Course Information
Course Goals: the main goal is to learn major principles, models, and methods of study of individual, population, and community ecology as they apply to animals. Students will learn areas of current active research in animal ecology, apply ecological principles to new situations, evaluate studies of animal ecology, and apply these principles and models to problems in animal conservation and management.
Prerequisites: Biol 110-120
Required Readings: No textbook is required. You will be required to read papers from the scientific literature on ecology; some are already listed with lecture topics below, others may be assigned. These will be on reserve in the library.
Grades: click on the following to obtain more information. Clicking on links to exams will also take you to links to some old exams I've given in previous semesters. Exam dates and assignment due dates are given on the lecture schedule below.
Course policies: READ THESE CAREFULLY, THEY'RE IMPORTANT!
Exam Policies: All exams are comprehensive. They can cover any material from lecture; reading material will be covered at the level you have been expected to know it for practice questions and/or homework questions (in other words I won't ask you material from readings if you haven't been expected to know it for practice questions or homework already.) No make-up or early exams will be given. Your final exam percentage will substitute for one of the two lecture exams if you miss an exam or if it benefits you (if one of your exam scores is lower than your final percentage.) Exam dates are given on the lecture schedule.
Policies about papers: papers (the critique and term paper) must be typed, double-spaced, and written in the concise style expected for scientific writing; click here to see a guide to scientific writing style that you must use for your papers. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to KEEP A COPY of every assignment you hand in until you receive your returned, graded assignment; if I ever don't get something you think you sent, and you can produce your copy immediately, I am very likely to accept it but if you CAN'T produce it I will not take it.
Rough drafts: I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to submit rough drafts of assignments. Rough drafts can be submitted typed, double spaced on paper or via e-mail -- I recommend e-mail submissions, as I can able to type more extensive, and more legible, comments on them than I can scribble on a hard copy. If you absolutely MUST do so, you can submit a handwritten rough draft (but not final copy) -- if you submit a handwritten draft you MUST leave a blank line between each written line and it must be legible (if I can't read it easily I will not comment on it.) For me to have time to comment on rough drafts, I must receive them at least three working days before the due date of the paper (i.e.for weeks without holidays -- if the paper is due on a Friday, I need the draft by Tuesday. If the paper is due on a Monday, I need it by the previous Wednesday). The earlier I receive a rough draft, the more time I'll have to comment on it and the more you can benefit.
Homework information and policies: homework will be due each Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. It must be typed, double spaced (for written assignments) or drawn to scale on graph paper (for graphical assignments). I will be grading homework in class and going over the correct answer with you once it is graded. You will see your grade after class but I will not mark or return homework, so you must bring two copies of the homework to class, one to hand in and one to keep and use to make any necessary corrections. You will hand one in and keep one to correct. Your homework grade is partly an attendance grade so you must be in class ON TIME to turn it in to receive any credit for it. Homework questions, along with additional study questions that I will provide, are designed to show you the kind of material you are expected to know on exams, so they provide practice for exams.
Handing Things In: I do NOT accept late papers or other assignments (computer assignments) unless you have a serious, documented medical or family emergency. If you do have an emergency, see me ASAP to get it approved and see if/when you can hand in your work. Note that "the computer ate my disk" is NOT an acceptable excuse for handing things in late -- save your work regularly and make back-ups; leave time to print things out so that if your printer runs out of ink or the campus printer runs out of toner you'll have time to go somewhere else to print! Graphs must be carefully drawn on standard (not log or semi-log) graph paper or computer generated using an appropriate graphics program.
Attendance Policy: You are expected, and strongly recommended, to attend all class meetings, and to arrive on time. Exams are based primarily on lectures; you are very unlikely to pass exams if you do not attend almost all lectures. If you must miss a class it is YOUR responsibility to find out what you missed and obtain any notes and handouts you have missed from another student in a timely fashion. If you miss class on Wednesdays when we have homework due and class discussions, you will lose homework points (since you can not hand it in for credit if you are not present) and participation points (since these are based on discussion participation). Since discussion periods are times when the class depends on the participation of all students, attendance during discussions is required. Your grade will drop by one letter grade for each three discussion periods you miss.
