2010-11 Academic Year
Ecology (20347)
Qualification/course: Bachelor's Degree in Human Biology
Year: 2
Term: 3
Number of ECTS credits: 4
Number of study hours: 100
Course Language(s): Catalan (there might be some classes in Spanish)
Teaching staff: Francesc Calafell, Urko Martínez and Elena Carnero
1. Presentation of the course
Ecology provides the bases for understanding a species as a population and for investigating the relationships between a species and its biotic and abiotic environment. In this sense, human ecology should provide the fundamental tools to understand humans as a population and as a species within a natural environment. The conclusions that are derived from biomedical research are very clear, and an obvious example of the understanding of infectious disease as a host-parasite relationship, conditioned both by the type of relationship with the surroundings and by the demography.
This perspective is expressed in the taught course by dividing the programme into two parts. The first part covers what we might call classical ecology, where operation of the biosphere, population ecology and structure and dynamics of communities of organisms is dealt with. In this first part there is a special emphasis placed on the population being an organisational level above a single organism, a level which has an impact on all other organisational levels of life and which is discussed in almost no other subject of the Bachelor's degree. Also highlighted is the quantitative view of nature and mathematical modelling of biological processes, which is a trans-disciplinary field. Secondly, learning is oriented towards human ecology, where demographic methods are discussed (i.e. ecology of human populations), the demographic history of humanity and its present-day consequences for the species, and finally, all the great biomes of the planet, each divided into two parts: the natural structure of the biome and the humans within that biome (in specific terms of subsistence, adaptation and health). The course ends with a detailed analysis of the current interaction between humans and the biosphere and the problems this causes, with the goal of placing the students in the camp of science and rationality, which is often little more than an emotional discourse from the media and politicians.
2. Competences to be achieved
2.1. General competences:
2.1.1. Instrumental competences
- Observation of phenomena from data records.
- Comparison and analysis of data.
- Classification and summarising of data.
- Representation of phenomena (diagrams, schematics, maps).
- Interpretation and inference of phenomena: formulation and verification of hypotheses.
- Written communication in the correct language, with rigorous scientific expression.
2.1.2. Interpersonal competences
- Working in a team: cooperation and division of tasks.
2.1.3. Sytemic Competences
- Respect for nature.
- Use of acquired scientific knowledge to create an active, informed, critical and opinion-forming member of society.
- Order, care and tidiness in practical work.
2.2. Specific competences:
- Schematize energy flow in ecosystems.
- Identifying the general structure of a biogeochemical cycle, as exemplified in the carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur cycles.
- Understanding of the use and limitations of quantitative biological models, especially in population ecology.
- Handling Lotka-Volterra exponential and logistic growth models, and competition models.
- Understanding the organisation of an ecosystem, its spatial structure and its time-dependent changes.
- Analysis of the main demographic processes (birth, migration, death) with the instruments used for their measurement.
- Knowledge of humanity's demographic history, its principal stages and the transitions between them, and its impact on health.
- Knowledge of the physical and biotic structure of Earth's main biomes.
- Identification of the human adaptations linked to these biomes and of patterns of health and disease.
- Awareness and prioritisation of interactions between humans and the biosphere.
3. Content
Lectures
1. General introduction to ecology and the course
2. Primary production
Solar radiation Photosynthesis. Light capture: photosynthetic pigments. Net and gross primary production. Productivity and yield of photosynthesis. Limiting factors.
3. Production and trophic organisation in marine, lake and river systems
4. Production in land systems
Vegetation cover. Leaf index. Production and efficient use of water.
5. Secondary production
Energy, protein, trace elements and vitamin content in different types of foods. Nutritional strategies: osmotrophy and phagotrophy. Microphages and macrophages.
6. Flow Networks
Energy flow in the ecosystem. Components of energetic efficiency.
7. Decomposition and recycling of materials in nature
Decomposers. The sun.
8. Biogeochemical cycles (I)
The carbon cycle. The nitrogen cycle.
9. Biogeochemical cycles (II)
The phosphorus cycle. The sulfur cycle.
10. Populations
Structure of populations. Estimation of population size. Spatial population distribution. Dispersion.
11. Population dynamics
Intra-species competition. Exponential growth model. Regulated growth model: logistic growth. Growth regulators: resources, density.
12. Depredation
Simple predator-prey modelling: the Lotka-Volterra model.
13. Competition between species
Logistic competition models
14. Other types of relationship between species
Commensalism. Mutualism. Symbiosis. Non-trophic relationships
15. Parasitism
Types of parasites. Evolution of virulence: from acute illness to non-traumatic exploitation. Interaction with the vector and with human behaviour.
16. The ecological niche concept
Structure and type of community. The inventory. Ecological relationships between species. Ecological requirements: specialists versus generalists.
17. Diversity
Measuring and significance of diversity. Diversity spectra.
18. Spatial organisation
Gradients and ecotones. Frontiers. Fragmentation of habitats. Impact on conservation. Islands.
19. Succession
Regularities of succession. Human exploitation and succession. Succession and evolution. Fluctuations.
20. Form
Surface area-volume ratio. Frontiers and interfaces. Fractals.
Seminars
1. Introduction to demographic statistics
Sources and methods Population structure by age and gender. Population pyramid. Analysis and interpretation. Dynamics. Mortality. Mortality tables. Life expectancy. Infant mortality.
2. Birth
Fertility. Biological and social determinants of the number of children per woman. Migration. Net migrations. Impact of migration on the structure of a population. Paleodemography: methods. Total number of individuals: direct and indirect estimates. Determination of gender. Determination of age.
3. Demography problems (I)
Practical calculation of birth, death, mortality and life expectancy indexes and rates. Interpretation of population pyramids.
