Fundamentals of
Ecology
Biology/Ecology/ENST 112
What?
 Second
course in ecology, follows 54
 New course – work in progress
 Basic ideas and concepts
 Skills and experiences
 You
have an opportunity to influence
the content!
Who?

Robert Peet
Lee Anne Jacobs
 Brooke Wheeler

Advanced undergraduates and beginning
graduate students
 2 sophomores, 8 juniors, 16 seniors, 6
graduate students

Why are you here?
Need a 100-level elective?
 The course is required?
 Wish stronger background for
research?
 Interested in a career in ecology?
 Wish to be an informed citizen?

A guided tour of the website

http://www.bio.unc.edu/faculty/peet/lab/courses/Biol122
Syllabus
 Lecture outlines, PowerPoints, readings
 Laboratory materials
 Resources
 Roster
 Gradebook
 Exams
 Announcements

Grades
 20%
 20%
 20%
 20%
 20%
Exam 1
Exam 2
Final Exam
Laboratory
Two written assignments
Lecture organization
 Physical
environment & physiological
ecology
 Ecosystems
 Populations
 Population interactions
 Communities
 Macroecology
Texts and Readings
 Begon,
Townsend & Harper 2006
– Suggested chapters
– Required sections
 Gotelli
2001
 Original papers for Case Studies
 Example papers – old and new
Laboratory
 Field
experience
 Skills & tools
 Quantitative methods
Issues:
Computers
Fieldtrips
What is Ecology



Haeckel 1863. "the study of all the
complex interrelationships referred to by
Darwin as the conditions of the struggle
for existence, or the economy of nature."
Ecology is the scientific study of the
interrelationships between organisms, and
between organisms and their environment
Ecology is the sociology and economics of
animals and plants
Role of Ecology
 Understanding
nature
– "The ecological theater and the
evolutionary play."
– "Nothing in biology makes sense except
in the light of evolution.“
– very little about evolution makes sense
except in the light of ecology."
 Managing
nature
Ecology as a science
“… ecology is a science of contingent
generalizations, where future trends
depend (much more than in the
physical sciences) on past history
and on the environmental and
biological setting.” Robert May –
1986
Ecology as a science
Biology is a study of diversity, be it at
the level of species or of molecules
 There are endless special cases
 Ecology and Evolution are more
uncertain, and thus more challenging
than many areas of science.
 you cannot deduce biology from first
principles.
 What is noise to a physicist is music
to a biologist.

Scientific process
 Observation
and description
 Patterns and hypothesis
 Tests and revision
 Explanation and understanding
 Prediction and extrapolation
 Control
 Complexity and case studies
Levels of organization
 Organisms
 Populations
 Communities
 Landscapes
 The
Biosphere
 Ecosystem
perspectives
 Scale perspectives