BIOE 370: General Ecology

GOALS:  This class is intended to provide the following:

1.     In-depth understanding of the major areas of population ecology, including demography, single-species population dynamics, density-dependent regulation of populations.

2.      In depth understanding of interactions between pairs of species, including competition, predation (and disease if time allows).

3.     An introduction to other areas of ecology, such as community ecology (diversity and stability, island biogeography, succession), ecosystem ecology (carbon cycles) behavioral ecology (territoriality, optimal foraging), and evolutionary ecology (life history trade-offs).

4.     The first three goals are content-oriented.  In addition,  the class has three process-oriented goals:

•      to develop your ability to interpret data sets
•      to develop your ability to understand and explain an ecological process verbally, graphically, and algebraically
•      to develop your ability to relate these three methods of description to one another.

Class Hours & Location: 2:10 - 3:00 MWF, 101 Roberts Hall

Instructor: Dr. Scott Creel, 302 Lewis Hall, Phone: 994-7033  Email: screel@montana.edu


Office Hours: MW 10:30 -12:00 or by appointment. If these hours are not convenient, please talk to me after class to arrange another time and we will figure something out.  I almost  always have time for questions right after class.  You're also welcome to email questions (but if you email me just before a test, I might not read it in time).

    Text: Essentials of Ecology by Townsend, Begon & Harper is required. Any other reading will will be posted as links to pdf files on this web page.

Lecture notes: are available from the links below.  I will update these regularly throughout the semester.
Overheads: the figures that I use in overheads are posted as pdf files in the links below.  I occasionally add new material at the last minute, to incorporate  new studies,  but most of the overheads are in the pdf file links.

    Grading: Exam 1: 25%, Exam 2: 25%, Exam 3: 30%. (Exam 3 will fall in finals week.  A small part of it will be comprehensive, but it will primarily cover  new material)  The tests will mainly be multiple choice questions and perhaps some short answer. For some material, the tests involve doing calculations, so bring your calculator on exam days. 

Problem sets and quizes on computer exercises: 20%  Several subjects will include short homework assignments. In these, you will use the methods described in lectures to test ideas with computer simulations of population dynamics or interactions between species. In some cases, a graded homework assignment or a short quiz will be based on the computer exercise.  There will also be at least one take-home problem set (on demography) that is not based on a computer lab. Together, these homework assignments account for 20% of the grade. 

Computer Exercises:  Some homework assignments will use the software packages GenX and POPULUS to examine evolution, population growth, and interactions among species (such as interspecific competition and predation), in a series of computer labs. POPULUS has simple simulations that allow you to manipulate the variables in mathematical models of ecological processes, and see the results graphically.  GenX lets you manipulate evolutionary forces in two populations.  Both are free programs that you can download and run on your own computer,

Download POPULUS from the developer's (Don Alstad's) site at U Minnesota.
Download GenX from this link.  GenX was developed by Brad Swanson at Purdue.

You can also run both programs on any MSU networked computer without downloading and installing them.   Look for GenX.exe and for the run.bat file in the Populus  folder within the Biology 303 folder at \\hopper\labshare (which you can access using 'Map Network Drive' by right-clicking 'My Computer' on any networked machine). To learn about access to software on the MSU local network, see this link: Using Network Drives to Access Software on the MSU network.

Course Outline, lecture notes and reading assignments:  Lecture titles will be linked to lecture notes.  We will post each lecture’s notes after the lecture.

