B031248 - Conservation paleobiology

Italian

Conservation paleobiology is a field of paleontology that applies the knowledge of the geological and paleoecological record to the conservation and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The discipline utilizes paleontological and geological data to understand how biotas respond to climate and other natural and anthropogenic environmental change.

Louys, J. (ed.) (2012). Paleontology in ecology and conservation. Springer. 276pp. (ISBN 978-3-642-25038-5.)

Dietl, G.P.; Kidwell, S.M.; Brenner, M.; Burney, D.A.; Flessa, K.W.; Jackson, S.T.; Koch, P.L. (2015). "Conservation Paleobiology: Leveraging Knowledge of the Past to Inform Conservation and Restoration". Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. 43 (1): 79–103. doi:10.1146/annurev-earth-040610-133349


https://www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/learn/conservation-paleobiology/

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2016.00021/full

https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0169534710002375?token=D3B4A85456FE17715E2E18B4F83027ED34712CD7A1D4B1547B7A935020B4FA1798667A7F895A6EEE35BA9357E5219C6D&originRegion=eu-west-1&originCreation=20210630105439

https://conservationpaleorcn.org

The course is offered to Master level students in Natural Sciences (curriculum on Nature conservation), but is of potential interest also for students either in Geological Sciences, and in Evolutionary biology.
The course is aimed to provide the students with the basic knowledge of how ecosystems changed through time and to analyze the fossil record with a look at the footprint left by the anthropic impact.

Basics of general paleontology

Lectures

Attendance to lessons is highly recommended

oral exhamination

Conservation paleobiology is a field of paleontology that applies the knowledge of the geological and paleoecological record to the conservation and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Despite the influence of paleontology on ecological sciences can be traced back at least at the 18th century, the current field has been established by the work of K.W. Flessa and G.P. Dietl in the first decade of the 21st century. The discipline utilizes paleontological and geological data to understand how biotas respond to climate and other natural and anthropogenic environmental change. These information are then used to address the challenges faced by modern conservation biology, like understanding the extinction risk of endangered species, providing baselines for restoration and modelling future scenarios for species range's contraction or expansion. The main strength of conservation paleobiology is the availability of long term data on species, communities and ecosystems that exceeds the timeframe of direct human experience.

Goal 13: Climate action
Goal 14: Life below water
Goal 15: Life on Land