Syllabus
ADVANCED ECOLOGY: Populations
and Communities
PCB 5423
Fall, 2006
Meeting times: TTh 9:30-10:45
Classroom: GL 250
Instructor: Joel Trexler
office OE 217, 348-1966
Textbooks
Gotelli, N. J. 1998. A Primer of
Ecology, 3rd Edition. Sinauer (G)
Moran, P. J. 1999. Community Ecology.
Blackwell (M)
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| August 29 | Class cancelled for non-hurricane Ernesto | |
| 31 | Density-independent models | G:1-2 |
| September 5 | Density-dependent models | |
| 7 | Population dyamics | |
| 12 | Discussion: Strong 1986; Schaffer and Kot 1986; Rigors in Ecology | |
| 14 | Population dynamics models | |
| 19 | Discussion: den Boer 1991; Berryman 1991; Wolda 1989 | |
| 21 | Age-structured models | G:3 |
| 26 | Discussion: Leverich and Levin 1979; Crowder et al. 1994 | |
| 28 | Life History theories and applications | |
| October 3 | Life History, continued | |
| 5 | Discussion: Schaffer and Elson 1975; Trexler and Travis 2000; Conover and Munch 2002 | |
| 10 | Metapopulations | G:4 |
| 12 | Metapopulations continued Test #1 > hand out take-home exam on Oct 12 *Due on October 19* | |
| 17 | Oral exams | |
| 19 | Discussion: Harrison et al. 1988; Kareiva and Wennergren 1995; Hanski 1998; Saccheri and Hanski 2006 | |
| 24 | Competition | G:5; M:2,3 |
| 26 | Competition (contined) read: Schoener 1983; Connell 1983 | |
| 31 | Discussion: Anderson et al. 1981; Sale and Williams 1982; Tanner et al. 1994 | |
| November 2 | Predator-prey | G:6; M:4,5 |
| 7 | Predator-prey (continued) read: Brooks and Dodson 1965; Krebs et al. 1995; Stone 1995 | |
| 9 | Discussion: Wilbur 1987; Jaeger and Walls 1989; Hairston 1989; Wilbur 1989; Morin 1989 | |
| 14 | Island biogeography | G:7; M:11 |
| 16 | Discussion: Simberloff and Wilson 1969; McCoy and Mushinsky 1994 | |
| 21 | Conservation and species-area relationships | |
| 23 | Thanksgiving, no class | |
| 28 | Community regulation | M: 12, M:9 |
| 30 | Community regulation (continued) read: Losos 1996 | |
| December 5 | Community Structure and food webs | M:6 |
| 7 | Discussion: Hairston, Smith, and Slobodkin 1960; Polis and Strong 1996; Power 1992; Chase et al. 2002 | |
| EXAM December 12, 9:30-12:00 Written and oral exams |
Purpose: Provide a common foundation for our graduate students interested in ecology. We will seek to increase your familiarity with the theory and practice of modern population and community ecology. Two textbooks will be used to provide background material for lectures and discussions of current papers from the primary literature. Students will also employ computer software to familiarize themselves with the basic models of population and community ecology.
Student responsibilities: You are expected to do the assigned reading, work problem sets, and participate in class discussions throughout the term. Two tests will be administered, both with a written and an oral component. The oral exam will be taken individually with the instructor in a format that simulates qualifying exams and is intended to help you prepare for them.
Grades: The mid-term and final exams
will each be worth 30% of your grade (combined 60% of the total points).
Grades based on your preparation for and participation in leading class
discussion will account for 10% of the total. Finally, 30% of your
grade will be derived from your performance on two problem sets (15% each).
Below, I have created links to many of the papers we will read for discussion this semester. It is your responsibility to download them, read them, and be prepared for class discussion. All of the references are hot links, but for some I listed the links to the right just in case you have some trouble downloading them. Unfortunately, not all of the papers we will use are available in downloadable form. I will arrage for photocopies to be available for those papers not listed above or below.
