Course Outlines

Special Topics in Biological Diversity -
3 credit hours

Natural History Methodology and Application -
3 credit hours

Biological Field Methods - 3 credit hours

Introduction to Ecological Modeling -
3 credit hours

Living With Wildlife: Wildlife Conservation Policy in Africa - 3 credit hours

Tropical Ecology and Conservation -
3 credit hours

Grass Paramo as Pyrophilous Vegitation of
Human Origin - 3 credit hours

SPECIAL TOPICS IN BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

Place: 3 formal meetings per week

Time: To be determined by the extent and timing of field work.

Things You Should Know:
Basic genetics (alleles, genes, heterozygosity, homozygosity, inbreeding).
Basic mathematics (algebra, logarithms, exponents).
Basic statistics (t-test, mean, median, standard deviation, analysis of variance, chi-square).
Basic ecology.

Assigned Readings Will be From:
Gotelli, N. J. 1995. A Primer of Ecology - Each student may want to purchase a copy.
A Reader of Articles - Each student will be provided with one.
Meffe, G. K., and Carroll, C. R. 1997. Principles of Conservation Biology (2nd Edition) – 2 copies will be available for student

GRADING

Homework Problem Sets 100pts
Paper 50pts
Discussion 50pts
Midterm Exam 100pts
Final Exam 100pts
TOTAL 400pts


Week 1:
Purpose and content: An introduction to Conservation Biology.
Population Fluctuations.
No Assigned Readings

Week 2:
INDIVIDUAL SPECIES: Some basic demography.
Intrinsic variability in population processes,
Environmental and demographic stochasticity.
Gotelli Chapters 1 and 2.
Young, T. P. 1994. Natural die-offs of large mammals: implications for conservation Conservation Biology 8:410-418.

Week 3:
Structure populations.
Demography of rarity: structure populations.
Introduction to PVAs.
Gotelli Chapter 3.
Nantel, P., et al. 1996. Population viability analysis of American ginseng and wild leek harvested in stochastic environments. Conservation Biology 10:608-621.
Armbruster P, and Lande R. 1993. A population viability analysis for African Elephants (Loxodonta- Africana): How big should reserves be? Conservation Biology 7:602-610.

Week 4:
Sensitivity analysis for conservation and management
Metapopulations
Habitat degradation and corridors
Gotelli Chapters 4.
Mills, L. S., et al. 1996. Factors leading to different viability predictions for a grizzly bear data set. Conservation Biology 10:863-873.
Doak, D. F. 1995. Source-sink models and the problem of habitat degradation: general models and applications to the Yellowstone grizzly bear. Conservation Biology 9:1370-1379.
Crooks, K. C., et al. 1998. New insights on cheetah conservation through demographic modeling. Conservation Biology 12:889-895.

MIDTERM EXAM

Week 5:
Basic population genetics: (Ne).
Inbreeding and genetic variation.
Hedrick, P.W. and P. S. Miller. 1992. Conservation genetics: techniques and fundamentals. Ecological Applications 2:30-46. (Read Only pp 30-33, 41-43)
Sanjayan, M.A., et al. 1996. Genetic variation and the immune response in natural populations of pocket gophers. Conservation Biology 10:1519-1527.

Week 6:
Genetics and demography.
COMMUNITY INTERACTIONS: competitions.
Lesica, P. and F. W. Allendorf. 1992. Are small populations of plants worth preserving? Conservation Biology 6:135-139.
Fitzsimmons, N., S. W. Buskirk, and M. H. Smith. 1995. Population history, genetic variability, and horn growth in bighorn sheep. Conservation Biology 9:314-323.

Week 7:
Predation: Conservation and theory.
Parasitism and conservation.
Disturbance: Scale and pattern.
Gotelli Chapter 5.
Mills, M. G. and M. L. Gorman. 1997.Factors affecting the density and distribution of wild dogs in the Kruger National Park. Conservation Biology 11:1397-1406.

Week 8:
Conservation of exploited populations.
Exotics.
BIOGEOGRAPHY: Classic Island Theory and SLOSS.
Gotelli Chapter 6
Vitt, L. J. et al. 1998. The impact of individual tree harvesting on thermal environmental of lizards in Amazonian rain forest. Conservation Biology 12:654-664.
Louda, S. M. et al. 1997. Ecological effects of an insect introduced for the biological control of weeds. Science 277:1088-1091.

Week 9:
Fragmentation, Invasion, and edge effects.
Landscape approach to fragmentation and loss.
Refinements: nested subsets.
Gotelli Chapter 7.
Soule et al. Birds!! Conservation Biology 2:74-90.
Newmark, W.D. 1987. A land-bridge island perspective on mammalian extinctions in Western North American parks. Nature 325:430-433.
Woodroffe, R., and J. R. Ginsberg. 1998. Edge effects and the extinction of populations inside protected areas. Science 280:2216-2128.

