We face significant challenges to manage and conserve biodiversity in the face of climate change, invasions by non-native species, and the legacies of past land-use. EEE3CTP is an advanced study theprominent, over-arching theories in community ecology that seek to explain patterns in the distribution and abundance of species, and how these ideas have been applied in real-world situations, especially for the management of biodiversity. The theories will consider the nature of communities as real entities or useful anthropogenic constructs, species niches, traits,and environmental filters as controls on local species assembly, island biogeography, dispersal and metapopulation theory, ecosystem disturbance and succession,and species interactions. How these ideas assist in predicting the effects of climate change, mitigating the effects of habitat fragmentation and invasion by non-native species, and management to maximise biodiversity will be emphasised. The practical component of this subject is built around a weekend field trip, the cost of which must be covered by students.

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