Strong
1986
Schaffer
and Kot 1986
Rigors
in Ecology
Surowiecki
2006
den
Boer 1991
Berryman_1991
Wolda_1989
Conover
and Munch_2002
Trexler
and Travis_2000
Kareiva
and Wennergren 1995
Hanski
1988
Saccheri
and Hanski 2006
Brooks
and Dodson 1965
Krebs
et al. 1995
Stone_1995
with note about Krebs et al.1995
Some of the Papers we will read or that I use in preparing lectures:
Anderson, G.R.V. et al. 1981. The community structure of coral reef fishes. Am Nat. 117:476-495
Berryman, A. A. 1991. Stabilization or regulation: what it all means! Oecologia 86:140-143
Brooks, J. L., and S. I. Dodson. 1965. Predation, body size, and composition of plankton. Science 150:707-714
Carpenter, S.R. et al. 1995. Ecosystem experiments. Science 269:324-327
Connell, J. 1978. Diversity in tropical rain forests and coral reefs. Science 199:1302-1310
Connell, J. 1983. On the prevalence and relative importance of interspecific competition: evidence from field experiments. Am Nat 122:661-696
den Boer, P. J. 1991. Seeing the trees for the wood: random walks or bounded fluctuations of population size? Oecologia 86:484-491
Jaeger, R. G. and S. C. Walls. 1989. On salamander guilds and ecological methodology. Herpetologica 45:111-119
Hanski, I. 1991. Single-species metapopulation dynamics: concepts, models and observations. Bio. J. Linn. Soc. 42:17-38
Hairston, N. G., Sr. 1989. Hard choices in ecological experimentation. Herpetologica 45:119-122
Hairston, N. G., Sr., F. E. Smith, and L. B. Slobodkin. 1960. Community structure, population control, and competition. Am Nat. 94:421-425
Harrison, S., D. D. Murphy, and P. R. Ehrlich. 1988. Distribution of the bay checkerspot butterfly, Euphidryas editha bayensis: evidence for a metapopulation model. Am. Nat. 132:360-382.
Hanski, I. and M. Gilpin. 1991. Metapopulation dynamics: brief history and conceptual domain. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 42:3-16
Kareiva, P. and U. Wennergren. 1995. Connecting landscape patterns to ecosystem and population processes. Nature 373:299-302.
Krebs et al. 1995. Impact of food and predation on the snowshoe hare cycle. Science 269:1112-1115
Law, R. 1981. The dynamics of a colonizing population of Poa annua. Ecology 62:1267-1277
Law, R., and D. R. Grey. 1989. Evolution of yields from populations with age-specific cropping. Evolutionary Ecology 3:343-359
Lawton, J.H. 1995. Ecological experiments with model systems. Science 269:328-331
Leverich, W. J., and D. A. Levin. 1979. Age-specific survivorship and reproduction in Phlox drummondii. Am. Nat. 113:881-903
McCoy, E. D., and H. R. Mushinsky. 1994. Effects of fragmentation on the richness of vertebrates in the Florida scrub habitat. Ecology 75:446-457
Menge, B. A., and T. M. Farrell. 1989. Community structure and interaction webs in shallow marine hard-bottom communities: tests of an environmental stress model. Adv. Ecol. Res. 19:189-262
Moran, P. J. 1989. New directions in amphibian community ecology. Heptetologica 45:124-128
Polis, G. A., and S. R. Strong. 1996. Food web complexity and community dynamics. Am Nat. 147:813-846
Power, M. E. 1992. Top-down and bottom-up forces in food webs: Do plants have primacy? Ecology 73:733-746
Sale, P. F., and D. McB. Williams. 1982. Community structure of coral reef fishes: are the patterns more than those expected by chance? Am Nat 120:121-127
Schaffer, W. M., and M. Kot. 1986. Chaos in ecological systems: the coals that Newcastle forgot. TREE 1:58-63
Schaffer, W. M., and M. Kot. 1985. Do strange attractors govern ecological systems? BioScience 35:342-350
Schoener, T. W. 1983. Field experiments on interspecific competition. Am. Nat. 122:240-285.
Simberloff, D. S., and E. O. Wilson. 1969. Experimental zoogeography of islands: the colonization of empty islands. Ecology 50:278-289
Stenseth, N. C. 1995. Snowshoe hare populations: squeezed from below and above. Science 269:1061-1062
Strong, D. R. 1986. Density-vague population change. TREE 1:39-42
Tanner, J. E., and T. P. Hughes. 1994. Species coexistence, keystone species, and succession: a sensitivity analysis. Ecology 75:2204-2219
Wilbur, H. M., P. J. Morin, and R. N. Harris. 1983. Salamander predation and the structure of experimental communities: anuran responses. Ecology 64:1423-1429
Wolda, H. 1989. The equilibrium concept and density dependence tests. What does it all mean? Oecologia 81:430-432
Handouts
These links connect to .pdf files that provide a brief reference list to the sources used to write the class lecture.Population regulation
Age-structured Models
Predator-prey studies
Metapopulations