Week 10:
More on biogeography for conservation.
Complex spatial analysis and Landscape ecology.
“Ecosystem Management” and Community conservation.
Adaptive management and monitoring.
Ralls, K., D. P. Demaster, and J. A. Estes. 1996.Developing a criterion for delisting the southern sea otter under the US endangered species act. Conservation Biology 10:1528-1537.
Panzer, R. and M. W. Schwartz. Effectiveness of a vegetation-based approach to insect conservation. Conservation Biology 12:693-702.

Week 11:
Future for conservation biology.
No new readings

FINAL EXAM AND FINAL REPORT

Additional readings will be assigned from Meffe & Carroll as needed. Also select papers from visiting scientists will be read as necessary.

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NATURAL HISTORY METHODOLOGY
AND APPLICATION

Preface: The concepts of conservation biology and ecology are not fully applicable until an individual has a good understanding of natural history. This course provides an introduction to natural history observation and recording methodologies using a system established by Joseph Grinnell. The Grinnell System was initiated by Joseph Grinnell at the University of California at Berkeley, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Grinnell (1877 - 1939), an accomplished zoologist, was an authority without peer of both birds and mammals of the western United States. The Grinnell System Naturalist's Field Journal is a systematic approach using writing, drawing and observation skills to examine biotic organizations.

Natural history study will focus on the fauna and flora of project research sites. Natural history has an advantage over many of the other disciplines of the natural sciences in that it can be directly and immediately observed. No great technical knowledge is necessary to comprehend the basic phenomena, but it is difficult to teach in the classroom. For 12 weeks students will be moving through a natural landscape, recording natural history using field and natural history guides to gain an appreciation and understanding of its plants and animals.

Course objectives: This course will teach students the Grinnell System for recording natural history observations and guide students toward being competent natural historians. Natural history is the study of plants and animals in their natural environments. Specifically students will learn the following skills: mammal identification by tracks, spoor and dentition, identification of native flowering vascular plants using botanical keys, identification of birds by visual and auditory queues, and native mammal and amphibians. Besides the identification of species, recorded observations will emphasize life histories, distribution, abundance, interrelationships and associations.

Course requirements: Each student will have to develop acute and exhaustive observation skills that are necessary to witness nature. Students will need to be patient, and adhere to the scrupulous recording techniques. Initially notes are kept in a ringed field notebook entered while traveling, carefully noting what is seen, contemplating and interpreting the landscape, counting things present, noting the absence of things, stopping to identify plants and animals, habitat or locality types, miles traveled, routes taken and geographic formations. These notes each day are transcribed into the Grinnell Binder, divided into species and journal accounts.

As the class progresses, students will be encouraged to develop a personal "lens" that will contribute to their independent project. Much of the information recorded in the student's field journal will become topics for discussions, poetry, and independent research jumping points and final report documentation.

The final grade will be based upon the completeness of the student's field journal, species accounts, independent project, interpretive skills, participation and contribution to the final paper.

Required text: Steve G. Herman. 1980. The Naturalist's Field Journal. Buteo Books, P.O. Box 481, Vermillion, SD 57069.

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BIOLOGICAL FIELD METHODS

Time and Place: Class will formally meet one day a week– for lectures and data analysis. Remainder of time will be spent in the field.

Readings:
Brower, James, Zar, Jerrold & Carl von Ende (BZV). 1998. Field and Laboratory Methods for General Ecology (4th edition). WCB/McGraw-Hill San Francisco. Students should own individual copies of this text.

Rabinowitz, A. 1997. Wildlife Field Research and Conservation Training Manual. Wildlife Conservation Society – 2 copies will be available for student use.
Handouts

Midterm Exam 100 pts
Final Project 200 pts
Field Journal 100pts
Total 400pts

Week 1
BZV 1a & 1b
Introduction and class organization
Quantifying an Idea, some simple models
Standards for data collection in the field
Journals and descriptive writing

Week 2
BZV 1c
The statistical Analysis of Data, how we know
Statistical Data Analysis (Basic tests)
Significance

Week 3
BZV 3d, f, g, h
Animal population sampling (techniques)
The Lincoln-Peterson index

Week 4
BZV 3a, b
Vegetation sampling – Quadrats
Common garden experiments
MIDTERM

Week 5
Group project
Clarification of individual roles in group project
Mammal Tracking and surveys (techniques)

Week 6
Mark and recapture techniques
Bird Transects
Field Mapping principles


Week 7
BZV 2a, b
GIS (Mapping techniques and interpretations)
Habitat analysis

Week 8
Working on Group and Individual projects (Collection of data)

Week 9
Collections, specimens, taxonomy
Habitat analysis
Soil/water analysis

Week 10 & 11
Field work on group project
Collection and Analysis of data
Group report and individual presentations.

Additional readings will be assigned as needed and handouts will be provided for most lectures. Students should do all readings prior to attending the weekly lecture.

