Learning objectives
The course aims at providing the fundamentals of ecology which are relevant for graduates in environmental, biological and natural sciences, who are requested to tackle management and conservation issues of natural resources, to identify causes, effects and possible remedial of environmental altered processes.
Course unit content
Part 1. Basics of Ecology (6 credits)
Basic concepts and history of ecology. Organization of ecological systems. Spatial and time scales in ecology. Physical factors and climate. Chemical composition of atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and soil. The role of elements with atomic number <30 in ecology. Water and thermal control. Energy quality and quantity.
Environmental conditions and adaptations of organisms. Habitat, niche, stress and tolerance.
Niche theory.
Population ecology. Structure, dispersal and sampling methods. Exponential growth. Limitation of resources, intraspecific competition and logistic growth. Interspecific competition: exclusion and coexistence. Lotka Volterra equations. Predator-prey interactions. Other biological interactions: mutualism, symbiosis, parasitism and mimicry. Predator-prey coevolution.
Community ecology. Organization and trophic structure. Food webs. Effect of limitation: trophic cascade interactions, top-down and bottom-up control. Ecological succession.
Ecosystem ecology. The carbon cycle as a link between abiotic and living systems. Primary production and decomposition: reactions, processes and limiting factors. Conceptual models of energy transport in ecosystems: Elton, Lindeman and Odum. The pyramids of numbers, biomass and energy. Critical to the trophodinamics concpets.
Major biogeochemical cycles and water cycle. Biogeochemical cycles in tropical rain forest, temperate deciduous forest, lakes and an agro-systems. Basic concepts of C, N, P, Fe and S cycles. Ecological stoichiometry. Perturbations, resilience, buffer capacity and regime shift.
Biodiversity: Hutchinson and the Homage to Santa Rosalia. Phenotypic, genetic, species, ecosystem and landscape diversity. Methods for studying biodiversity. Ecological indices. Factors that affect biodiversity: latitude, productivity, natural and anthropogenic stress, The intermediate disturbance hypothesis. Species-area relationship: Island biogeography.
Part 2 - Monographic courses (3 credits)
Biodiversity, ecosystem goods and services. Introduction to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Disturbances and ecosystem responses: greenhouse effect and climate change, acid rain and eutrophication.
Bibliography
Smith T.M. & Smith R.L., 2006. Elements of ecology. 6th edition. Pearson education.
Teacher notes on : Ecological energetics and biogeochemistry.
Slides of lectures.
Teaching methods
Lectures with multimedia supports
Seminars from experts
Assessment methods and criteria
Part 1: written test
Part 2: presentation and discussion of a subject selected by the student within the program
