EFB 493/693: Wildlife Habitats and Populations

Three hours of lecture/discussion and one three-hour laboratory per week.  Application of ecological concepts, including succession and population biology to wildlife management planning and program assessment. Students are exposed to basic habitat and population modeling, and concepts in adaptive management and structured decision making.  Creation of a management plan for a game species at Heiberg Memorial Forest is at the core of the course.  Enrollees in 693 will write a management plan for bobcats in Cortland County.  Fall. 4 cr.

EFB 696: Population Parameter Estimation in R and MARK

This course provides an introduction to the principles and practice of estimating population parameters, particularly from capture-mark-recapture studies, using Program MARK and the R package RMark. Statistical models and software for estimating survival, recruitment, movement, and population size are covered. Fall or Spring. 3 cr.

EFB 796: Introduction to WinBUGS for Ecologists

Following the book “Introduction to WinBUGS for Ecologists” by Marc Kery, this course will provide experience using Bayesian methods to address statistical tests that are common in ecology.    We will compare and contrast frequentist and Bayesian methods.  Using R and WinBUGS, we will use both approaches to analyze linear models (including t-tests, ANOVA, and regression) and generalized linear models (such as logistic and count regressions).  We also will discusshierarchical (mixed) models and their solution using Bayesian methods.  Students will be expected to lead at least one chapter’s discussion, and each week a problem set will be assigned, to be completed outside of class. Fall. 3 cr. 

​EFB 797: Environmental and Forest Biology Core Course
A seminar focusing on the writing of thesis proposals and grant proposals.  Spring. 1 cr.

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