Field Journals that are to be kept by students may be requested and examined by the instructors at any time – so make sure they are clear, relevant, AND UP TO DATE. Professional standards for class performance should always be met. You and your work need to be ON TIME at all times. You are responsible for reading directions and following them, turning in all data in the correct format, developing your basic knowledge about standard field techniques, practicing some of those techniques, applying correct statistical analysis to data and experimental design, learning the writing style of good science reports and good field journals, and doing all these things WITH CARE AND PRECISION. You will be judged on the level of your performance. Improvement will count but the final level you achieve counts the most.

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INTRODUCTION TO ECOLOGICAL MODELING

12 weeks
This course will introduce students to ecological modeling techniques. The course will emphasize i) developing a computational “toolbox” necessary for a modeling approach, ii) understanding and critically evaluating ecological models in the scientific literature , and iii) applying modeling techniques to ecological problems in Namibia.

Course will consist of three parts:
Lectures. Presented by the instructor, supplemented by guest instructors.
Student presentations. Starting week #5, each student will present select papers from the scientific literature in “journal club” format.
Problem sets and independent modeling projects.


Course Outline:
Week 1.
Theories, Hypotheses, and Models.
What is a model? Why use a modeling approach. Use and misuse of models. Assignment of papers for presentation.


Week 2 - 3
Toolbox development:
Basic statistics:
Probability distributions, mean, median, standard deviation, variance, hypothesis testing, t-test, linear regression, and analysis of variance.
Problem set #1: Statistics.

Computer programming. Students facile with programming can help those who are not. Students with programming experience are encouraged to use the programming language and platform of his/her choice; those without preference are encouraged to use either Microsoft Visual Basic or MATLAB. Programming constructs including loops, variables, arrays, pointers, file i/o, Design of computer programs, modularity, readability and documentation.
Problem set #2: programming.

Week 4 -5
Logistic growth.
Per capita growth rate
Intrinsic growth rate
stability
demographic and environmental stochasticity
alternatives (Gompertz, Fox, Ricker, allee effects)

Week 6 -7
Populations with Age structure
R0, r
Generation time
Euler-Lockta
maternity and survivorship schedules

Week 8 -9
Populations in Space
Migrations
Species-Area relationship
Metapopulations
Fragmentation
Island biogeography

Week 10 (Dan Doak, Kevin Crooks, M.A. Sanjayan)
Matrix Methods
Leslie Matrix


Final project
Applications to Namibian ecosystems, modeling of CCF datasets

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LIVING WITH WILDLIFE: Wildlife Conservation Policy in Africa

Wildlife conservation in Africa has been one of the most visible areas of contact between Africa and the West, with Western images often showing Africa as a glorious Eden for wildlife. Little changed for more than a century, the methods used by some of Africa’s leading wildlife conservationists - all Westerners - have focused on establishing parks and putting armed rangers in the field. Particularly in East Africa, the result has often been parks surrounded by people who were excluded from the planning of the area, do not derive benefit from the park designation and generally do not support the park’s existence. Yet, over the decades, the supposed beneficiary of this parks and patrols method of wildlife conservation - the wildlife - has continued to decline in numbers.

More recently, wildlife conservation efforts in many areas of the world, but particularly in southern Africa, have shifted towards a community-based approach to conservation. This ‘integrated conservation-development’ approach reflects not only disenchantment with the old colonial approach, but also a different and complex set of views and assumptions about the appropriate roles in wildlife conservation for the community, the market and the state. The first and third sections of the course will allow us to explore the main threads of this sometimes-contradictory approach to wildlife conservation.

Although not as well known as Zimbabwe or Zambia, current Namibian efforts at wildlife conservation generally reflect this shift towards an ‘integrated conservation-development’ approach. However, as with any country, there are factors and histories specific to Namibia, which led to important differences in the on-the-ground reality of wildlife conservation. So, for example, we will explore the impact of Namibia’s recent independence, the influence of the apartheid regime and the contours of the Namibian landscape in shaping Namibian wildlife conservation efforts in the second and fourth sections of the course.

Course participants will be expected to critically read and be able to discuss the assigned readings for each specific topic area. We will discuss the readings as a group, with each student being responsible for leading the discussion on one of the assigned readings in each section. Our discussions will focus on exploring and applying the major themes and information gleaned from the readings to the Namibian context.

Talks and lectures will be given by the instructor and a number of guest speakers, including government personnel, local residents, ranchers, researchers and conservationists. Each participant will write a number of essays, based upon the readings and personal experience that allow for in-depth exploration of a number of the significant themes. Each participant will write a final essay exam. Participants will have the option of undertaking either a group project or an individual project that addresses a wildlife conservation policy issue relevant to the focus of the program.


TEXTS
Required
Dale Lewis and Nick Carter, eds., Voices from Africa: Local Perspectives on Conservation, 1993, World Wildlife Fund.

Jonathan Adams and Thomas McShane, The Myth of Wild Africa: Conservation without Illusion, 1996, Univ. California Press.

All other assigned readings and maps will be provided in the course reader.