Practice Questions: You will be working as groups on practice questions during most Wednesday class periods. The practice questions will be available in advance on the web. You are required to print them out before class and bring them to class; once you have printed them out, keep them; you should bring all practice questions from previous weeks with you on Wednesdays as well as the questions for the current week.
Cheating/ Plagiarism: Anyone caught cheating or plagiarizing material will be assigned the letter grade "F" for the course. Plagiarism includes: quoting or taking information from another source without citing the source of the information, copying someone else's homework or paper, allowing someone to copy your work.
Electronic Devices: CELL PHONES (and any other electronic device that makes noise) MUST BE TURNED OFF IN CLASS. (if there's an emergency situation where you have to be reachable, you must tell me before class, set the phone to vibrate, not ring, and, if the phone does vibrate, get up and leave the class before answering it.) Do not use other electronic devices (portable CD players, etc.) in class, either. Anyone listening to such a device or answering a cell phone during an exam is getting extra information and is therefore cheating and will receive an automatic F in the course.
Assistance for Students With Special Needs: Any student eligible for and requesting academic accommodations due to a disability is requested to provide a letter of accommodation from P.A.C.E. or Student Academic Support Center within the first two weeks of the semester.
Lecture Schedule:
The following is the tentative schedule of lectures and related
readings. It includes links to lecture outlines, the homework due
for the week and to the practice questions that you must bring with you
on Wednesday. Lecture dates, lecture topics, lecture outlines, readings,
practice questions, and homework assignments may be modified, deleted,
or added during the semester. Exam dates and other due dates are
very unlikely to change. Papers listed are on reserve in the library.
Assigned readings (those from which you will need to know material beyond
what is covered in lecture) are designated with a *, otherwise the reading
is for background (optional). More papers are likely to be added
to the list; when they are, I will let you know.
| Date | Lecture Topic | Associated Reading: |
| 19 Aug | Introduction to Ecology | |
| 21 Aug | The Scientific Method in Ecology; Random and Systematic Error; Statistics in Ecology | Sjörgren, P. 1991. Extinction and isolation gradients in metapopulations: the case of the pool frog (Rana lessonae). pp. 135-147 In: Metapopulation Dynamics: Empirical and Theoretical Investigations (M. Gilpin and I. Hanski, eds). Academic Press, London. |
| No homework or practice questions this week; since we don't have enough to discuss yet I will be lecturing for the full 2 hour period on Weds (sorry, I'll try not to do it again!) | ||
| 26 Aug | The importance of replication (continued from previous lecture); Introduction to the Critique and Term Paper Assignments | * Ries, L., and D.M. Debinski, and M.L. Wieland. 2001.
Conservation value of roadside prairie restoration to butterfly communities.
Conservation Biology
15:401-411. |
| 28 Aug | Physiological Ecology | |
| Homework #1: scientific method | ||
| Practice Question Set #1: factors in ecology, scientific method, types of error, statistics, sampling | ||
| 02 Sep | LABOR DAY | |
| 04 Sep | Physiological Ecology (continued from previous lecture) | |
| Homework #2: sampling | ||
| Practice Question Set #2: research paper evaluation over Ries et al (2001) | Lab: discuss research paper | |
| 09 Sep | Niches and Resources | |
| 11 Sep | Behavioral Ecology: Group living and social behavior | |
| Homework #3: physiological ecology & niches | ||
| Practice Question Set #3: Physiological ecology, niches, resources | ||
| 16 Sep | Behavioral Ecology: Mating Systems | Davies, N.B. 1991. Mating Systems. Ch. 9 in: Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutinary Approach (J.R. Krebs and N.B. Davies, eds). Blackwell Scientific Pulbications, Oxford. |
