Pure and Applied Population Ecology

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Why living organisms grow exponentially, and the roles of intra-specific and inter-specific competition in population regulation
• Explain the processes determining community assembly and dynamics
• Understand the key traits of trophic cascades and food webs
• Why competition occurs, how heterogeneity stabilises species interactions, and why predator-prey interactions tend to cycle
• Understand the application of population and community ecology theory to inform ecological management decisions
• How life history characteristics of different species contribute to their profiles of survival and fecundity
• Understand the basic predator-prey and parasite-host models (Lotka-Volterra, Nicholson-Bailey) and applications to disease dynamics

The module has three sections:

1. Population dynamics of animals, including exponential growth and density dependence, life history strategies, regulation of abundance, functional and numerical responses, spatial organisation, dispersal and metapopulations;

2. Multi-species population dynamics, including interspecific competition and dynamics of species that use each other as a resource;

3. Community ecology, including assembly and dynamics of ecological communities; and real-world applications of population and community ecology.

Teaching and learning will involve lectures, field and lab practicals, analytical workshops, small-group discussions.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.