Optional
Raymond Bonner, At the Hand of Man: Peril and Hope for Africa’s Wildlife, 1993, Alfred Knopf. (optional)


COURSE OUTLINE
I. The African context

A. Myths, Trajectories and Methods
Adams and McShane, Introduction, ch. 1 and 2

Arturo Escobar, Encountering Development: the Making and Unmaking of the Third World, 1995, Princeton U. Press, pg. 192-211.

James Scott, Seeing Like a State, 1998, Yale U. Press, ch. 8

B. States and Societies
Catherine Boone, “States and ruling classes in postcolonial Africa: the enduring contradictions of power”, in State Power and Social Forces, Migdal et al., eds., 1994, Cambridge U. Press, pg. 108-40

Nancy Peluso, “Coercing conservation: the politics of state resource control”, in The State and Social Power in Global Environmental Politics, Lipschutz and Conca, eds., 1993, Columbia U. Press, pg. 46-70

Sara Berry, “Social Institutions and Access to Resources”, Africa 59/1: 41-55 (1989)

Barbara Thomas-Slayter, “Structural Change, Power Politics and Community Organizations in Africa: Challenging the Patterns, Puzzles and Paradoxes”, World Dev. 22/10: 1479-90 (1994)

Michael Bratton, “The Politics of Government-NGO Relations in Africa”, World Dev. 17/4: 569-87 (1989)

Lewis and Carter, ch. 6, 11 and 15

C. Ethnicity and Gender

Bruce Berman, “Ethnicity, Patronage and the African State: the Politics of Uncivil Nationalism”, Af. Affairs 97: 305-41 (1998)

Kathleen Staudt, “The State and Gender in Colonial Africa”, in Women, the State, and Development, Charlton et al., eds., 1989, SUNY Press, pg. 66-85


II. The Namibian Context.
A. History

James Sidaway and David Simon, “Geopolitical Transition and State Formation: the Changing Political Geographies of Angola, Mozambique and Namibia”, J. Southern Af. St. 19/1: 6-28 (1993) [partial]

Chris Tapscott, “National Reconciliation, Social Equity and Class Formation in Independent Namibia”, J. Southern Af. St. 19/1: 29-39 (1993)

David Simon, “Restructuring the Local State in Post-Apartheid Cities: Namibian Experience and Lessons for South Africa”, Af. Affairs 95: 51-84 (1996)

B. Political Economy

William Lindeke, “The Political Economy of Namibian Development”, J. Af. Policy St. 1/1: 107-30 (1995)

Steve Curry and Colin Stoneman, “Problems of Industrial Development and Market Integration in Namibia”, J. Southern Af. St. 19/1: 40-59 (1993)

Hage Geingob, “From colonialism to freedom and democracy: role of an effective public service in the political transition - the Namibian experience”, Pub. Admin. & Dev. 15: 211-5 (1995)

Wolfe Schmokel, “The Myth of the White Farmer: Commercial Agriculture in Namibia, 1900-1983”, Int’l J. Af. Hist. St. 18/1: 93-108 (1985)

C. Ethnicity

Johan Malan, “The foundations of ethnicity and some of its current ramifications in Namibia”, Africa Insight 23/4: 205-8 (1993)

D. The Land Issue

Donna Pankhurst, “Towards Reconciliation of the Land Issue in Namibia: Identifying the Possible, Assessing the Probable”, Dev. & Change 26: 551-85 (1995)

Denis Herbstein, “Jobs and Land”, Africa Report 38: 52-5 (Jy/Aug 1993)

Wolfgang Werner, “A Brief History of Land Dispossession in Namibia”, J. Southern Af. St. 19/1: 136-46 (1993)

III. Conservation in Africa

A. General History and Considerations

Richard Grove, “Early themes in African conservation: the Cape in the nineteenth century”, in Conservation in Africa: people, policies and practice, Anderson and Grove, eds., 1986, Cambridge U. Press, pg. 21-39

Adams and McShane, ch. 3 through Afterword

Lewis and Carter, ch. 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10

Jane Guyer and Paul Richards, “The Invention of Biodiversity: Social Perspectives on the Management of Biological Variety in Africa”, Africa 66/1: 1-13 (1996)

B. The Integrated Conservation-Development Approach

N. Leader-Williams and S. Alboni, “Allocation of resources for conservation”, Nature 336: 533-5 (1988)

Dale Lewis et al., “Wildlife Conservation outside Protected Areas - Lessons from an Experiment in Zambia”, Cons. Bio. 4/2: 171-80 (1990)

David Hulme and Marshall Murphree, “Communities, Wildlife and the ‘New Conservation’ in Africa”, J.Int’l Dev. 11: 277-85 (1999)

James Murombedzi, “Devolution and Stewardship in Zimbabwe’s Campfire Programme”, J.Int’l Dev. 11: 287-93 (1999)

N. Leader-Williams, “Policies for the Enforcement of Wildlife Laws: the Balance between Detection and Penalties in Luangwa Valley, Zambia”, Cons. Bio. 7/3: 611-17 (1993)

