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May 03, 2024
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2022-2023 Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
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BIOL 240 - Ecology
PREREQUISITES: BIOL 105 - Biology I - Molecular and Cellular Processes and BIOL 107 - Biology II - Diversity of Life
PROGRAM: Life Sciences
CREDIT HOURS MIN: 4
LECTURE HOURS MIN: 2
LAB HOURS MIN: 4
DATE OF LAST REVISION: Fall, 2018
This course examines the complex interrelationships between organisms and the natural world. Contemporary issues in population, community and ecosystem ecology are emphasized as they relate to evolution and biodiversity, resource acquisition and resource utilization within an ecosystem. Course content includes competitive exclusion, resource partitioning, trophic status, food webs, succession and biogeochemistry using examples from current and historical literature. Students will be challenged to think about how ecological patterns and processes inform the regional and global issues facing human society.
MAJOR COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Upon successful completion of this course the student will be expected to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the scientific method and be able to apply it to a given problem.
- Identify and use examples of early ecological studies to explain the value of ecology to human society.
- Describe the physical, chemical, and biological attributes of the major biomes on Earth.
- Describe organismal adaptation to the environments of Earth.
- Explain the mechanisms of evolution and the effects of coevolution, adaptive radiation, reproductive success, and the maintenance of biodiversity
- Compare and contrast logistic and exponential growth models.
- Explain the role of carrying capacity, survivorship, and fecundity and how they are used to predict the future growth and distribution of a population.
- Explain the effects of density independent and density dependent factors on population growth.
- Compare and contrast intraspecific and interspecific competition.
- Discuss the concept of species diversity and the indices used to calculate species diversity.
- Explain the principles of competitive exclusion, resource partitioning, and character displacement and their relationship to competition.
- Describe the biogeochemistry of an ecosystem and explain the cycles of nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus, and water.
- Explain energy flow in ecosystems, photosynthesis, trophic levels, and biomass pyramids from an ecological perspective.
- Recognize the continually changing nature of ecosystems, and discuss factors that impact ecosystems, and the evolution of resident species through natural selection.
- Analyze a variety of timely environmental issues in light of their ecological, social, economic, ethical, and/or cultural implications and distinguish between scientific and non-scientific literature.
- Collect ecological data, apply basic statistical skills for analyzing and presenting quantitative/qualitative data to formulate conclusions.
COURSE CONTENT: Topical areas of study include -
- Competition
- Ecosystem Energetics
- Major ideas shaping modern ecology
- Mathematical Models
- Nutrient Cycling
- Population Regulation
- Predation
- Role of biological and physical factors in developing community structure
Course Addendum - Syllabus (Click to expand)
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