00248 - Ecology

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.

INSIGHTS (specific topics, case studies and highly topical issues):

1. Ecology and its domain
2. Organisms in their environments
3. Conditions
4. The nature of predation
5. Zoobenthos
6. Chemosynthesis
7. Coral population dynamics
8. Inland water monitoring; Diffusion of pollutants in the sea
9. Citizen science
10. Glocal Education
11. Bioinvasions in the Mediterranean Sea
12. Future trends of Mediterranean Biodiversity
    
13. Bioconstructions in the Mediterranean: present and future
14. Marine bioerosion
15. Regime shifts in the Marine Environment: how do they affect ecosystem services?
16. Conflicts and security risks of climate change in the Mediterranean Region

Readings/Bibliography

GENERAL TOPICS: note file loaded online (in Italian)

INSIGHTS: book chapters, articles, presentations uploaded online (in English)

Teaching methods

For the GENERAL TOPICS it will be loaded online a note file, in Italian. Student knowledge of the GENERAL TOPICS will be verified through a written examination.

For INSIGHTS, related material (book chapters, articles, presentations), usually in English, will be uploaded online, after the theoretical lesson held in class by the teacher. Student knowledge of INSIGHTS will be verified through an oral examination.

Assessment methods

Each academic year, there will be 1 written examination and several calls for the oral examination.

The call dates for the examinations will be posted on the Almaesami website. Students must book the examination call through the online system Almaesami only.

The written examination, formulated in Italian, will be held on January 17, 2025, and will include closed-ended questions, on GENERAL TOPICS only, to be prepared through the study of the note file. Verbalization of the written examination evaluation will take place in a fixed date posted on the Almaesami website. During verbalization it will be possible to discuss doubts relating to errors made in the task.

Foreign students will be able to take the oral examination in English if preferred.

EVALUATION: The final grade will be the average between the grade of the written examination (on GENERAL TOPICS) and the grade of the oral examination (on INSIGHTS).

In the case where the student fails the written examination - he/she is absent, he/she is insufficient, or he/she refuses the grade - the oral examination will focus both on the INSIGHTS and on the GENERAL TOPICS; in this case the final grade will depend solely on the outcome of the oral examination.

Teaching tools

Teaching materials available at https://virtuale.unibo.it/

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Goffredo