BDT-403 Biodiversity & Taxonomy-
Basic concept of Biodiversity- What is Biodiversity, Why should we conserve it, Elements of Biodiversity – Ecosystem Diversity, Genetic Diversity, Species Abundance & Diversity, Patterns of Species Diversity.
Global patterns of Biodiversity- measuring biodiversity, Cataloging and Discovering Species, Geographical Patterns of Species Richness, Biogeography, Importance of Distribution Patterns (Local Endemics, Sparsely Distributed Species, Migratory Species), GAP Analysis.
Biodiversity & Conservation- Overexploitation threatening living species, International Trade, Animals threatened by International trade, Problems in Controlling International Trade (Enforcement, Reservations, Illegal Trade), Free Trade & the Environment, Free Trade & Conservation, Common patterns of Overexploitation.
Exotic Species- Plants, Invertebrates, Fishes, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, Mammals, Detrimental Effects of Exotic Species.
Endangered Species Conservation- The US Endangered Species Act, State Endangered Species Acts Successes and Failures of the Endangered Species Act Role of ESA in Habitat Protection, Critical Habitat, Problems with the Endangered Species Act, Habitat Conservation Plans.
Ethics of Conservation- Values of Biodiversity, Biopiracy, Hybridized plants, GM crops (benefits & criticism), Economic Value of Biodiversity & Legal, Ethical and Conservation issues related to uses of biodiversity, Global Conservation Issues.
Basic concept of Taxonomy- Classification, Construction of Phylogenetic tree, Systematics, Cladistics, Cladograms, Phenetics, Nomenclature.
Taxonomy in relation to Chromosomal morphology & Evolution- Chromosomal evolution, why location of genes matter, evolutionary oddities about chromosomes, evolutionary effect of rearrangements of chromosomes, karyotypic orthoselection, chromosomal evolution & speciation.
Molecular Taxonomy in relation to DNA characteristics & Protein sequences- modes of molecular evolution, Neutral theory of Molecular evolution, genetic markers for taxonomic purposes, comparing total genome by DNA-DNA hybridization, comparing DNA sequences, Cladistics, biological identification through DNA barcodes, chromosome painting, establishing molecular homology using protein sequences.