| 18 Sep | EXAM 1 Click here for key to exam 1A; Click here for key to exam 1B | |
| Practice Question Set #4: Behavioral Ecology (We're not discussing it this week since we've got a test, but you'd better study the questions before the test!) | ||
| NO HOMEWORK this week, but you'll get two questions in a later week to make up for it | ||
| 23 Sep | Population Growth I: Exponential Growth | |
| 25 Sep | Population Growth II: Logistic Growth | |
| Homework #4: Exponential Growth | ||
| Practice Question Set #5: Population Growth | ||
| 30 Sep | Population Growth III: Modifications of Logistic Growth | * Barrett, G.W. and E.P. Odum 2000. The twenty-first century: the world at carrying capcity. Bioscience 50: 363-368 |
| 02 Oct | Factors Regulating Population Size | |
| Homework #5:
Logistic Growth
Homework #6: Human Population Growth -- over Barrett and Odum paper |
||
| Practice Question Set #5: Population Growth (continued from last week); includes questions over the Barrett and Odum paper so PLEASE BRING THIS PAPER TO CLASS | ||
| 07 Oct | Life Tables I | |
| 09 Oct | Life Tables II | |
| Homework #7: Life Tables | ||
| Practice Questions Set #6: Life Tables | ||
| 11 Oct (Fri.) | COMPUTER ASSIGNMENT 1 DUE; turn in to me or Biol. Dept. Office by 12:00 noon. | |
| 14 Oct | Life Tables Continued | |
| 16 Oct | EXAM 2 | |
| NO homework this week but you know I'll ruin some future week by giving you two to make up for it | ||
| 21 Oct | Life History Theory | |
| 23 Oct | Life History Theory (continued from previous lecture) | |
| Homework #8: Life History Theory | ||
| Practice Question Set #7: Life History Theory | ||
| 25 Oct (Fri) | CRITIQUE DUE by 5:00 p.m. | |
| 28 Oct | Metapopulations I: metapopulation size, recolonization, and extinction | * Thomas, C.D. and I. Hanski. 1997. Buttefly metapopulations. Chapter 15 in Metapopulation Biology: Ecology, Genetics, and Evolution (Hanski and Gilpin, eds). Academic Press, New York. |
| 30 Oct | Metapopulations II: local extinctions | |
| Homework #9: Extinction
in local butterfly populations (from Thomas and Hanski (1997) paper as
well as lecture)
Homework #10: Recolonization and dispersal behavior |
||
| Practice Question Set #8: Metapopulations, including material from Thomas and Hanski (1997) paper so please bring this paper to class. | ||
| 04 Nov | Metapopulations III: Sources and Sinks (continued from previous lecture); Introduction to Competition Models | * Dias, P.C. 1996. Sources and sinks in population biology. TREE 11:326-330 |
| 06 Nov | Competition: Models | |
| Homework #11: Sources and sinks | ||
| Practice Question Set #9: Competition | ||
| 11 Nov | Competition Studies; TERM PAPER ABSTRACTS DUE | |
| 13 Nov | Historical effects of competition; introduction to predation | |
| Homework #12: Competition Studies | ||
| Practice Question Set #10: Competition Studies and Predation | ||
| 15 Nov (Fri) | COMPUTER ASSIGNMENT 2 DUE | |
| 18 Nov | Predation model | |
| 20 Nov | Exam 3 Click here to see the key to Exam 3 | |
| Since there is a test, no homework this week (but there will be two in a later week). No discussion, so no practice questions. | ||
| 25 Nov | Communities: introduction, equilibrium hypotheses explaining species richness. | Mills et al. 1993. The keystone-species concept in ecology and conservation. BioScience 43:219-224. |
| 27 Nov | Non-equilibrium hypotheses; community stability | |
| Homework #13: Competition and community structure | ||
| Practice Question Set #11: Communities | ||
| 02 Dec | Community stability; metapopulations and communities | * van der Meijden, E. and C.A.M. van der Veen-van Wijk. 1997. Tritrophic Metapopulation Dynamics: a case study of ragwort, the cinnabar moth, and the parasitoid Cotesia popularis. Chapter 15 in Metapopulation Biology: Ecology, Genetics, and Evolution (Hanski and Gilpin, eds). Academic Press, New York. |
| 04 Dec | Nature Reserve Design; TERM PAPERS DUE; turn in to me or Biol. Dept. by 12:00 noon. | |
| Homework #14: Community
level metapopulation effects. Based on reading in van der Meijden
and van der Veen-van Wijk (1997)
Homework #15: community stablilty |
||
| Practice Question Set #12: Nature Reserve Design |
Final Exam: Monday, 10 December, 7:45-9:45 a.m.