Evolution and Earth Systems- Midterm Exam Assignment

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As the world’s authority on island biogeography, you have been asked by the World Wildlife fund to design a biological preserve consisting of a total of 1,000,000 hectares. Your preserve can be anywhere in the world. The preserve can be one large preserve or many small ones. You must be able to justify your decisions based upon current scientific knowledge and your conservation goals. Your overall rationale will be used as a model for other conservationists throughout the world.

Your proposal must include:

Introduction

Why did you select a particular region, single organism or a group of organisms, and habitat to be conserved? What’s the rationale for your study? Why are current theories in Landscape Ecology so important in serving as the foundation for your conservation plan?

Background to Island Biogeographic Theory

Strut your stuff here. You must use the scientific literature and "The Song of the Dodo" to strengthen your discussion of Island Biogeographic Theory and it’s complex relationship to extinction and conservation. Primary literature must be integrated and cited. WWW sources are of secondary importance.

Search for Specific Ecosystem Research Articles

Your Conservation Plan

What species will you be conserving and why? To conserve a species, you must know many, many things about the ecology of a species!
Lay out your conservation plan. Be willing to include weaknesses. Justify your conservation plan using knowledge gleaned from the literature. [Current knowledge and understanding (use the available scientific literature) must be integrated into the body of your work] Which species win? Which may loose? Include maps of your conservation area. Any unique habitats? Corridors?

Project Summary

Recap why the World Wildlife Fund should be thrilled with your study. Convince the reader that your plan is scientifically sound and that your project is not a waste of money and effort.

Literature Cited

A little Help from Your Friends!

Here you will find a collection of pertinent articles (password protected) in the earth sciences (ecology, geology, oceanography, astronomy, marine biology.....you get the point I expect your own papers to be fully referenced. I expect your papers to have a solid foundation. These articles are here for your use in paper and research development. Just type in a few key words......

The *Try it, You'll Like It* Database--Ecology, Global Change and Much More
Search the Science Article Database Enter some key words to search by: Find pages with of these words and return results. Document Summaries Search Phonetically Begins With Searching Search for key words found only in: URLs Titles Headers