C. Critiques

Claire Kremen et al., “Ecological Monitoring: a vital need for integrated conservation and development programs in the tropics”, Con. Bio. 8/2: 388-97 (1994)

Christopher Barrett and Peter Arcese, “Are Integrated Conservation-Development Projects Sustainable? On the Conservation of Large Mammals in Sub-Saharan Africa”, World Dev. 23/7: 1073-84 (1995)

Clark Gibson and Stuart Marks, “Transforming Rural Hunters into Conservationists: an Assessment of Community-based Wildlife Management Programs in Africa”, World Dev. 23/6: 941-57 (1995)

Roderick Neumann, “Primitive Ideas: Protected Area Buffer Zones and the Politics of Land in Africa”, Dev. & Change 28: 559-82 (1997)

Kevin Hill, “Zimbabwe’s Wildlife Utilization Programs: Grassroots Democracy or an Extension of State Power?”, Af. St. Rev. 39/1: 103-21 (1996)

Melissa Leach et al., “Environmental Entitlements: Dynamics and Institutions in Community-based Natural Resource Management”, World Dev. 27/2: 225-47 (1999)


IV. Wildlife conservation in Namibia

A. Biological Diversity

Michael Griffin, “The species diversity, distribution and conservation of Namibian mammals”, Biod. and Conserv. 7: 483-94 (1998)

Alice Jarvis and Antony Robertson, “Predicting population sizes and priority conservation areas for 10 endemic Namibian bird species”, Biol. Cons. 88: 121-31 (1999)

Andrew Clark and Tasha Lubbe, “Namibia - Last Outpost for the Cheetah”, Af. Wildlife 49/5: 13-4 (Aug. 1995)

B. Insider/Outsider Voices
Bonner, “Listening to Africa”, pg. 13-35

Lewis and Clark, ch. 8

Elisabeth Braun, Portraits in Conservation: Eastern and Southern Africa, 1995, North American Press, ch. 1, 4, 11 and 14

C. Institutions
Phoebe Barnard et al., “Extending the Namibian protected area network to safeguard hotspots of endemism and diversity”, Biod. and Conserv. 7: 531-47 (1998)

Brian Jones, “Policy Lessons from the Evolution of a Community-based Approach to Wildlife Management, Kunene Region, Namibia”, J.Int’l Dev. 11: 295-304 (1999)

Namibia Directorate of Environmental Affairs [handouts]

D. Issues of Application

David Ward et al., “Land degradation is not a necessary outcome of communal pastoralism in arid Namibia”, J. Arid Env. 40: 357-71 (1998)

Andrew Hudak, “Rangeland Mismanagement in South Africa: Failure to Apply Ecological Knowledge”, Human Ecology 27/1: 55-78 (1999)

Jonathan Barnes and J. de Jager, “Economic and financial incentives for wildlife use on private land in Namibia and the implications for policy”, S. Afr. J. Wildlife Res. 26/2: 37-46 (1996)

Julie Richardson, Wildlife utilization and biodiversity conservation in Namibia: conflicting or complementary objectives?”, Biod. and Conserv. 7: 549-59 (1998)

Caroline Ashley, “Tourism, Communities and National Policy: Namibia’s Experience”, Dev. Policy Rev. 16/4: 323-52 (1998)

Jonathan Barnes, “Economic Value of Wilderness in Namibia”, Int’l J. Wilderness 4/1: 33-8 (1998)

J. Scheepers and K. Venzke, “Attempts to reintroduce African wild dogs into Etosha National Park, Namibia”, S. Afr. J. Wildlife Res. 25/4: 136-8 (1995)


Supplemental Readings

Glenn-Marie Lange, “An approach to sustainable water management in Southern Africa using natural resource accounts: the experience in Namibia”, Ecol. Econ. 26: 299-311 (1998)

Emmanuel Acquah and Rod Davis, “Stimulating Indigenous Agribusiness Development in Northern Communal Areas of Namibia: a concept paper”, USAID, SD Publication Series, Technical Paper No. 73 (1997)

Joyce Wolf et al., “Where Policy hits the Ground: Policy Implementation Processes in Malawi and Namibia”, USAID, SD Publication Series, Technical Paper No. 95 (1999)

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Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Course Description
This course provides an introduction to the ecological complexity of tropical forests and to the natural history, evolutionary biology, and conservation status of the animals, plants and ecosystems of the Neotropics. The course also discusses major threats to biodiversity, the main conservation problems of tropical environments, as well as current alternatives to the destruction of tropical forests.

Formal Lectures and Discussions will provide students with a broad theoretical background, and will include topics such as:
• Tropical Climate and Ecosystems
• Tropical forest dynamics
• Evolutionary patterns and theories
• Species diversity in the tropics as compared to temperate zones
• Species interactions (herbivory, frugivory and seed dispersal, pollination, coevolutionary processes, trophic relationships among tropical species)
• Threats to tropical systems and conservation strategies

The final lectures will be dedicated to the discussion of major threats to tropical systems:
• Causes of deforestation
• Ecological effects of habitat fragmentation
• Case studies in tropical conservation

An important component of the course deals with exposure to field research in the tropics. You will be required to gather, analyze, organize and present data collected in the field on projects proposed by faculty and invited researchers. If time, conditions, and resources permit, students will carry out one group project per site.

