- Docente: Bruna Gumiero
- Credits: 6
- SSD: BIO/07
- Language: English
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- 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 fundamental principles of how ecological systems work. It will focus on the ecological problems caused by human activities as well. Fundamental and applied aspect of ecology will be empathized. An understanding of the scope of the problems facing us (climate change, unsustainable use of resources, pollution, extinctions and the erosion of natural biodiversity) and the means to counter and solve these problems depend on a proper grasp of ecological fundamentals. Although we will analyze all the main types of ecosystems, we will work in particular on river ecosystems and their basin. We will cover concepts such as sustainable development, ecosystem services, environmental monitoring in detail.
Course contents
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
Evolution theory
- Diversity, evolution, natural selection, and fitness
- Species and speciation
- Effects of climate change and continental drift
- Convergents and parallels
Physical conditions and resource availability
- Environmental conditions
- Plant and animal resources
- Intra-specific competition
- Ecological niche
Population dynamics
- Birth, death and movement
- Life cycles
- Life tables
- Survivorship curves
- Population growth
- Life history patterns
Communities
- Inter-specific competition
- The competitive exclusion principle
Ecosystems
- Flux of energy
- Flux of matter
- Food web
- Global biogeochemical cycles
Fresh water ecosystems and their catchments
- Fluvial processes at Catchment scale: hydrology and geomorphology
- River corridors: dynamics and riparian vegetation
- River restoration
Applied Issues in Ecology
- Sustainability
- Ecosystem services
- Monitoring
Readings/Bibliography
- PDF files with slides used during lessons
- Book pdf available Essential of Ecology
- Scientific papers
Office hours
See the website of Bruna Gumiero