PCB 3043 - Ecology

College of Natural Sciences

Credit(s): 3
Contact Hours: 47
Effective Term Fall 2020 (580)

Requisites

Prerequisite BSC 2011 with a minimum grade of C and
Prerequisite BSC 2011L with a minimum grade of C and
Pre- or Co-requisite PCB 3043L with a minimum grade of C and
Pre- or Co-requisite BSC 3017 with a minimum grade of C

Course Description

This course is designed to teach ecology at four major levels: organismic, population, community and ecosystem. One of the aims is to interrelate the different levels of ecological study and to unify these via evolutionary and behavioral ecology. A second aim is to correlate the concepts of ecology with those learned in physiology to understand physiological ecology. This course will address both theoretical and empirical ecology as well as applied ecology with special emphasis on Florida’s ecosystems and human impacts on them. NOTE: Credit is not given for both (PCB 3043C) and (PCB 3043/PCB 3043L).

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

  1. The student will explain the history of ecology and the techniques used to study ecology by:
    1. outlining the growth and development of ecology as a science and tracing the major contributions in the field.
    2. describing the division of ecology into many over-lapping sub-disciplines.
    3. comparing techniques used to study ecology, including empirical methods, experimental methods, statistical methods and modeling techniques, with special emphasis on some of the constraints and difficulties encountered in ecological research.
    4. analyzing and graphing data.
    5. performing a variety of empirical and theoretical techniques including but not limited to: statistical tests, population growth calculations, and mark and recapture estimates.
    6. summarizing sections of peer reviewed research articles.
    7. describing technologies used to study ecology.
  2. The student will discriminate the physical (abiotic) factors within an environment by:
    1. discussing the effect of solar radiation on global climate, regional climates and microclimates.
    2. correlating the physical qualities of light with the effects of light within an environment.
    3. explaining temperature variations and its affect within an environment.
    4. describing the physical properties of water and their relevance.
    5. outlining the water cycle, its significance and the influence of the human population on it.
    6. explaining nutrient cycles, their significance and the influence of the human population on them.
    7. listing the physical and chemical properties of soil, the impact of soil qualities on the environment, and human influences on soil.
  3. The student will analyze organismic ecology, including behavioral and physiological adaptations to the physical environment, by:
    1. explaining processes of evolution and the role of genetics in adaptation and speciation.
    2. comparing and evaluating life history traits and related trade offs.
    3. comparing and evaluating reproductive strategies.
    4. identifying and analyzing the role of social behaviors in populations and communities.
    5. examining adaptations of plants and animals to environmental change. Changes include but are not limited to: climate, light, temperature, water quality and quantity, nutrients quality and quantity, and soil characteristics.
  4. The student will summarize population ecology, including properties of populations, characteristics of population growth, and interactions within a population by:
    1. describing population density and dispersion, age structure, sex ratios, natality and mortality.
    2. comparing and contrasting exponential and logistic growth.
    3. explaining the types of factors controlling population growth, including density-dependent and density-independent factors and the evolutionary significance of these factors.
    4. discussing cyclic population fluctuations, chaos and extinction.
    5. explaining the effects of intraspecific competition, dispersal mechanisms, reproductive patterns and other social interactions on population regulation and distribution.
    6. performing actual and simulated exercises in population ecology with emphasis on learning sampling techniques for field biology.
  5. The student will summarize the concept of community ecology, including interactions between populations, community structure, community dynamics and control processes and the causes and consequences of spatial patterns of communities by:
    1. listing the effects and outcomes of interspecific competition on populations, including competitive exclusion, resource partitioning, and niche breadth reduction with examples from laboratory and field studies.
    2. describing models of predation and responses (physiological, behavioral and evolutionary) of predators and prey.
    3. discussing parasitism and mutualism and the responses (physiological, behavioral and evolutionary) of parasites, hosts and mutualists.
    4. describing the structure of communities, including species richness and diversity, food webs, community classification and the influence of interactions between populations on community structure.
    5. explaining community dynamics, including patterns and mechanisms of succession and community stability.
    6. explaining spatial patterns within communities, such as species-area relationships, island biogeography theory, edge effects, habitat fragmentation, metapopulations, and patch dynamics.
  6. The student will summarize the ecosystem ecology, including ecosystem energetics, nutrient cycling, and comparison of types of biomes by:
    1. explaining the laws of thermodynamics and applying the principles to ecosystems.
    2. describing productivity and its measurement.
    3. illustrating food chains.
    4. evaluating ecological pyramids and their impact on the ecosystem.
    5. describing the major nutrient cycles, including the carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, phosphorous cycle and sulfur cycle.
    6. comparing and contrasting the major nutrient cycles in terrestrial versus aquatic systems and in different biogeographical realms.
    7. describing, comparing and contrasting the major biomes.
    8. explaining the impact of humans on ecosystem energetics, ecological pyramids, and major biomes.
  7. The student will summarize landscape ecology and conservation by:
    1. explaining ecological patterns and processes on large spatial scales.
    2. describing biodiversity, natural trends in biodiversity and human influence on biodiversity.
    3. correlating changes in biodiversity with conservation efforts.

Criteria Performance Standard

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will, with a minimum of 75 % accuracy, demonstrate mastery of each of the above stated objectives through classroom measures developed by individual course instructors.

History of Changes

C&I Approval: 05/16/2014, BOT Approval: 10/21/2014, Effective Term: Spring 2015 (495). C&I Approval: 02/14/2019, BOT Approval: 03/19/2019, Effective Term: Fall 2019 (565).
C&I Approval: 02/21/2020, BOT Approval: 03/17/2020, Effective Term: Fall 2020 (580)

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