Assigned readings:
- Kricher, John. 1997. A Neotropical Companion. 2nd edition. Princeton University Press.
- Terborgh, John. 1992. Diversity and the Tropical Rain Forest. Scientific American Library.
- Kramer, R. et al. 1997: Last Stand: Protected Areas and the defense of tropical biodiversity. Oxford University Press, New York. (chapters 1 - 6)
- Putz, F. et al. 2000. Why poor logging practices persist in the tropics. Conservation Biology 14:931-936.
- Putz, F. et al. 2001. Tropical forest management and conservation of biodiversity: an overview. Conservation Biology 15:7-20
- Terborgh, J. 2000. The fate of tropical forests: a matter of stewardship. Conservation Biology 14:1358-1361

Students should read the above texts prior to coming to Ecuador. In addition to the above readings, each student is required to bring copies of two scientific articles related to tropical ecology or tropical conservation in an area of interest to the students. Articles will be used during group discussions and will be left behind at the end of the course to contribute to the library of reprints.

Suggested additional reading:
Forsyth, Adrian and Ken Miyata. 1984. Tropical Nature: Life and Death in the Rainforests of Central and South America. Charles Scribners Sons.
Terborgh, John. 1999. Requiem for Nature. Island Press.

Group Field Projects and Exercises
These are research or instructional projects designed by the faculty and worked on in groups. The purpose of these projects is to familiarize students with an array of field sampling techniques and equipment commonly used in field studies. With help from faculty, students set up projects, collect data, analyze data, present the results to the class, and write a report. It is anticipated that there will be 3-5 group projects.

Evaluation
First Midterm: 20%
Second Midterm: 20%
Final Exam: 20%
Note: The final exam is comprehensive (includes all the course material).
Group Projects (oral presentations and reports): 25%
Individual Research Projects (oral presentation and report): 15%

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Grass Paramo as Pyrophilous Vegetation of Human Origin

Hunter-gatherers occupied the high Andes during the late Pleistocene, hunting primarily camelids in the puna of the central Andes and white-tailed deer in the northern paramos. During the early Holocene the ice fields retreated upslope, and as these new lands became vegetated they were colonized simultaneously by local herbivores and local hunters. Pollen evidence from the northern Andes suggest that although the montane forest treeline moved higher during Holocene warming, it rarely exceeded 3400-3500 meters, even though the prevailing climate would have permitted tree growth to 4000-4200 m. Instead, over the last 10,000 years bunchgrasses have dominated the elevational band between 3400 and 4200 m. These vast, remote highlands are currently used for extensive grazing by cattle, sheep and horses, and some are conserved within national parks.
Paramo plant species show many fire adaptations, and virtually all plants in a paramo community have reproductive and survival strategies that tolerate and even require periodic burning. The local abundance of woody species in contemporary paramo, including well-developed forest patches up to about 4200 m, are limited to sites protected from fire by streams, swamps, land slips, leeward slopes or rock falls. In contrast, where an exposed position and windward, mild or unbroken slopes facilitate the spread of fire, a continuous bunchgrass cover predominates.
Because rain almost always accompanies lightning in tropical mountains, fires ignited by lightning strikes are extremely rare. Volcanoes can ignite vegetation, but active volcanoes are widely distributed and eruptions are infrequent. Intense fire regimes are required to suppress woody invasion and maintain grass cover in paramo, and the conclusion is inevitable that only humans can provide this intensity. If, as evidence currently suggests, grass paramo is pyrophilous vegetation, and hunter-gatherers were the sole source of fire for most of the Holocene, then paramo is anthropic. In effect, the use of fire has selected for plant adaptations to a colder and drier habitat, mimicking higher elevation, and perhaps for this reason students have traditionally considered paramo to be the Andean version of alpine vegetation.
We must be struck by the accomplishment of Mesolithic Andean inhabitants: they vastly enlarged an open and grassy habitat containing a mosaic of woody successional stages, appropriate to their principal game, white tailed deer. In effect they domesticated a landscape thousands of years before they domesticated animals per se. That paramo has been considered natural vegetation may suggest an inadequate appreciation of the power and collective intelligence of these hunter-gatherers. Our error also may reflect the blinders imposed by the nature/culture paradigm. Because the paramo we inherited evolved in tight symbiosis between subsistence activities and native flora and fauna, we are confronted with humans that constructed wilderness, and were hardly alien to it. It becomes clear that if we wish to conserve paramo and its striking species diversity, we must reconstruct the Holocene fire regimes and native herbivore densities, and apply these to contemporary paramo land use and husbandry.

