LECTURE 1
I NT RODUCT ION & H I STORY OF CONSE RVATI ON B I OL OG Y
BIO 329 Conservation Biology Fall 2024
Prof. Cassidy D’Aloia
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Antarctica Bound Jeffrey Sipress GBINP
Tyler D. Rickenbach Meadoway Dave Harasti Getty
Tom Moore WHOI Pete Oxford/Corbis
Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images Alain Compost / WWF-Canon
WILDLIFE GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images George Steinmetz
Record-breaking wildfire seasons
15 MILLION hectares burned in Canada 2023 season
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BC Wildfire Service
July keeps breaking record for hottest month on record!
Credit: NOAA
…and it’s generally worse in the ocean
2023 6
Source: Washington Post; Data: NOAA
Example: mass coral bleaching in Caribbean 2023
ARBIOLAB and SIGALT 7
How can we conserve the diversity of life on our
planet, while balancing the needs/well-being of people?
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Agenda for today
1. Current state of human impacts on our planet
2. Course logistics
3. History of conservation biology as a discipline
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Rapid increase of humans on Ear th
• Humans have only been around for ~200,000 years
• Small fraction of Earth’s history!
Preface: In many ways, humans are an awesome
species !
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Rapid increase of humans on Ear th
Currently > 8
billion!
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Biggest population increase EVER in a vertebrate of our size!
But total growth rate is decreasing
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Current state of human global population
• On average, contemporary period is characterized by longer lifespans,
lower infant mortalities, and more economic prosperity
• Canada’s average life expectancy at birth: 81.75 years (2020)
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“Average” improvements do not reflect inequalities
Middle East &
North Africa
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“Average” improvements do not reflect inequalities
• How have historical conservation actions
negatively impacted vulnerable human
populations?
• How can future conservation actions help
our most vulnerable populations?
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How are we humans collectively impacting our planet?
(a brief overview)
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What’s YOUR ecological footprint?
https://www.footprintcalculator.org/
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Drastic transformation of land
• >50% inhabitable land has
been transformed by
humans
• Most transformation is for
agriculture
• Only moderate predicted
gain is temperate forest
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Degradation and pollution of remaining land (& waters)
• Habitat loss does not tell the whole story.
• Of remaining habitats, much is being polluted and degraded
Jonas Bendiksen NTSB/Handout Getty
Desertification: drylands lose vegetation Pollution: contaminants into environment
& water Ex: East Palestine, Ohio train derailment
Ex: sand dunes on Tibetan Plateau dumping industrial chemicals from 30 cars
What anthropogenic impacts contribute to Ex: plastic pollution in ocean
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desertification?
Invasions
• Humans are facilitating invasive species
• Ex: lionfish expansion into Caribbean
USGS
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Timeline of lionfish sightings in Western Nor th Atlantic
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What do you notice about this pattern?
Let’s talk about the BIG impact…
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CO2 levels are increasing
Where were CO2 levels when YOU were born?
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And remember, temperatures are rising
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CO2 + warming ocean → additional impacts
Click here to tour Google Earth predictions of sea level rise
Getty
NOAA
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All of these impacts → 6 th mass extinction?
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….maybe! We’ll return to this in a future class.
Select examples of human -caused extinctions
1936 Tasmanian wolf -- extinct
1768 Stellar’s sea cow -- extinct
1870 Labrador duck -- extinct from hunting, habitat loss, and
from hunting for fur and oil
from human competition for competition with dogs
mussels and other shellfish
1989 Golden toad -- extinct from
2004 St. Helena olive tree -- extinct
climate change or other impacts 27
from logging and plantations
But it’s not all about species!
Genetic diversity WITHIN Whole ecosystems
a species 28
Ugh, depressing… can conservation
even work in the face of all this?
Yes!
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Change is coming…
Held v State, Aug. 2023
Credit: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters
Antonio Bronic/Reuters Getty Images 30
Species example: Tiger conser vation in Nepal
Nepal nearly tripled its wild tiger population from 2009 → 2022 31
Species example: Tiger conser vation in Nepal
How did they do it?
• Strong anti-poaching measures
• $ fines
• Prison
• Establishment of national parks that are patrolled
• Efforts have helped other animals, too
• Rhinos, elephants, pangolins, etc.
• So…is this a slam-dunk positive “win”?
