6 ECTS credits
150 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1023738BNR for all students in the 2nd semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.

Semester
2nd semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Impossible
Grading method
Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
Can retake in second session
Yes
Taught in
Dutch
Faculty
Faculty of Sciences and Bioengineering Sciences
Department
Biology
Educational team
Bram Vanschoenwinkel (course titular)
Activities and contact hours
28 contact hours Lecture
16 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
30 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
Course Content

Why do some areas on earth house more species than others? Why are populations sometimes doomed to go extinct? Why is it so difficult to predict how ecosystems may change due to global environmental change? The scientific research field of ecology provides a rich set of theories that allow us to understand how organisms can interact with one another and with their environment and how these interactions can ultimately stabilize or destabilize ecosystems. It is a challenging subject that forms the theoretical and empirical basis for nature management and legislation and is therefore essential for students that will come into with these themes in their professional career.
This course comprises an introduction to the research field of ecology. We will discuss the underlying drivers of the dynamics of biological populations and ecosystems that determine variation in biodiversity and other ecosystem parameters. The course includes an introduction to the most important classical and contemporary paradigms in ecology. From this theoretical background we develop practical applications e.g. in relation to ecosystem management and the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Different chapters include:

  1. Population growth: carrying capacity, exponential and logistic population growth, r and K strategies, the May model, estimating the sensitivity of population growth;
  2. The niche concept: niche concepts of Grinnell, Elton and Hutchinson, adaptive radiation, character displacement, environmental filtering;
  3. Biotic interactions: competition and predation, concept of limiting similarity, Lotka-Volterra population dynamics, the Tilman competition model, R*, functional response, trophical cascades, coexistence mechanisms;
  4. Spatial processes and patterns: dispersal, island biogeography, metapopulation and metacommunity dynamics, interactive habitat selection, ecological networks, corridors and ecoducts;
  5. Biodiversity: richness and evenness, alpha, beta and gamma diversity, rarefaction, turnover and nestedness, Hill numbers;
  6. Ecological rules and laws e.g. rules of Bergman, Allen and Rappoport, the species-area curve, the metabolic theory of ecology

The course contains a set of lectures complemented with exercises and an excursion. We will make use of the R programming environment to experiment with ecological models.

 

Course material
Digital course material (Required) : Powerpointslides en ondersteunende artikels, CANVAS
Handbook (Required) : Ecology, From Individuals to Ecosystems, Begon, M. and Townsend C.R., ‎9781119279358, 2021
Additional info

NA

Learning Outcomes

General competencies

  • The student knows and understands a broad range of ecological theories and can apply these both in a fundamental and in an applied context.
  • The student knows the most important paradigms in ecology that are relevant for explaining species distribution patterns and biodiversity patterns (island biogeography,  niche based environmental filtering, metapopulation biology, metacommunity ecology).
  • The student can analyse an ecological problem or pattern and explain this based on argumentation while considering confounding factors and limitations.
  • The student can understand and interpret ecological models.
  • The student develops a critical attitude towards interpreting patterns in nature

 

 

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

Within the Oral Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Oral exam with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 100% of the final mark.

    Note: Oral exam with written preparation.

Additional info regarding evaluation

Oral exam (100%)
 

 

Allowed unsatisfactory mark
The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context

This offer is part of the following study plans:
Bachelor of Biology: Default track (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Geography: Default track (only offered in Dutch)
Bridging Programme Master of Science in Biology: Ecology (only offered in Dutch)