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In this seminar style course students examine the meaning and implications of biodiversity with a focus on disciplines associated with conservation biology. The course will expound on the following topics: patterns and processes creating biological diversity; estimates of extinction rates; consequences of diversity losses; approaches to conserving diversity, including large-scale conservation planning; conservation biology tools, such as population viability analyses and conservation triage; and causes of diversity loss including habitat loss-fragmentation, invasive species, and climate change. This includes exploring how conservation biology differs from other natural sciences in theory and in application. Students learn the major threats to biodiversity and what natural and social science methods and alternatives are used to mitigate, stop, or reverse these threats. The course also includes the economic and cultural tradeoffs associated with each conservation measure at the global, national, regional, and local levels. Prerequisite: Principles and Methods of Ecology or equivalent experience.