[Plsgs] FW: Course- theoretical ecology

[Lambert, Georgina M - (glambert)]

Introduction to Theoretical Ecology, ECOL 547/447:  A Course in ecological models and principles for graduate students and advanced undergrads.

Fall 2016, MWF 1-2.  Three credits: Two lectures and a discussion

Instructor: Peter Chesson.

This course is taught every other year, and so will not be taught again until 2018.

Overall Course Objectives
The aim is to give students a thorough grounding in theoretical ecology at the level of the of the standard models that form the foundation of theoretical research and provide the key examples that illustrate the theory.  This will be done in a unified way where each later model builds on earlier knowledge.  To be covered are both classical models in population ecology, presented in a way that reveals their underlying unity, and also the basic models that form the foundation of current research on the subject.  The classical models are principally deterministic, while many current models include explicit stochastic elements.  The models will teach the theory, while at the same time imparting an appreciation of model construction and analysis, and quantitative ecological thinking generally.  The course will focus primarily on population ecology, including community ecology, and some ecosystem ecology, with a little behavioral ecology where necessary to explain the origin of population models.

Expected Learning Outcomes
The students are expected to gain an appreciation of the theory of ecology, and also to gain the the ability to reason in an ecological way on the basis of their theoretical understanding. Their understanding should be quantitative and dynamical.  So they will be able to think about population growth rates and their consequences, not just patterns of population density.  They will gain some ability in the construction and analysis of population models, and how to apply the results of models to predictions about nature. They should understand both the classical models and ideas in ecology, current opinion on those, and an acquaintance with modern directions in the subject.

Syllabus

    Week 1:  Population growth, age-structure, spatial and temporal structure
Week 2:  Density dependence, scramble and contest competition, chaotic dynamics
    Week 3:  Mechanisms of density dependence: resource limitation, natural enemies, interference and cannibalism
    Week 4:  Foodwebs, foodweb modules, strong and weak coupling, timescales and community dynamics
    Week 5: Coupled predator-prey systems, functional response, numerical response, Lotka-Volterra and Rosenzweig-MacArthur systems, fundamentals of exploitative competition between predators
    Week 6: Limit cycles in coupled predator-prey systems, predator interference, spatial structure and host-parasitoid systems.
    Week 7:  Within trophic-level indirect interactions: exploitative competition, the R* rule and successional processes; apparent competition and apparent competitive exclusion
    Week 9:  Multispecies competition for multiple resources: MacArthur’s resource competition equations, utilization functions, and ecological niches; substitutable and essential resources
    Week 10:  Competition coefficients, overlap measures, Lotka-Volterra competition, and conditions for competitive coexistence
    Week 11: Interactions between predation and competition, key-stone predators, intermediate predation hypothesis
Week 12: Predation, apparent competition and multitrophic diversity maintenance theory
Week  13: Competition-colonization tradeoffs, successional mosaics and disturbance
Week 14:  Competition in temporally variable environments:  the storage effect
    Week 15: Applications:  conservation, biological control, mechanisms of biological invasion, and ecosystem functioning



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Peter Chesson
Dept of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
     BSW 218
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
USA

Phone: 520-626-1451<tel:520-626-1451>
Fax: 520-621-9190<tel:520-621-9190>
email: pchesson at u.arizona.edu<mailto:pchesson at u.arizona.edu>

Websites
The Chesson lab:
http://www.eebweb.arizona.edu/Faculty/chesson/index.htm
Advice to applicants:
http://www.eebweb.arizona.edu/Faculty/chesson/Advice_to_applicants.htm



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A. Elizabeth (Betsy) Arnold
School of Plant Sciences
The University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721

http://arnoldlab.net
barnoldaz at gmail.com<mailto:barnoldaz at gmail.com>
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