- Docente: Marco Abbiati
- Credits: 6
- SSD: BIO/07
- Language: English
- Moduli: Marco Abbiati (Modulo 1) Bruna Gumiero (Modulo 2)
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo 2)
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Low Carbon Technologies and Sustainable Chemistry (cod. 9246)
Learning outcomes
The course is aimed at the comprehension of the functioning of ecosystems: basic processes, biogeochemical cycles; the emerging characteristics of ecosystems: spatio-temporal variability, resistance, resilience and homeostasis; the tools for the quantitative analysis of ecosystems; the meaning of biodiversity: ecosystem processes, goods and services; anthropological alterations and response of natural systems; the meaning of mitigation measures; the concept of ecological risk and assessment tools based on the integration of lines of evidence (chemical, physical, ecotoxicological and ecological) through the application of tools for the weighted assessment of alterations.
Course contents
- Ecology and how to do it
- What is ecology
- Individual, population, community, and ecosystem scales
- Observations, experiments, models
- Statistics and scientific
rigor - Case studies
- Ecology’s evolutionary backdrop
- Diversity, evolution, natural selection, and fitness
- Species and speciation
- Effects of climate change and continental drift
- Convergents and parallels
- Physical conditions and the availability of resources
- Environmental conditions
- Plant and animal resources
- Intraspecific competition
- Ecological niche
- Conditions, resources and the world’s communities
- Large- and small-scale geographic and temporal patterns
- Biomes
- Aquatic environments
- Birth, death and movement
- Populations and individuals
- Life cycles
- Life tables
- Survivorship curves
- Population growth
- Life history patterns
- Interspecific competition
- Case studies
- The competitive exclusion principle
- Sustainability (389-399)
- What is sustainability
- The human population ‘problem’
- Habitat degradation
- Physical and chemical impacts of human activities
- Ecosystem services
- Degradation via cultivation
- Power generation and its diverse effects
Teaching methods
C
Assessment methods
Integrated exam of the 2 teaching modules
Teaching tools
ppt files, scientific papers, book chapters
Office hours
See the website of Marco Abbiati
See the website of Bruna Gumiero
SDGs
This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.