Topic	Subtopics	Reading	Overheads
Introduction to Ecology	definition, levels of analysis, types of ecological explanation Rainfall and NPP example  from NASA earth observatory dataset	3-15
Evolutionary Ecology
Microevolution	Evolutionary forces, selection & response, heritability proximate/ultimate causation example - bat sonar 1 bat sonar 2 Adaptive radiation example - WP finch Fox color selection example, Maze-learning heritability in rats example Types and levels of selection - gene (yes), individual (yes), group (no), kin-group (yes).  An example of the logical flaw in group selection arguments	36-66	OH set 1 OH set 2
Macroevolution	Evolutionary forces and population differentiaton: GenX simulation (help available in Roberts 109 TU 1/22 11-12, 5-6, WE 1/23 1-2) Short QUIZ using GenX IN CLASS WED 1/23.  There is no homework to turn in for the exercise.  Work through it until you have a good understanding to prepare for a short quiz in class.	" "
Abiotic processes
Global scale	Global physical processes, biomes	110-130	OH set 3
	Animation of Hadley cells, atmospheric pressure, and precipitation -  spatial and seasonal patterns of precipitation at the global scale	Animation of Coriolis effect on surface winds
Animal Physiological Ecology	Animal physiological ecology - some adaptive solutions to temperature and water limitation	70-83, 106-107	OH set 4
Plant Physiological Ecology	Plant physiological ecology - adaptive solutions to abiotic problems of water and temperature	84-95	OH set 5
Climate Change	Global H20 cycles: PET & precipitation Carbon cycles, radiation budgets, anthropogenic effects, abiotic & ecological response Ice core CO2 data, 800,000 yr Vostok ice core Most recent Keeling curve from NOAA Ecological responses to climate change Fitter & Fitter 2002 - plant phenology (see fig 1 & table 1) Diamond et al 2011 - butterfly phenology	435-441, global fingerprint wolverine example salmonid example (& IPCC GCM  emission scenarios) US GCRP	OH set 6
Life history
Basic life tables, population growth and life history trade-offs (using reproductive value)	survivorship, fecundity, Ro, T, r HW2: DUE DATE CHANGE: This will be DUE FRIDAY 22nd in class, turned in before the test, so that we can cover reproductive value in class before you do the HW. Key for HW2	145-164	OH set 7
EXAM 1	FRIDAY February 22nd.  Date is set Scores will be posted here when I get them		Study Guide for Exam 1
	TEST SCORES AND CLASS GRADES AS OF 2/27/13 UPDATED 3/4/13 (+3 points for version A)
Population growth
Exponential vs density dependent growth	exponential and density - dependent  growth, limitation and regulation	169-179	OH set 8
Verhulst-Pearl, linear density dependence	Wildebeest example.  Part 2 Nonlinear density dependence - theta logistic example (This example spreadsheet was updated to extend the example on 3/1/13).	283-293
Interspecific competition
Lotka Volterra	Interspecific competition, competition coefficients, Lotka-Volterra Model POPULUS EXERCISE: COMPETITION  There will be a TA in Roberts 109 computer lab on WED 3/6  from 12 to 1 and 4 to 5, and on THU 3/7  from 2 to 3 cover explain the exercise and answer questions.  Short in class quiz over the Lotka-Volterra model of interspecific competition on FRI 3/8.	182-196	OH set 9
Plant competition 2	aspects of competition unique to plants		OH set 10
African wild dog case study
Ecological Niches	niche principles and  4 case studies	106-107, 197-214	OH set 11
EXAM 2	Grades prior to Exam 2 (current thresholds are approximately 87 A, 80 B, 70 C, 60 D) WEDNESDAY March 27th- exact date will be confirmed in class.  Covers  exponential growth, density dependent growth, interspecific competition and niches.		Study guide
Predation	compensation vs additivity, harvest models Lotka- Volterra Creel & Rotella 2010, Sparkman 2011 examples 2011 USWFS N Rockies wolf annual report - for figures only, examining additive/compensatory harvest mortality Collapse of N.Atlantic cod -risk of FQ harvest & tragedy of the commons Huffaker 1958 mite experiments with predator - prey cycles - for figures only	217-238	OH set 12 OH set 13
Harvest models, compensation vs additivity, Lotka - Volterra Functional & numeric response	functional and numeric responses, empirical data on predator-prey cycles Some things just have to be seen to be believed... POPULUS EXERCISE: PREDATION - TA will be in Roberts 109 on Tuesday April 9th at 9:00, 3:00 and 5:00 to answer questions.  Quiz in class on Wedneday April 10th on the L-V predation model. Note that the axis labels are reversed on the P vs N plot in Populus 5.4: P is predator numbers, N is prey numbers.	OH set 14 399-405
	EXAM 2 GRADES AND WEIGHTED CLASS GRADES AS OF 3 APRIL Grade cutoffs are: 87 A, 86 A-, 85 B+, 82 B, 80 B- 78 C+, 71 C, 67 C-, 60 D, 50 F
Wolf-Elk case study	Effects of predators on prey other than direct predation
Community and Ecosystem structure and function	Biodiversity 1 Island Biogeography Notes, Slides Community Structure Community Structure 2 Succession
	Updated grades with everything except final exam.
EXAM 3 during finals week 8:00 am, MONDAY April 29th In the normal room	Study guide for final exam, through predation.  8-10 review questions, about 20 questions on the material in this guide, and  8-10 questions on community and ecosystem function.