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Fundamentals of Ecology

Fundamentals of Ecology. Biology/Ecology/ENST 112. What?. Second course in ecology, follows 54 New course – work in progress Basic ideas and concepts Skills and experiences You have an opportunity to influence the content!. Who?. Robert Peet Lee Anne Jacobs Brooke Wheeler

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Fundamentals of Ecology

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  1. Fundamentals of Ecology Biology/Ecology/ENST 112

  2. What? • Second course in ecology, follows 54 • New course – work in progress • Basic ideas and concepts • Skills and experiences • You have an opportunity to influence the content!

  3. Who? • Robert Peet • Lee Anne Jacobs • Brooke Wheeler • Advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students • 2 sophomores, 8 juniors, 16 seniors, 6 graduate students

  4. Why are you here? • Need a 100-level elective? • The course is required? • Wish stronger background for research? • Interested in a career in ecology? • Wish to be an informed citizen?

  5. A guided tour of the website • http://www.bio.unc.edu/faculty/peet/lab/courses/Biol122 • Syllabus • Lecture outlines, PowerPoints, readings • Laboratory materials • Resources • Roster • Gradebook • Exams • Announcements

  6. Grades • 20% Exam 1 • 20% Exam 2 • 20% Final Exam • 20% Laboratory • 20% Two written assignments

  7. Lecture organization • Physical environment & physiological ecology • Ecosystems • Populations • Population interactions • Communities • Macroecology

  8. Texts and Readings • Begon, Townsend & Harper 2006 • Suggested chapters • Required sections • Gotelli 2001 • Original papers for Case Studies • Example papers – old and new

  9. Laboratory • Field experience • Skills & tools • Quantitative methods Issues: Computers Fieldtrips

  10. What is Ecology • Haeckel 1863. "the study of all the complex interrelationships referred to by Darwin as the conditions of the struggle for existence, or the economy of nature." • Ecology is the scientific study of the interrelationships between organisms, and between organisms and their environment • Ecology is the sociology and economics of animals and plants

  11. Role of Ecology • Understanding nature • "The ecological theater and the evolutionary play." • "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.“ • very little about evolution makes sense except in the light of ecology." • Managing nature

  12. Ecology as a science “… ecology is a science of contingent generalizations, where future trends depend (much more than in the physical sciences) on past history and on the environmental and biological setting.” Robert May – 1986

  13. Ecology as a science • Biology is a study of diversity, be it at the level of species or of molecules • There are endless special cases • Ecology and Evolution are more uncertain, and thus more challenging than many areas of science. • you cannot deduce biology from first principles. • What is noise to a physicist is music to a biologist.

  14. Scientific process • Observation and description • Patterns and hypothesis • Tests and revision • Explanation and understanding • Prediction and extrapolation • Control • Complexity and case studies

  15. Levels of organization • Organisms • Populations • Communities • Landscapes • The Biosphere • Ecosystem perspectives • Scale perspectives

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