Academic Year 2018/2019

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Physics (cod. 9245)

    Also valid for First cycle degree programme (L) in Biological Sciences (cod. 8012)

Learning outcomes

Ecology is the study of the relationship between organisms and their physical and biological environments. As such it plays a crucial role in areas as diverse as conservation biology, natural resource management and human health and livelihoods. At the end of the course, the student will have knowledge on ecosystems, on the main environmental issues and appropriate methodologies to study them, and will know how to properly interact with the environment.

Course contents

General topics

1. Population ecology: spatial distribution of populations; geographic area; dispersion models; density; population dynamics; birth, death, emigration, immigration; survival curves; distribution by age and sex; population growth; intrinsic growth rates; exponential growth; logistic growth; growth of wild populations; K-selection and r-selection; human population.

2. Communities and ecosystems: community; dominance; ecological successions; niche; diversity; distribution of resources; most important terrestrial ecosystems; biomes; aquatic ecosystems; flow of energy through food webs; trophic levels; production; efficiency in energy transfer; solar radiation, starting point of the food chain; ozone layer; greenhouse effect; biogeochemical cycles; water cycle; the carbon cycle; nitrogen cycle; phosphorus and sulfur cycles.

 

Specific topics:

  1. Zoobenthos
  2. Coral population dynamics
  3. Environmental monitoring and citizen science
  4. Bioinvasions in the Mediterranean Sea
  5. Future trend of Mediterranean Biodiversity
  6. Bioconstructions in the Mediterranean: present and future
  7. Diving techniques to preserve the marine environment
  8. Marine bioerosion
  9. Regime shifts in the Marine Environment: how do they affect ecosystem services?
  10. Conflicts and security risks of climate change in the Mediterranean Region

Readings/Bibliography

Genaral Topics: note file loaded online (in Italian)

Specific topics: book chapters or articles uploaded online (in English)

Teaching methods

For the general topics study it will be loaded online a note file. Student knowledge of the general topics will be verified through a written examination.

 

For each specific topic, related material, usually in English, will be uploaded online. Student knowledge of the specific topics will be verified through a final oral examination.

Assessment methods

Each academic year, there will be one written examination and several calls for the final oral examination.

The written examination, formulated in Italian, will be held on January, 2019, and will include closed-ended questions, on general topics only. Verbalization of the written examination evaluation will take place in a fixed date posted on the Almaesami website. In that occasion, students will have the chance of going through the written exam and discussing any doubts.

The call dates for the examinations will be posted on the Almaesami website. Students must book the oral examination call through the online system Almaesami only ( https://almaesami.unibo.it/almaesami/welcome.htm ). Foreign students will be able to take the oral examination in English if preferred.

EVALUATION: The final mark will be the average between the written examination grade and the final oral examination grade. In cases where the student fails the written examination (he/she is absent, he/she is insufficient, or he/she refuses the vote) the final oral examination will focus both on specific and general topics; in this case the final mark will depend solely on the outcome of the final oral examination.

Teaching tools

Teaching materials available at https://iol.unibo.it/course/view.php?id=22687

Teaching materials available at AMS Campus website - institutional repository of learning materials of the University of Bologna

Links to further information

http://www.marinesciencegroup.org/

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Goffredo