Lecture Outline Table of Contents
Click on leaf icon at end of topic line to go to that lecture outline:
 

I. Introduction to Ecology
A. What is ecology  and why  are ecological systems difficult to study?
B. How can we approach the study of ecology (methods, models, and philosophical ramblings: universal laws versus collections of system-specific descriptions)
II. Variation in the Physical Environment (problems facing organisms and ecologists)
III. Population Ecology (Eco-Accounting 101)
A. How can populations be described; "the snapshot" (abundance, distribution, and age structure)
B. How do populations change ; "the motion picture" (population dynamics)
1. Simple population growth models
2. Age-specific population dynamics and why do we care
a. What will the future bring (population projections and life tables)
b. Why do organism reproduce and die as they do (life history patterns)
3. Regulation of population dynamics (what causes populations from growing forever)
IV. Community Ecology (Who's who and who's not) Species interactions and assemblages
A. How can species interact
1. Competition
2. Predation
B.  How important are species interactions
1. Interactions of interactions
2.  Patterns in species numbers
3. Patterns in species composition
V. Ecosystem Ecology (Let's not argue about about what species did what to what species...) How does energy and stuff move through ecosystems

 
 
 
 

---

Back to  Ecology Home

Dr. D.'s Home Page

Department of Biological  and Physical Sciences

School of Science  and Mathematics