B4060 - ECTS

The aim of the course is to familiarize students with ongoing research in different fields of study in biodiversity, genetics and evolution.

B4001 - ECTS

The course aims to give students an understanding of the importance of phylogenetics for systematics, comparative biology, biomedical issues and conservation planning. Widely used methodologies are discussed and compared, along with the relative philosophies behind each method. 

B4012 - ECTS

The goal of this course is to familiarize the students with the main scientific concepts and approaches to the conservation of biological diversity, with a strongly applied focus. The course will provide a broad understanding at the introductory level of conservation biology themes associated with the definition of conservation objectives and priorities, ecological land planning, population and metapopulation viability modeling, and management of ecosystems for conservation. It is also expected that students will develop ability to interpret primary scientific literature and effectively communicate information on topics in conservation biology.

B4059 - ECTS

Most biologists contact with the problems of experimental design in a relaxed manner or not at all, refining their experiments empirically on a trial-error basis. During this course special attention will be paid to the logic underlying the whole process of experimental design, from drawing hypothesis, selection of statistical tests, planning and setup of experiments that unambiguously lead to interpretable results.

B4052 - ECTS

It is intended with this curricular unit provide students with a deeper knowledge in the field of population genetics, phylogeography and speciation. 

B4038 - ECTS

The main objective of the course is to provide students a deep understanding of the use of molecular tools in the study and comprehension of biological diversity. Complementing the different theoretical aspects related with the development, measurement and analysis of molecular markers a special effort will be dedicated to the contact with diverse laboratory techniques and analytical tools related with molecular data, with special emphasis on the DNA and RNA level.

B4048 - ECTS

The aim of this curricular unit is to provide training in conceptual and practical aspects of data analysis of population genomics datasets, with emphasis on applications. This includes an introduction on the main concepts of coalescent, Bayesian, approximate Bayesian (ABC), and likelihood-based approaches. Emphasis will be on interpretation of output from statistical approaches and software programs. The main computational methods to analyze molecular data from high-throughput sequencing and to estimate demography and selection will also be taught.

B4005 - ECTS

 

The objective of this course is to couple population genetics theory with empirical studies of human variation to provide an overview of the role of different evolutionary factors in shaping the current biological diversity of human populations.

B4049 - ECTS

 

1. Explain the specificities and importance of biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems and its distribution.
2. Explore the current state and evolution of aquatic biodiversity, the reasons for the present trends and the consequences for the scenarios found.
3. Explore the current strategies and instruments for sustainable management and conservation of marine biodiversity
4. Provide practical tools for the field and laboratory study of biodiversity of benthic ecosystems and  for the study of microbial biodiversity of the water column.  
5. Explore tools for analyzing data collected from the field, laboratory and literature
6. Train for building proposals for research projects in biodiversity

 

B4006 - ECTS

1. To understand the multi-scalar patterns of biodiversity in space and time in terrestrial ecosystems as well as their causes;

2. To recognise the major terrestrial biomes, their global distribution and their characteristic biodiversity;

3. To identify the factors of disturbance and the main causes of the decline of biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems;

4. To recognise the importance of conservation biology and of ecological monitoring in the preservation of biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems.

B4007 - ECTS

The module Biogeography is aimed at giving a broad perspective on spatial patterns of biodiversity. It will be given an introduction to the discipline focusing on concepts and historical research on the subject. It will be discussed the distribution of single-species and communities with emphasis on methods for representing biodiversity distribution, spatial and temporal shifts in biodiversity distribution and the distribution of terrestrial biomes. It will be reviewed major biogeographical processes that originate, shit and maintain the geographic range of biodiversity. It will be discussed major geographic trends in the distribution of biodiversity, such as gradients and hotspots, from global to local scales. It will be given an introduction to methods for analysing geographic distribution including Ecological-Niche based models and Geographical Information Systems. Finally, it will be presented the concepts, aims and work methods on Conservation Biogeography.

 

B4019 - ECTS

The aim of this course is to provide the students with an overview of the field of behavioural ecology, the main topics currently investigated in this area and the methodologies used. The students will be introduced to key fields such as sexual selection, signaling and cooperation. Through the course the students should acquire a good understanding of how the behavioural features of organisms may be shaped by the environment and therefore the central role that behaviour plays in the adaptation of organisms. The course will provide training also in central research techniques in this area, such as comparative analyses, and favor the development of critical thinking and research panning and assessment through an original evaluating process.

B4027 - ECTS

The main goal of this course is to apply the basis of theoretical and practical of evolutionary biology and molecular genetics on the conservation of biological diversity. In particular, aims to explain and demonstrate how the recent advances in molecular genetics can help in maintaining the species and/or populations as dynamic entities, capable to survive to environmental changes, and thus minimizing their extinction risk.

B4053 - ECTS

The objectives of the course focus on providing the students with different tools to deep their knowledge about the patterns of biological diversification in marine and freshwater ecosystems, and in the historical and contemporary processes driving their geographic, ecological and genetic diversification.

B4065 - ECTS

Elaboration of a research project proposal that could lead to the achievement of a master's thesis.

EG4007 - ECTS

To teach the theoretical concepts needed to the manipulate and analyze spatial data in a GIS, with the description of case studies in Biology.

B5012 - ECTS Scientific Research work leading to the development of a master's thesis