Topics for Instruction

Human Pre-History in the high Andes
Original migration routes
Diffusion within South America
Subsistence systems--a continental view
Hunting-gathering in the Andes and elsewhere
Andean prey: Camelids and deer
Rise of agriculture
Rise of pastoralism
Settlement patterns

Modern Paramo Biology, Use and Conservation
Paramo biogeography
Subsistence uses vs. the long arm of the market
Herbivores--cattle, sheep, horses
Exotic tree plantations
Agriculture
Ecotourism
Conservation
National parks
Watershed protection
Biodiversity protection
Carbon capture

Paramo Origins
Explanations and schools of thought
The pollen story
Role of fire
Plant tolerance of fire in paramo
Herbivores then and now

Paramo Management
Paramo as resource/Humans as managers
Futures
Reading List (partial)

Anthropology and Archaeology
Bryan, Alan, 1986, “Paleoamerican prehistory as seen from South America,” in Alan Bryan, ed., New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas, pp. 1-14 (Center for the Study of Early Man, University of Main, Orono, Maine)
Lavallée, Danièle, 1985, “L’occupation préhistorique del hautes terres andines,” L’Anthropologie (Paris) 89(3), 409-430
Lynch, Thomas, 19^^, “El hombre de la edad glacial en Suramérica: Una perspectiva europea,” Revista Arqueología Americana 1, 141-185
MacNeish, Richard, Vierra, Robert, Nelken-Terner, Antoinette, Lurie, Rochelle and Garcia, Angel, 19^^, Prehistory of the Ayacuchco Basin, Vol. IV: The Preceramic Way of Life (University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor)
Mengoni, Guillermo, 1986, “Patagonian prehistory: Early exploitation of faunal resources (13,500-8500 B.P.),” in Alan Bryan, ed., New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas, pp. 271-279 (Center for the Study of Early Man, University of Main, Orono, Maine)

Climatology and Glaciology
Birkeland, P.W., Todbell, D.T. and Short, S.K., 1989, “Radiocarbon dates on deglaciation, Cordillera Central, northern Peruvian Andes,” Quaternary Research 32, 111-113
Clapperton, C. M., 1993, “Nature of environmental changes in South America at the Last Glacial Maximum,” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 101, 189-208
Hansen, Barbara, 1995, “A review of late-glacial pollen records from Ecuador and Peru with reference to the Younger Dryas event,” Quaternary Science Reviews, 14, 853-865
Helmens, Karin, Kuhry, Peter, Rutter, Nathaniel, van der Borg, Klaas and de Jong, Arie, 1996, “Warming at 18,000 yr B.P. in the tropical Andes,” Quaternary Research 45, 289-299
Rodbell, Donald T., 1993, “The timing of the last deglaciation in Cordillera Oriental, northern Peru, based on glacial geology and lake sedimentology,” Geological Society of America Bulletin 105, 923-934
Thompson, L.G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Davis, M.E., Lin, P.-N., Henderson, K.A., Cole-Dai, J., Bolzan, J.F., Liu, K.-b., 1995, “Late Glacial stage and Holocene tropical ice core records from Huascarán, Peru,” Science 269, 46-50
Thouret, Jean-Claude, Van der Hammen, Thomas, Salomons, Barry, and Juvigné, Etienne, 1996, “Paleoenvironmental changes and glacial stades of the last 50,000 years in the Cordillera Central, Colombia,” Quaternary Research 46, 1-18
Van der Hammen, T., 1978, “Stratigraphy and environments of the upper Quaternary of the El Abra corridor and rock shelters (Colombia),” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 25, 111-162
Van der Hammen, T., Barelds, H de Jong and De Veer, A.A., 1981, “Glacial sequence and environmental history in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy (Colombia),” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 32, 247-340

