes and other aquatic vertebrates; 

■ explain key concepts of and critically comment upon the ecological conditions and developmental and genetic basis of diversification in the organisms studied; 

■ critically discuss conservation biology issues in the context of microevolution of the organisms studied; 

■ critically assess tools used in studying phenotypes and genetics of vertebrate populations in nature; 

■ relate microevolution and speciation of the organisms studied to broader topics in evolution and ecology.