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Tiger conser vation in Nepal: human -wildlife conflict
• >100 people killed by tigers in “Undoubtedly, we need to conserve wildlife – in the
past decade wild. Yet, there’s a question to be asked: Must the
• Livestock losses, fear world’s poor and vulnerable pay a disproportionate
price for this?” -Kumar Paudel & Chris Sandbrook
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Agenda for today
1. Current state of human impacts on our planet
2. Course logistics
3. History of conservation biology as a discipline
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TEACHING TEAM
PROF TAS
Dr. Cassidy D’Aloia Galento Galvez Taylor Naaykens
Assistant Professor PhD Student PhD Student
UTM Biology EEB/UTM Biology EEB/UTM Biology
PhD: Boston University
Wednesday tutorial Friday tutorials
Postdocs: Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution;
University of Toronto galento.galvez@mail.utoronto.ca taylor.naaykens@utoronto.ca
cassidy.daloia@utoronto.ca
Office hours: Tuesdays 11-12;
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DV3042, or by appointment
Whom to contact and how to contact
• Questions about lecture content
• Cassidy; go to office hours
• Regrade request
• Cassidy; email
• Missed an important assignment or test
• Contact Cassidy via email w/in 48 hours of missed assessment
• Submit documentation to Diane Matias (d.matias@utoronto.ca)
• Missing lecture?
• No one, unless it’s the mid-term!
• Missing tutorial?
• No one, unless you will miss the SCP Jamboard sessions; if so, see Syllabus 36
Our lab
Topics we focus on Critters we study
• Molecular ecology of marine fishes
and invertebrates
• Dispersal and gene flow in marine
species
• Conservation genomics
Check out our lab website for more info about our work:
https://www.cassidydaloia.com/ 37
Assessments
Coursework Percentage of
Grade
Midterm Test 30%
Final Exam (cumulative but strong 35%
emphasis on 2nd half)
Debate preparation sheets (4 total; 8%
worth 2% per sheet) – Individual, *See syllabus for more
before class details and due dates*
Debate reflections (4 total; worth 5%
1.25% each) – Group, in class
From
Tutorial! Spatial conservation planning quiz 2%
Spatial conservation planning 10%
Group Presentation
Participation 10%
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Very important to attend tutorial; see syllabus for details on missed assessments
What will tutorials be like?
• Tutorials are a mix of:
• Paper discussions
• Group debates on contentious topics in conservation biology
• Exam review sessions
• Some assignments will be completed during tutorial and will be based on activities done
in tutorial
• Examples: all four debate reflections; SCP presentation; participation grade
• So, again, go to your assigned tutorial!
• Tutorials will be collaborative and, hopefully, fun!
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Very important to attend tutorial in person; see syllabus for details on missed assessments
Quercus has links to all readings / info on Tutorials page
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Tentative
course
schedule
No tutorials
this week;
Take a
breather!
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Textbook philosophy: not required!
• Textbooks are expensive → you do NOT
need to buy it
• There is a “recommended” textbook at the
library for those who prefer to read
textbook chapters to reinforce lecture
context
• Conservation Biology by Cardinale, Primack, Murdoch.
ISBN: 9781605357140
• Lectures draw on multiple textbooks,
research articles, news stories, etc
• Tutorial readings will be posted to Quercus 42
Questions?
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Agenda for today
1. Current state of human impacts on our planet
2. Course logistics
3. History of conservation biology as a discipline
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A broad over view
Upper Paleolithic 1985
Early human Society of
impacts on Conservation
wildlife Biology (SCB)
forms
Remember: people practiced conservation & biologists did the work of
“conservation biology” long before SCB’s formation!
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Let’s star t with a working definition of conser vation
• Conservation includes acts to preserve, protect, or restore natural
resources to prevent their depletion and ensure their long-term
persistence for future generations
• Conservation requires constraint and incurs costs
Why does the consideration of constraint/costs matter?
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How prevalent was conser vation in early human societies?
• Many early belief systems and cultures
valued nature
• Ex: Sabbath in Judaism; sacred forests in
China
• Motivated by intrinsic value of nature
and/or desire to preserve resources
Large fengshui forest (Gutian township, Shanghang county, Fujian) (Image:
Chris Coggins)
• But….need the will to actually conserve!
• Not evidence that conservation was the norm among early
human populations
• Low population size tended to minimize impacts
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Early examples of landscape degradation and extinctions
Photos: Cardinale et al. 2020
Photos: J. Donald Hughes
• Land-clearing for agriculture in ancient Greece • Hunting (likely) contributed to extinctions of megafauna
& Rome
• Wood used for fuel, building material
• Grazing sheep and cattle further decimated
vegetation
• Soils (once fertile) referred to as “the skeleton
of a body wasted by disease” – Plato 48
Early example of sustainable practices
• Tlingit and Haida Tribes near contemporary BC,
Canada and Alaska
• Sustainable management of sockeye salmon
• yisatii (clan’s eldest male) assigned streams to groups
and set limits on time / quantity of fish that can be
harvested
• Plans informed by intergenerational knowledge
• Time- and place- specific knowledge of resource
constraint
• System collapsed with beginning of commercial
fishing (Russian, American)
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Early game reser ves for the wealthy
• Early examples of reserves (i.e. land set aside from
development) was not for conservation, but more for
the enjoyment of the “privileged few”
• Ex: “Royal forests” in England
• For the wealthy to hunt in; others were punished
• Ex: Bureau of Imperial Gardens and Hunting Parks in
China
• For hunting and resource provisioning to royals
Livre de chasse (1387)
Does this fit within our definition of conservation?
