BASIC CONCEPTS IN ECOLOGY ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY 507 Section#33583 SPRING 1998 Drs. Louis Gross (gross@tiem.utk.edu) & Mac Post (wmp@ornl.gov) Home Page: http://www.tiem.utk.edu/~gross/eeb507.html Meeting time: 9:05-10:30 MW Place: Dabney 575 Objectives: The goal of this course is to provide a survey of key ideas, methods and approaches in ecology. The intended audience is students with extensive undergraduate background in biology, some exposure to undergraduate ecology, and the desire to carry out research in ecology. Due to the extensive nature of the topic, the course will include a variety of survey lectures which rapidly cover the key concepts and provide an introduction to the specialized literature. Participants should leave the course with a broad understanding of the key open issues of modern ecology, the ability to read with comprehension the research literature in the field, and the capability to develop their own research projects. The course will have both lectures and discussions. Attendance may be required at additional meetings for special discussions or seminars. Students who audit must attend lectures, do the assigned readings and participate in discussions, including leading some discussions. The success of this course depends on a large amount of effort being made by both students and faculty. Note that your participation in class will be taken into consideration in your final grade. This is a graduate-level course, and thus we expect graduate-level performance. You are expected to conduct extensive readings outside the assigned material and be actively involved in leading and suggesting original topics for discussion. Class Grading: We will assign 2 term papers, worth 25% each, give 2 tests, worth 15% each, have one computer-based project counting 10%, and evaluate your participation in discussions for the final 10% of the grade. Topics for term papers (1) and (2) are as follows: Choose according to your research interests (1) a paper published in Ecology or Ecological Monographs during the 1950's or 1960's and (2) a paper published in these journals during the 1970's or 1980's. The papers chosen should be related to some particular theme, which must be approved by the instructors. Carry out an assessment of these papers results relative to the literature prior to their time of publication on topics the paper is concerned with. The term papers should be written in standard review-style, as if you were writing an article for Trends in Ecology and Evolution. For the second of these term papers, include a section describing more recent ideas related to the paper, referencing articles appearing in the 1990's. Each paper should be 5-10 pages in length, not including references or figures. The objective here is to provide the possibility that combining these two term papers and with some additional work, a participant could submit the results to TREE for consideration for publication. There will be a computer project that shall be done by groups of two participants for each project. The objective here is to both familiarize participants with the use of spatially-explicit simulation tools, and to encourage participants who may be interested in teaching careers to work on a project that could aid undergraduate understanding of some ecological principle. The project is: Using EcoBeaker, develop a laboratory similar to those included in the Lab Guide, to illustrate an ecological concept for which no Lab exists in the Guide. This should not entail any new programming, as you can use the built-in features of the program to develop new simulations. However, if you want to revise the program, the C++ code can be obtained. The lab should be written up similar to those in the current guide, and appropriate for use in an undergraduate ecology course (not necessarily limited to general ecology). An example would be a lab on predator-prey cycles, which is not included among the current labs, or a lab to compare the results of a spatially-explicit simulation to more aggregated models such as those in Populus. Before beginning this project, write up a one-page summary of what you propose to discuss and have this approved by the instructors.