Paramo Vegetation and Paleovegetation
Cuatrecasas, José, 1968, “Paramo vegetation and its life forms,” in Carl Troll, ed., Geo-Ecology of the Mountainous Regions of the Tropical Americas, pp. 163-186 (Ferd. Dummlers Verlag, Bonn)
Grabandt, Renetta, 1980, “Pollen rain in relation to arboreal vegetation in the Colombian Cordillera Oriental,” Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 29, 65-147
Hansen, Barbara, and Rodbell, Donald, 1995, “A Late-Glacial/Holocene pollen record from the eastern Andes of northern Peru,” Quaternary Research 44, 216-227
Hedberg, O., 1992, “Afroalpine vegetation compared to páramo: Convergent adaptations and divergent differentiation,” in H. Balslev and J.L. Luteyn, eds., Páramo: An Andean Ecosystem underHuman Influence, pp. 15-29 (Academic Press, London)
Luteyn, J.L., 1992, “Páramos: Why study them?” in H. Balslev and J.L. Luteyn, eds., Páramo: An Andean Ecosystem under Human Influence, pp. 1-14 (Academic Press, London)
Luteyn J.L., Cleef, A.M. and Rangel, O., 1992, “Plant diversity in páramo: Towards a checklist of páramo plants and a generic flora,” in H. Balslev and J.L. Luteyn, eds., Páramo: An Andean Ecosystem under Human Influence, pp. 71-84 (Academic Press, London)
Salgado-Labouriau, Maria Lea, and Schubert, Carlos, 1976, “Palynology of Holocene peat bogs from the central Venezuelan Andes,” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 19, 147-156
Salgado-Labouriau, Mareía.L., Rull, V., Schubert, C., and Valastro Jr., S., 1988, “The establishment of vegetation after late Pleistocene deglaciation in the Paramo de Miranda, Venezuelan Andes,” Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 55, 5-17
Svenson, H.K., 1945, “The vegetation of Ecuador, a brief review,” in Frans Verdoorn, ed., Plants and Plant Science in Latin America, pp. 304-306 (Chronica Botanica, Waltham, MA, USA)
Tol, Gerrit and Cleef, Antoine, 1994, “Above-ground biomass structure of a Chusquea tessellata bamboo páramo, Chingaza National Park, Cordillera Oriental, Colombia,” Vegetatio 115, 29-39
Van Geel, B. and van der Hammen, T., 1973, “Upper Quaternary vegetational and climatic sequence of the Fuquene area (eastern Cordillera, Colombia),” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 14, 9-92
Weberbauer, A., 1945, En Mundo Vegetal de los Andes Peruanos [Revised edition of, Die Pflanzenwelt der peruanischen Anden, Leipzing, Wilhelm Engelmann, 1911] (Ministerio de Agricultura, Lima, Peru)
Young, Kenneth R., 1993, “Woody and scandent plants on the edges of an Andean timberline,” Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 120(1), 1-18

Fire Ecology
Blydenstein, John, 1968, “Burning and tropical American savannas,” Proceedings of the Annual Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference, vol. 8 (Tall Timbers Research Station, Tallahassee, Florida, USA)
Bond, William and van Wilgen, Brian, 1996, “Fire, competition and the organization of communities,” chapter 7, pp. 148-194 in Fire and Plants (Chapman and Hall, London)
Christensen, N.L., 1993, “Fire regimes and ecosystem dynamics,” in P.J. Crutzen and J.G. Goldammer, eds., Fire in the Environment: The Ecological, Atmospheric, and Climatic Importance of Vegetation Fires, , pp. 233-244 (John Wiley and Sons)
Geldenhuys, C.J., 1994, “Berwind fires and the location pattern of forest patches in the southern Cape landscape, South Africa," Journal of Biogeography 21, 49-62
Hopkins, Brian, 1983, “Successional processes, “ Chapter 29 in François Bourlière, ed., Tropical Savannas: (Ecosystems of the World 13) , pp. 605-616 (Elsevier, Amsterdam)
Horn, Sally, 1993, “Postglacial vegetation and fire history the Chirripó Páramo of Costa Rica,” Quaternary Research 40, 107-116
Janzen, Daniel, 1973, “Rate of regeneration after a tropical high elevation fire,” Biotropica 5(2), 117-122
Komarek, E.V. 1969, “Fire and animal behavior,” Proceedings of the Annual Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference, vol. 9 (Tall Timbers Research Station, Tallahassee, Florida, USA)
Lægaard, S., 1992, “Influence of fire in the grass páramo vegetation of Ecuador,” in H. Balslev and J.L. Luteyn, eds., Páramo: An Andean Ecosystem under Human Influence, pp. 151-170 (Academic Press, London)
Vogl, Richard, 1974, “Effects of fire on grasslands,” in T.T. Kozlowski and C.E. Ahlgren, eds., Fire and Ecosystems, pp. 139-194 (Academic Press, New York)

Human Intervention
Ellenberg, H., 1979, “Man’s influence on tropical mountain ecosystems in South America,” Journal of Ecology 67, 401-416
Grubb, P.J., 1970, “The impact of man on the páramo of Cerro Antisana, Ecuador,” Journal of Applied Ecology 7, 7p-8p (664 ff.)
Komarek, E.V., 1983, “Fire as an anthropogenic factor in vegetation ecology,” in W. Holzner, M.J.A. Werger and I. Ikusima, eds., Man’s Impact on Vegetation, pp. 77-82 (Junk, The Hague)
Pyne, S.J., 1993, “Keeper of the flame: A survey of anthropogenic fire,” in P.J. Crutzen and J.G. Goldammer, eds., Fire in the Environment: The Ecological, Atmospheric, and Climatic Importance of Vegetation Fires, , pp. 245-266 (John Wiley and Sons)
Schjellerup, I., 1992, “Pre-Columbian field systems and vegetation in the jalca of northeastern Peru,” in H. Balslev and J.L. Luteyn, eds., Páramo: An Andean Ecosystem under Human Influence, pp. 137-150(Academic Press, London)
Wheeler, Jane, Pires-Ferreira, Edgardo and Kaulicke, Peter, 1976, “Preceramic animal utilization in the central -

 

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