The course will develop various topics associated with the principles and methods of conservation of ecology, applied to aquatic and terrestrial species and ecosystems with emphasis on the concepts of evolution, genetics, population ecology, interactions between species and models and ecosystem processes as key attributes to be considered in the design and implementation of biodiversity conservation and management. This course emphasizes the application of basic biological research to problems in conservation and management with an eye toward the conservation genetics.

The main topics of the course will be:
i) define the biological conservation constraints (8 hours)
ii) assess the reversibility and irreversibility of threats, the causes of threats of demographic and extinction reductions through genetic, environmental and cultural assessments; evaluate the effects of introduced species (including invasive species) also by means of 'hybridization' estimates (8 hours)
iii) deepen conservation techniques, in particular using the molecular ecology tool (8 hours)
iv) estimate the structure of the populations by means of structure and connectivity indicators (8 hours)
v) presentation of conservation strategies in order to maximize genetic variability (8 hours)

The course offers skills in developing analysis of ecological data useful for testing hypotheses, critically reviewing research results / theories and formulating new questions