NRE 509: ECOLOGY: Science of Context and Interaction
Professors:
J. David Allan
Professor, School of Natural Resources and Environment
Dana 2066, ude.hcimu|nallad#ude.hcimu|nallad
William S. Currie
Associate Professor, School of Natural Resources and Environment
Dana 2532, ude.hcimu|eirrucw#ude.hcimu|eirrucw
Graduate Student Instructors for 2009:
Kyung Seo Park, SNRE PhD student
Office Hours: Wed. 2-4pm in 2544 DANA
ude.hcimu|krapoce#ude.hcimu|krapoce
Thomas Neeson, SNRE PhD student
Office Hours: Mon. 3-4pm
Tues. 10-11am
Wed. 1-2pm in 2544 DANA
ude.hcimu|noseen#ude.hcimu|noseen
Allie Schafer, SNRE MS student
Office Hours: Thurs. 11-1pm in 2536 DANA
ude.hcimu|hcseilla#ude.hcimu|hcseilla
Overview
The natural science core course provides a broad foundational treatment of concepts and processes that operate in ecological systems. It covers interactions among water, soils, the atmosphere, and basic life processes (respiration and photosynthesis) in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including the principles of energy flow and the cycling of matter. It covers ecological principles such as population growth and regulation, trophic interactions, ecological networks, and community change. It covers evolution and natural selection. The course draws examples from some of the dominant habitats on earth, including rivers, lakes, wetlands, forests, deserts, and agricultural systems. Many of the principles and examples covered are designed to give students a foundation for the understanding or study of facets of global change.
Course Objectives
- To provide a common foundation in core natural sciences related to natural resources and the environment for all incoming MS students.
- To introduce quantitative and qualitative analysis of environmental systems to all MS students while developing a systems perspective and systems modeling skills.
- To foster knowledge-based critical thinking and the habit of cross-disciplinary interaction among students.
- To provide a transition to graduate school by expecting students to assimilate both basic and advanced information from diverse sources, including the primary scientific literature.
The Wiki
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Community Structure
Lecture 16: November 9
A community is the complex of species living together and interlinked through feeding relationships and other interactions that govern the flow of energy and cycling of nutrients. Food webs are a model for community structure and consist of trophic levels that can be regulated by resource availability (bottom up) or predation stress (top down).
Lecture 16
Consumer Resource Interactions
Lecture 15: November 4
Consumer-resource interactions are ubiquitous and are usually the driver of specialization. Fluctuations in prey and predator populations have a significant impact on the dynamics of the other and so are engaged in an evolutionary arms race to escape negative pressure from the other.
Lecture 15
Species Interactions: Two-Way Interactions, Mutualisms and Competition
Lecture 14: November 2
Mutualism, commensalism, predation and competition are the primary ways in which species interact in nature. Each interaction type can have huge consequences on an individual’s behavior, life-history traits, fitness and survivorship. Niche theory is a convenient way to partition an ecosystem and understand species interactions.
Lecture 14
Population Dynamics, Part Two
Lecture 13: October 28
Demographic characteristics of a population, such as age structure, are important determinants of population viability. Population sizes fluctuate in time and space and, depending on growth and loss rates, species will either persist or disappear.
Lecture 13
Population Growth and Regulation
Lecture 12: October 26
Population change is a balance of rates that increase of decrease population numbers including birth, immigration, death and emigration. Populations can’t grow exponentially forever; typically they reach a carrying capacity and feel the effects of negative feedbacks.
Lecture 12
"The Ecological Theater and the Evolutionary Play"
Lecture 11: October 21
Natural selection is the primary driver of evolution. Selection can be directional, stabilizing or disruptive but will always result in a change total gene frequencies in a population. Fitness – the number of viable offspring an individual produces – is a good metric for measuring the quality of life history traits and will impact the extent and pace of natural selection.
Lecture 11
Nutrient Cycling in Terrestrial Systems
Lecture 10: October 12
All nitrogen transformations require biology, and most notable of those transformations is nitrogen fixation from atmospheric nitrogen gas into biologically active forms. Soil weathering will dictate the amount of nitrogen that can be retained and kept for use by plants and microorganisms. Because nitrogen is generally a limiting resource many organisms have evolved ways to capture and sequester nitrogen as soon as it is available.
Lecture 10
Nutrient Flows from Terrestrial to Aquatic Systems
Lecture 9: October 7
The nitrogen cycle is critical for primary productivity and revolves around the processes of nitrification and denitrification. Most nitrogen transformations occur in the soil and are influenced by the presence or absence of oxygen.
Lecture 9
Biogeochemistry
Lecture 8: October 5
Water, as the universal solvent, is a critical molecule for life. In addition to the hydrogen and oxygen in water life generally requires C, N, P and S, along with the nutrients Ca, K, and Mg. pH is extremely important for biological processes and can be influenced by the carbonate complex cycling and human pollutants such as NOx and SO2.
Lecture 8
Vegetation Biomes
Lecture 7: September 30
Continents, Hadley cells and ocean currents influence global climate, which weathers rock, and creates soil. Soil characteristics vary with climate, extent of weathering and age. Climate and soils then dictate the type of vegetation present in every ecosystem around the world and because of the wide variety of climate conditions and soil types vegetation biomes are highly specialized and recognizable.
Lecture 7
Climate, Glaciation and Stability
Lecture 6: September 28
Global climate has fluctuated significantly over geological history. Temperature fluctuations have been marked by retreating and advancing glaciers, which are primarily responsible for carving the topography of the northern latitudes. Glacial periods have numerous causes within a complicated system of feedbacks including shifting plate tectonics, CO2 levels and Milankovich cycles.
Lecture 6
Terrestrial Production, Decomposition, NPP, NEP and C Storage
Lecture 5: September 23
Flows of carbon form the backbone of ecosystem functions. These fluxes move carbon between the atmosphere, plants and animals and soils in a ceaseless cycle. These fluxes are regulated by nutrient, water and oxygen availability, topography, disturbance regimes and successional patterns.
Lecture 5
Plant Physiology, Energetics and Water Relations
Lecture 4: September 21
Water and temperature are the major limiting factors of plant primary production. Plants have evolved three major physiological patterns to counter the effects of water scarcity and temperature fluctuations; they are referred to as C3, C4 and CAM. Each of these processes reflect important life-history tradeoffs made as plants expanded to different, challenging environments.
Lecture 4
Energy, Life and Transformations
Lecture 3: September 16
Life requires energy, and plants and animals have evolved many mechanisms for capturing, transforming and storing energy for all physiological processes. Reduction–Oxidation reactions – essentially electron flows – form the basis for most energy producing and transforming processes and these flows are characterized by surrounding conditions, especially the availability of oxygen.
Lecture 3
Life on Earth: A Brief History of Everything
Lecture 2: September 14
There is a single tree of life and understanding it is critical to our study of biodiversity, speciation and conservation. All extant taxa evolved from a single progenitor 6.5 billion years ago and ever since, life has been characterized by crisis and innovation driving the diversification we see today.
Lecture 2
Core Themes and the (Eco)System Approach
Lecture 1: September 9
Natural systems are intrinsically coupled to human systems. Natural landscapes and aquatic ecosystems are complex with many different scales of interactions. In the face of increasing human impacts on the earth and particularly climate change, studying, modeling and understanding these interactions is critical.
Lecture 1
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