• Resource use is restrained; some people do incur costs
• Intent was not “for” conservation 50
What about setting aside land to protect biodiversity?
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First National Park
North side of Bogd Khan
• Bogd Khan Mountain in Mongolia 1783
• Was long-protected from logging & hunting
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First system of national parks – United States
National Geographic
Navid Baratyv
Thomas Moran, 1874, “The Castle Geyser”
• Explorers and scientists campaigned to preserve Yellowstone as protected park for US citizens* to enjoy
• Scientists brought photographer and painter to capture park’s beauty
• US Congress Protected Yellowstone in 1872
*Led to removal of Mountain Shoshone people from Yellowstone to the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho 53
Canada’s first national park
Banff National Park (1885) 54
How do we get from “limitless” view to conser vation?
Wisconsin Historical Society
Burton Historical Collection
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Library & Archives Canada
Intellectual foundations of the scientific discipline
• Romantic transcendentalism: philosophy viewing nature as imbued
with divine
• Nature provides spiritual nourishment for people
• Need to protect nature as places of peace and solitude for people
• Promoted by writers Emerson and Thoreau
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Thoreau & Walden pond
Library of Congress Appalachian Mountain Club
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only
the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach,
and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.“ -Thoreau
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3 environmental philosophies
Preservationist Resource Evolutionary-
Ethic Conservation Ecological Land
Ethic Ethic
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Preser vationist Ethic
• Primary goal of conservation is to preserve wilderness
• Focus on large “wild” areas, i.e. unmodified by humans
• Biggest proponent was John Muir
• Founder of Sierra Club; “Father of National Parks”
• Influenced US President Teddy Roosevelt
John Muir
• Nature has intrinsic value
Teddy Roosevelt
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Resource Conser vation Ethic
• Natural resources should be used for the greatest good of
the largest number of people for the longest time
• Fair distribution of resources b/w present & future
generations
• Efficient use of limited resources
• Use scientific approach to management with best-available
data
• Pinchot – 1st chief of US forest service
• Appointed by Roosevelt
• Eventually founded Yale School of Forestry
• Timber in forests = a resource Gifford Pinchot
• Conservation is not about “protecting nature”; it’s about
efficient use of natural resources 60
Evolutionar y -ecological land ethic (or, “ecocentrism”)
• Maintain the health of natural ecosystems and the
ecological processes they perform
• Land must be managed as a system of interdependent
processes (not storehouse of commodities)
• Aldo Leopold
• Became dissatisfied w/ resource conservation ethic
Aldo Leopold
• Precursor to modern ecosystem-based management
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What environmental philosophy resonates with you?
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Extractive reser ves in Brazil
• 1970s: rubber tappers formed union
• Brazilian government promoted development of Amazon region → rubber tapper unions
embraced forest conservation
Chico Mendes Marina Silva
• Rubber tappers formed coalitions with indigenous people to establish reserves where both rubber
tappers and native people could practice traditional way of life
• 1990: first extractive reserve
“At first I thought I was fighting to save the rubber trees, then that I was
fighting to save the Amazon forest. Now I realize that I’m fighting for
humanity” - Silva 63
Formation of a scientific society & discipline
• First International Conference on Conservation Biology 1978
• Organized by Michael Soulé Michael Soulé
• An interdisciplinary approach to save species from “threat of human-caused extinctions”
• Ecology, wildlife, forestry, fisheries, park management
• Largely motivated by species extinctions
• Society of Conservation Biology (SCB) founded in 1985
“The ecologists and biogeographers didn’t think geneticists had much to
contribute to conservation, and the wildlife managers didn’t think that the
academic eggheads had anything relevant to say” - Soule
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“What is conser vation biolog y” Soul é (1985) BioScience
• Conservation is a ‘crisis discipline’
• Conservationists must take action even in absence of complete information b/c waiting to
collect data may result in irreversible loss
• “Old conservation”
Core values
1. Diversity of organisms is good
2. Ecological complexity is good
3. Evolution is good
4. Biotic diversity has intrinsic value
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“What is conser vation science” Kareiva & Mar vier (2012) BioScience
• Conservation’s core values are now human-centred
• Still crisis discipline but more objective & evidence-based
• “New conservation”
Core values
1. Conservation must occur within human-
altered landscapes
2. Conservation will only succeed if people
support conservation goals
3. Conservationists must work with corporations
4. Conservation will succeed when conservation
& economic objectives are jointly maximized
5. Conservation must not infringe on human
rights & embrace principles of fairness
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Conser vation ‘biolog y’ → ‘science’
Kareiva & Marvier 2012, BioScience
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Coming up
• Lecture topic next week:
Biodiversity & ecosystem services
• Tutorial topic for this week:
• Paper Discussion: Hope & grief in conservation
• Required Readings:
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