BIOL 4120 Principles of Ecology

1. BIOL 4120Principles of Ecology Dafeng Hui Office: Harned Hall 320 Phone: 963-5777 Email: dhui@tnstate.edu

2. Introduction of instructor • Education Background • Ph.D. in Botany (Ecology), University of Oklahoma • MS in Biostatistics and Quantitative Genetics, Yangzhou University, PR China • BS in Agronomy, Yangzhou University, PR China • Post-doc research experience • University of Oklahoma • Duke University (Field experiment) • Auburn University (Modeling)

3. Introduction (cont.) • My research interests • Global change ecology (e.g., how elevated CO2 and temperature influence plants and soils) • Ecosystem ecology (carbon, water and nutrient cycling in grasslands, forests etc.) • Biostatistical applications in biological sciences (data analysis, synthesis) • Web pages: http://faculty.tnstate.edu/dhui • My teaching interests • Biostatistics (or Biometry) • Ecological modeling • Ecology

4. Student information • Please introduce yourself: • Your name • Junior or senior? • Major • Courses you’ve taken that are relevant to ecology • Courses you have this semester • Any other thing else you want to share

5. Course information Office hours: MWF 11:30 am - 2:30 pm; T Th 12:00-2:30 pm; or by appointment Textbook: Elements of Ecology, 6th ed., Smith, T. H. and Smith, R. L. 2006. Pearson/Benjamin Cummings, Inc. ISBN10:  0805348301, ISBN13:  9780805348309 Lab manual: Ecology on Campus, 1st ed., Kingsolver, Robert. 2006. Person/Benjamin Cummings, Inc. ISBN10: 0805382143, ISBN13: 9780805382143

7. Lectures 1.Preparation – read the textbook 2.Download and print the lecture outline for notes at http://faculty.tnstate.edu/dhui/biol4120 3.Supplementary materials – Dr. Ganter built a web site for this course: http://www.tnstate.edu/ganter/Ecology

8. Attendance Required for both lecture and laboratory 0.5 point for each absence (lecture)

9. Grading policy • The overall grade for the course will be based on the standard TSU point-to-grade scale. • The distribution of points is: • Exams: 50% • Final: 10% • Laboratory: 25% • Presentation: 10% • Attendance: 5% 

10. Homework, Lab report, Exam, Paper and summary

11. Introduction 0.1 What is ecology? 0.2 Why do we need to study Ecology? 0.3 How to study ecology?

12. 0.1 What is Ecology ? Ecology: ~ Greek word oikos (family household) +logy (study of) The scientific study of the interactions between organisms and their environments. Ernst Haeckel, 1866 The study of the relationships, distribution, and abundance of organisms, or groups of organisms, in an environment. S.I. Dodson, 1998

13. What is Ecology NOT? • Environmental Science (i.e., the study of man's effect on natural systems) • Environmentalism (activism, aim to improving the environment). • Resource management • Wildlife • Fisheries • Soil Resources • Forestry

14. 0.2 Why study Ecology? • Intellectual curiosity (explain phenomena) • Ecology has important impacts on everyone's daily lives • Ecosystem services and goods • Huge impact of humans on global ecosystems--ecology holds key to predicting our future. • to understand some of the natural laws that impose limitations on the interaction of organisms (including humans) with their living and nonliving environment.

15. 0.3 How to study ecology? • Ecology employs the scientific method. • scientific method is a system of observation that is "formalized", which means that it is done is such a way that one can reproduce the observations under the same conditions.

16. Scientific Method • Make observations. • Generate a question (s) • Generate a hypothesis (tentative answer) - formulate a testable prediction • Design an experiment to test the prediction • Accept or reject hypothesis. (Not “prove”) • Start again

17. Scientific Method

18. For Example: Productivity and nutrient (N) in prairie grasslands of North America Observation and HypothesisData collection, Test • (observational, laboratory and field experiments, modeling)

19. Field experiment • experiments have some elements in common: • Treatment Groups: nitrogen, irrigation; number of species etc • Control Groups: no N applied • Randomization: randomly assign a treatment to a plot • Replication: several plots for same treatment. Cedar Creek LTER site, Uni. Of Minnesota (Fig. 1.3)

20. Estimation and prediction • Models: • Abstract, simplified representations of real systems. • Conceptual model and mathematical model • Use mathematical model to estimate and predict.

21. Are there any limitations to science? • Science is Self-Correcting • Science is limited by the ability of the scientists to collect and interpret data. • New technology makes it possible for science to correct misinterpreted data. • Uncertainty is an inherent feature of science

22. Chapter 1. The nature of Ecology 1.1 Ecology is organized into a hierarchical group of subdisciplines (branches) 1.2 Hierarchical Organization and emergent Properties 1.3 Ecology is especially interdisciplinary.

23. 1.1 Ecology is organized into a hierarchical group of subdisciplines • Individuals • - living organisms, fundamental units of populations and communities • Populations • - group of individuals of a species • Communities • - an assemblages of species populations occurring together in space and time • Ecosystems • - a collection of two related components (biotic and abiotic) that function as a unit.

24. Ecosystem • Consists of two basic interacting components: • The living, or biotic • The Physical, or abiotic • An example • A forest ecosystem • Biotic: plants, animals, microbes that inhabit the forest • Abiotic: atmosphere, climate, soil, and water • Interaction: tree growths modify physical environment. Birds foraging on insects reduce insects and species abundance and composition.

25. Ecology of individuals Individual organism forms the basic unit in ecology. It is the individual that responds to the environment. Behavioral ecology is the study of how behavior of individuals affects their ability to survive and reproduce. Since a population is composed of individuals behavior directly impacts population level phenomena, such as population growth rate Physiological Ecology (or Autecology) is the study of how physical factors, such at temperature, moisture, and light, affect the survival and reproduction of individual organisms Evolution Ecology is the study of environment influence on the evolution of organisms. Natural selection, evolution of populations.

26. Ecology of group of individuals Population ecology is the study of how groups of individuals (belonging to the same species) grow (or shrink) and reproduce. Depending on the nature of the species, many factors (food availability, competition, predation etc.) may affect population growth. Community ecology is the study of how populations from different species interact to mutually affect each population's growth and survival. Community structure and dynamics. Landscape ecology –study spatial patterns and underlying mechanisms (patches in landscape, fragmented landscape, corridors). Ecosystem ecology is the study of whole living systems, with focus on the flow of energy and biomass in large scale living systems. Conservation ecology, restoration ecology, and global ecology.

27. 1.2 Hierarchical Organization and Emergent Properties • Emergent Properties: • the set of phenomena that can be explained only by looking at a particular hierarchical level • e.g.: is the growth of an individual the same as that in a group of many (population)? The principle is a more formal statement of “the whole is more (or less) than the sum of the parts”. Scaling

28. 1.3 Ecology is especially interdisciplinary

30. An example, Ecology of Forest Birds: Using field study to test theory (what allows them to co-exist?) Robert MacArthur: competition (1958)

32. Douglass Morse (1980, 1989):

33. The End