Syllabus
The complete lecture is available as a MS PowerPoint presentation (in Czech): http://www.natur.cuni.cz/cerny/ekologie.html
1. Introduction, subject of ecology as scientific discipline, relations to conservative biology and applied environmental ecology, historical background.
2. Effects of environmental abiotic factors on an organism. Adaptations, tolerance, ecological niche, unitary and modular organisms.
3. Population characteristics and attributes, basic concepts of population dynamics.
4. Intrapopulation (density dependent) interactions, competition within population, asymmetry in competition, compensation in competition. Territorial behavior, self-thinnig in modular organisms, constant yield rule. "Negative" competition (Allee effect).
5. Basic mathematical models of intrapopulation competition: concepts, prerequisites, biological interpretations. Population numbers fluctuations in time.
6. Molecular ecology: population ecology on the genotype level (drift, inbreeding, migration).
7. Interpopulation (between species) interactions. Overview, characteristics.
8. Interpopulation competition. Principle of competitive exclusion, character shift. Co-existence of competitors. Overview of basic models: Lotka-Volterra, Tilmann
9. Predation: co-evolution of predator and prey, specialization of predator. Predator's Functional response to prey density. Refugee. Concepts and overview of basic predation models (Lotka-Volterra, host-parasitiod, grazer-plants).
10. Mutualism
11. Detritovory, saprophytic organisms
12. Life strategies, r and K, vital attributes, reproduction costs.
13. Community: concepts, attributes, structure
14. Species richness and diversity, how to measure it, what rules the diversity.
15. Ecological succession. Metapopulation and island ecology concepts.
16. Stability of communities/ecosystems. Differences between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
17. Energy flow in biosphere. Nutrients and other basic substances, availability, global cycles.
Annotation
Starting from 2019/20, the lecture will be available both in winter and summer semester. In winter semester, the lecture will be given in Czech language, in summer semester in English. The language of oral exam for both semesters is upon your choice, ie. either in Czech or in English.
Lecture provides fundamentals of ecology as scientific discipline, and it is aimed primarily to bachelor grade with basic knowledge of botany, zoology and chemistry. The lecture focuses primarily on the very subject of ecology, i.e. interactions between an organism and its habitat and on interactions among organisms themselves. Environmental protection and conservation issues and other human-biased aspects of ecology are intentionally omitted. The lecture is structured from autecology (an individual x habitat) to dynamics of interaction within and among populations (particularly on competition and predation incl. basic models) to community and ecosystem specifics. Among numerous textbooks the classics by Begon, M., Harper, J. L. & Townsend, C. R. 1996 Ecology. (3rd ed , Blackwell Science, Oxford) is recommended though other (i.e. Colinvaux 1993 Ecology 2., Krebs 1994 Ecology, Ricklefs 1990 Ecology) are very good indeed.