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Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Apply methods of science and scientific investigation.
2. Analyze the basic principles and assumptions of ecology, including the cellular nature of life, correlation of structure and function, energy transformation, growth and development, evolution and characteristics of systems.
3. Evaluate the relationship between physiological and anatomical adaptations of plants, animals, and aquatic organisms to environmental factors.
4. Examine the limiting factors for species and their effect on species distribution and community ecosystem structure.
5. Examine the basics of biosphere processes (climatic, physiographic, and biotic) and apply this knowledge to understanding the distribution of major biomes.
6. Diagram ecosystem structure and function, including trophic structure and function, productivity, and mineral cycles.
7. Examine current global and ecosystem level environmental problems, and synthesize the application of ecosystem studies to their solutions
8. Examine community ecology, including competition, species interactions, diversity, stability, vegetation ecology, island biogeography, ecological succession and its application to current issues, park/preserve design, restoration, reforestation, and conservation.
9. Analyze population dynamics including patterns of distribution and dispersal, age structure, growth, "r" vs. "k" characteristics, interspecific and intraspecific factors and apply these concepts to human population dynamics.
10. Synthesize the interplay of economic and ecological considerations for managing biosphere resources with examples in ecosystem management (e.g., forests, rangelands, wetlands, endangered species and the maintenance of biodiversity).
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A. Ecology as science:
1. Ecology as a subdivision of biology
2. Scientific approaches to problems - science as a way of knowing.
B. Foundational principles
1. Cellular and chemical nature of life: basic chemistry, properties of water,
overview of cell structures and functions
2. Structure and function; physiological and anatomical adaptations
3. Energetics; photosynthesis, cellular respiration, laws of thermodynamics
4. Growth and development
5. Evolution: species adaptations, speciation, evolution of ecosystems
6. Characteristics of systems
C. Adaptations of plants, animals, and aquatic organisms
1. Limiting Factors
2. Species distribution
3. Community and ecosystem structure
D. Biosphere structure and function
1. Climate: precipitation, temperature, climatic zones, climate change
2. Effects of climate on biogeography and formation of major landscape types (biomes)
E. Ecosystem structure and function
1. Principles of cycle and flow
2. Trophic structure: productivity, energy flow in ecosystems, food
chains and webs, and ecosystem structure.
3. Mineral cycles: carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, water cycle.
4. Issues in ecosystem resource management: global warming, water
availability, water quality and pollution, human food supplies and
sources, application of ecosystem studies to agriculture
F. Community structure and function
1. Interspecific competition: habitat and niche, competitive
exclusion, resource partitioning
2. Species interactions: predation, parasitism; mutualism, herbivorey,
commensalism and coevolution.
3. Diversity, dominance, complexity, stability, resistance and
resilience: applications to resource management and tropical
systems.
4. Vegetation ecology: community structure and landscape ecology
5. Island biogeography: species diversity, migration, extinction and
replacement rates, and applications to biodiversity, conservation
biology and preserve/park design.
6. Ecological succession: primary, secondary, mechanisms of
successional change, applications to restoration (reforestation,
mining, agriculture, etc.)
G. Biodiversity: genetic, species, community, ecosystem, alpha, beta
and gamma levels of diversity
H. Population structure and function
1. Patterns of distribution and dispersal
2. Age structure and life tables
3. Population growth, exponential, density dependent and density
independent growth limits.
4. Dynamics of "r" and "k" selected species
5. Applications to human population dynamics and resource management.
I. Management and conservation of natural resources
1. General principles of sustainable resource management
2. The interface of ecology and economics
3. Ecosystem management case studies e.g., forests, rangelands,
wetlands
4. Importance and maintenance of biodiversity: endangered species and
ecosystems, and management for conservation.
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Ecology, international edition, Krebs, Benjamin Cummings, 2013
Elements of Ecology, 8th edition, Smith & Smith; Benjamin Cummings Publishers, 2012