Biology
2483a, Ecology
(Summer session 2008)
General
theme:
Humanity’s fingerprint on Earth has become
substantial during the last 100 years, due in large part to an
increasing population (currently at 6.5 billion people) and its
corresponding use of resources. Impact of humans can be seen
in both
regional and global scales (for example, pollution and global climate
change), but the level of fundamental change is at the level of
“ecology”. Ecology is the science whose
study focus is the
relationships between organisms and their living (biotic) and
non-living (abiotic) environment.
In this course, we will
answer questions such as: What determines the abundance of species in
nature? How important are the interactions in establishing who is in
the environment? What causes some communities to be stable and others
to undergo wide oscillations in their numbers? Throughout the course we
will emphasize two important facts: that humans are just like any other
organism in terms of being controlled by biotic and abiotic factors BUT
also the fact that they are unlike any other organism in that they are
agents of change at global scales.
Lectures and tutorials will
emphasize ecological principles, ideas, examples, and theory. The
purpose is to get you to think about the links between the living and
non-living systems of this world in as many ways as possible.
Ecology
should lead you to see the integrated nature of this world.
Topics
to be covered:
• The physical environment
• Organisms and their environment
• Population ecology
• Community ecology
• Landscape ecology
• Global change and biodiversity
Course
details Lectures
Tutorials
Exams EcoPHOTOs
EcoNEWs