4. Demography problems (II)
Fertility. Mortality tables.
5. Demographic history of human populations
Hunter-gatherers. The neolithic revolution. Health and disease after the neolithic revolution. From the neolithic to the industrial revolution. The demographic transition in Europe. European expansion and migration. Demographic transition in underdeveloped countries. The fall in birth rates in the third world.
6. Humans in ecosystems
The humid tropics. Health and disease in the tropical forests. The dry prairies. Health and disease in the savannah. The deserts. Health and disease in the deserts. Subsistence methods in the desert. The Arctic ecosystem. Health and disease in the Arctic. Mountain ecosystems. Anatomical and physiological adaptations to hypoxia. The urban environment. Diseases in the developed world.
7. Human impact on the biosphere
Energy flow, biogeochemical cycles, diversity.
8. Individual attitudes in the face of environmental change
What does "ecological" mean? What is more and less "ecological"?
Practicals
1. Spatial representation of data
Digital cartography (3 hours)
2. Population ecology models (3 hours)
3. Field work: perturbation and regeneration in a Mediterranean forest (5 hours)
4. Analysis of data collected in the field (3 hours)
5. Form: visit to Cosmocaixa (2 hours)
4. Assessment
The assessment will use five tools:
1. Multiple choice questions (PEM) in the general end-of-term test. Emphasis is placed on factual knowledge, and this part will contribute 35% to the final mark.
2. Short essay questions. Reasoning skills and use of acquired knowledge will be assessed. It will include problems and other knowledge acquired during the practicals. This part will contribute 35% to the final mark.
3. Presentation of a report on practicals 3 and 4. This part will contribute 20% to the final mark. The content of practicals 1 and 2 will be assessed in the MCQ and essay questions.
4. Continuous assessment. In seminars 2, 5, 6 and 7 there will be multiple choice questions, which contribute 10% to the final mark.
5. Formative assessment. Halfway through the term there will be an exam containing multiple choice and essay questions. If the student passes, an additional mark will be added to the final mark, which will increase linearly from 0.25 (for a mark of 5 in the formative assessment) to 0.5 points (for a mark of10).
5. Bibliography and teaching resources
5.1. Basic bibliography
Folch, R. (ed.). Biosfera. Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, 1993.
Livi-Bacci, M. Introducción a la demografia. Barcelona: Ariel, 1993.
Margalef, R. Ecología. Barcelona: Omega, 1986.
Ricklefs, R. E. Ecology. Nova York: Freeman and Co., 2000.
Smith, R. L.; Smith, T. M. Ecología. Madrid: Addison Wesley, 2007.
5.2. Additional bibliography
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L.; Piazza, A.; Menozzi, P. History and geography of human genes. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.
Crosby, A. W. Imperialismo ecológico. Barcelona: Crítica, 1999.
Livi-Bacci, M. Historia mínima de la población mundial. Barcelona: Ariel, 1990.
Margalef, R. Ecología. Barcelona: Planeta, 1992.
Margalef, R. Planeta azul, planeta verde. Barcelona: Prensa Científica, 1992.
Margalef, R. Teoría de los sistemas ecológicos. Barcelona: Publicacions de la Universitat de Barcelona, 1993.
McElroy, A.; Townsend, P. K. Medical anthropology in ecological perspective. Boulder: Westview Press, 1996.
Moran, E. F.; Gillett-Netting, R. Human adaptability. Boulder: Westview Press, 2000.
Rockwell, R. (ed.). The Cambridge world history of human disease. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Terradas, J. Ecologia urbana. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya, 2001.
5.3. Teaching resources
- Course page in the Aula Global Moodle, where the students will find introductions to each topic, graphical presentations and the complete texts for the seminars.
- External web pages:
http://www.kimvdlinde.com/professional/popdyn/index.html
http://darwin.eeb.uconn.edu/simulations/simulations.html
http://www.whfreeman.com/ricklefsmiller/content/instructor/index.htm
http://ichn.iec.cat/Bages/principal.htm
http://sigpac.mapa.es/fega/visor/
http://www.idescat.cat/
http://www.gapminder.org/
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cdb_discontinued/cdb_discontinued.asp
6. Methodology
The teaching of the subject consists of lectures, seminars and practicals. The seminars are given in small groups and contain two types of activity: tutorials and problem solving sessions. The tutorials are times when the students can ask questions and discuss the topics that are suggested to them for self-access learning. The texts to be read and the self-assessment questions are found in the Aula Global Moodle, and they have one week to prepare the topics, at the end of which they will go to the tutorial session. The problem solving sessions consist of guided solving of demographics problems, and the interpretation and discussion of the results. In the practicals the students will explore the digital cartography resources and population ecology simulation resources. In addition, there will be a field trip where the students will measure and interpret the succession stage of a Mediterranean forest affected by fire. This activity is completed with a classroom computer session, where the students work both independently and as a team on the data collected in the field. Finally, and as a complement to the topic on form in the living world, there will be activities based on the permanent exhibition at Cosmocaixa relating to this topic.
7. Activities schedule
Week 1. Lectures (1-6). Practical 1
Week 2. Lectures (7-12). Practical 2
Week 3. Lectures (13-17). Practical 3
Week 4. Lectures (18-20). Practical 4
Week 5. Seminar 1. Formative assessment
Week 6. Seminar 2 and 3
Week 7. Seminar 4 and 5
Week 8. Seminar 6
Week 9. Seminar 7. Practical 5. Delivery of work from practicals 3 and 4
Week 10. Seminar 8
Weeks 11 and 12. Study
Weeks 12 and 13. Assessment of multiple choice questions and essay question