Syllabus
Principles and concepts of evolution
Principles and concepts of ecology
Principles and concepts of ethology
Reproduction from the evolutionary point of view
Concept of species, tree of life
Evolutionary strategies
Host pathogen interaction as a driver of evolution
Genomes - evolutionary perspective
Human evolution - from LUCA to Homo sapiens sapiens
Variability of selected morphological and physiological adaptations
History of Earth, its global dynamics
GAIA concept?
Annotation
The course On the Evolution and Ecology expands the biological concepts beyond the level of the individual and focuses on the evolutionary basis of the recent snapshot of biological diversity. Individual species will be perceived as a product of long term evolution under complex constraints, including the ecological and ethological ones. The course will benefit from the information base provided in the first year and use it in the higher hierarchical level of biological complexity. The individuals will be an actors in the play of life which is complex, mutually interconnected, combining biotic and abiotic factors, nowadays highly affected by our civilization. General knowledge from the first year will be challenged by the diversity of adaptations reflecting the evolution, developmental constrains and particular ecological limits.
The course On the Evolution and Ecology will set the stage for follow-up courses, particularly Biological techniques. The course will follow the prerequisite From molecules to cells and From cells to organisms.
The course is built from topical blocks (see Syllabus) each of them consisting of lecture (3h) and workshop focused on primary literature as a Q&A session (2h).