UE CHOIX DARWIN Profile 3

1. Bayesian inference: Motivation and a simple example. 

2. The likelihood. 

3. A detour to explore priors. 

4. Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods

5. Bayesian analyses in R using the Jags software.  

6. Compare scientific hypotheses using model selection (WAIC).

7. Heterogeneity and multilevel models (also known as mixed models). 

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The courses cover four aspects of conservation biology, drawing on current scientific research in this field:  

1. Introduction to Biodiversity Conservation(BC): Definition of Conservation Biology. Why conserve biodiversity? Who are the key players in BC, and what is the role of science in BC? 
2. Species Conservation: Which species are priorities? How can we conserve species? How do we know if a species is “well conserved”? 
3. Conservation of Areas: Which areas are priorities? How can we conserve these areas? 
4. Does Conservation Work?The Importance of Social Acceptance and Political Commitment. The Need for Biodiversity Indicators and for Measuring the Impact of Conservation. 

Students also work in groups to present a community library project, addressing the following questions: Why, what, where, how, how much does it cost, and how can we tell if it’s effective? 

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The objectives of this learning unit are to explore key concepts related to climate change, to illustrate important concepts in ecology and evolution in the context of climate change across a wide range of ecosystems, and to synthesize the various scientific and societal issues and challenges posed by climate change.

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Quantitative genetics is a discipline that emerged in the early 20th century to understand the inheritance of continuous traits—that is, the majority of traits of agronomic interest (yield, etc.) or evolutionary interest (life history traits, morphology). It is therefore an indispensable tool for understanding, modeling, and predicting natural or artificial selection, as well as the evolution of natural systems or cultivated plants and animals. Its relevance is more pressing than ever at the dawn of the 21st century, with the emergence of genomics (a driver of scientific progress, provided that evolutionary problems are not reduced to the fiction of a few strong-effect Mendelian alleles), and the resurgence of alternative models of inheritance (epigenetics) that go beyond the sequence-centered perspective inherited from classical molecular biology.

The goal of this module is to provide students with a sufficient foundation in quantitative genetics to (i) understand the classical foundations of the discipline, work with key quantities (genetic variances, heritabilities, genetic correlations), and apply statistical techniques for estimating these parameters; (ii) understand the power of this technique for formulating and understanding fundamental or applied evolutionary problems (agricultural breeding), and (iii) understand how this formalization of inheritance relates to the classical Mendelian view.

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The overall objective is to introduce human evolutionary biology, proposing to apply the tools of evolutionary biology to better understand human behavior and the behavior observed in non-human primates within the context of their evolutionary history. Whether the topics are health, social behavior, culture, local adaptations, language, morality, reproduction, or sexual preferences, they are addressed within the theoretical framework of evolutionary biology and ecology. Course Overview: Anthropology, Humanities, and Evolutionary Biology / The Evolution of Cooperation / Cultural Evolution / The Evolution of Diet / The Evolution of Sociality in Primates / Family Ecology / Medicine, Public Health, and Evolution / The Evolution of Language / Evolutionary Demography / The Origins of Fairness.

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Behavioral ecology approaches the study of behavior from an evolutionary perspective to examine its mechanisms, function, and the role behavior plays in evolutionary and ecological processes. Research in behavioral ecology helps us understand other phenomena observed in other disciplines of biology, since all animals—from single-celled organisms to the most complex vertebrates—exhibit behavior.

The module exposes students to various basic concepts, as well as the wide range of tools that may be used (observations and experiments in natural populations or on captive individuals, comparative analyses, the use of modeling tools, ecophysiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, embedded electronics, etc.). Part of the course focuses on specific discussions of potential research approaches, the tools used, and the limitations of the inferences that can be drawn. Students will be expected to participate actively at these various levels, particularly through critical discussions of research articles.

The topics covered range from the exploration of food-foraging strategies, mate selection, habitat choice, and investment in reproduction to the study of animal communication and the reasons for living in groups. The historical dimension of the discipline is addressed in the introduction, but also depending on the instructors’ perspectives and the specific topics covered (the meanings and relationships between “Animal Behavior,” “Ethology,” “Behavioral Ecology,” etc.).

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