Community Ecology
(BSC 405 – Spring 2007)
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INSTRUCTOR: Steven Juliano E-MAIL: sajulian@ilstu.edu
OFFICE: 335 FSA WEB PAGE: http://www.bio.ilstu.edu/juliano/default.htm
OFFICE HRS.: TBA LECTURE: MWF 12:00 - 12:50 PM FSA 325
PHONE: 82642 LAB: F 2:00 - 4:50 PM SLB 421
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COURSE CONTENT: Community ecology is a broad topic, and different ecologists have very different views of what the proper definition of community ecology is. In this course, community ecology is defined as the branch of ecology dealing with multispecies assemblages and the processes that influence the number of species, their relative abundances, their patterns of resource use, and spatial and temporal changes in these assemblage properties. The course will emphasize a reductionistic and mechanistic approach to the topic, although holistic and descriptive approaches will be covered because of their historical importance. Community ecology as defined in this course includes both ecological and evolutionary questions.
PowerPoint lecture material will be placed on my web page (see above) at the end of each week. The slides are not a an adequate substitute for attending lecture as they only represent an outline of what will be said, and they cannot capture any discussion that occurs in class.
TEXTS:
Morin, P. J. 1999. Community Ecology. Blackwell Science, Malden MA.
Chase, J.M., & Leibold, M.A. 2003. Ecological Niches: Linking classical and contemporary approaches. University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL
These two books provide an excellent introduction to modern community ecology. We will cover both texts extensively (see lecture outline with assigned readings).
I will make lists of relevant references from the primary literature available to you. I will make some required reading assignments from these lists. Assigned papers will be available in the cabinets in Julian 210 (Biology Office). These lists will be valuable for further reading related to your projects and laboratories and for future reference in your career as biologists and ecologist. Several important books will be on open reserve at the Milner Desk.
GRADE: You will be graded based on your performance on the following:
1. 1 Midterm exam 20%
2. 3 Laboratory research reports 30%
3. 1 Grant proposal 25%
4. Cumulative final exam 25%
MIDTERM EXAM: This will be a relatively short exam given during the 7th week (date to be announced). Questions will be short answer and a choice of essays. Grading of essays will be in part based on the clarity with which you express your answers, hence it is not enough to know theory and data. You must be able to express your knowledge in a coherent answer to a question.
LABORATORY REPORTS: There are 3 laboratory exercises in this course, each designed to teach you about the kinds of questions asked in community ecology, and also about some of the methods used. Because we are constrained to complete the laboratory projects within a semester, with rather limited scientific and logistic resources available, there have been some inevitable compromises in the duration, scale, and level of replication in these projects. Nonetheless, expect these laboratory projects to be lots or work. In particular, the laboratory projects will require a substantial amount of effort outside of the laboratory period.
Your reports should be written as a paper for the journal Ecology (Instructions to Authors for that journal are at: http://esapubs.org/esapubs/AuthorInstructions.htm ). They must be turned in on time (deadlines on the laboratory schedule). Figures should be of publication quality and appropriately labeled. There will be questions associated with each lab that will help direct the writing of your reports.
GRANT PROPOSAL: The subject should, of course, be related to the content of the course, though I intend to be liberal in interpreting this requirement. Your project may be related to your thesis research, but if it is, it should represent a contribution made by the material covered in the course. In other words, it should not be the same project you would have done had you not taken Community Ecology. I must approve all projects.
It is vitally important for your proposal that you propose to answer some questions about a particular facet of community ecology. Proposals simply to gather numbers are not acceptable.
There are two parts to this assignment.
1) PRE-PROPOSAL. A written proposal, <3 single spaced pages in length (including references), is to be submitted by 16 February. I will read your pre-proposals, make suggestions, and approve the direction of the proposal. In your pre-proposal, you should give a brief introduction to the topic and previous work, describe the question or hypothesis that you intend to address, the organisms that are the focus of the proposed work, and outline briefly the proposed experiments.
2) FINAL PROPOSAL. You will write a research proposal in the format of an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (there are of course other agencies but I want to standardize the format). Instructions for preparing the proposal (format, content, necessary forms) can be found in NSF’s Grant Proposal Guide: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg .
Informatin specific to Dissertation Improvement Grants can be found in the program announcement:
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2005/nsf05607/nsf05607.pdf
Given the nature of the course, you will in all likelihood write a proposal for submission to Division of Environmental Biology (DEB), Ecological Biology Cluster. Examning their web pages (e.g., to see descriptions of the kinds of projects they fund) would be useful: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=12823&org=DEB&sel_org=DEB&from=fund
The proposal is due on 4 May (last day of classes). If you turn in your proposal (summary and project description), in the appropriate final form, by Monday 9 April, I will make editorial comments and suggestions for improvements and return the paper to you for revisions. The 9 April deadline is strictly optional. The revised version is to be turned in by the 4 May deadline.
Your project will be graded based on the following criteria:
a) Meeting pre-proposal and proposal deadlines.
b) Quality of the question/hypothesis posed in the proposal. A thorough review of the subject and existing knowledge, placing the research in context. Clear design of experiments, sampling, etc. to answer the question. Realistic match of the research plan with the questions. A realistic budget. Addressing both of NSF’s funding criteria (Intellectual merit, Broader impacts)
c) Following the format requirements for NSF grants.
FINAL EXAM: This will be a cumulative exam given as scheduled during exam week (Thursday 10 May, 1:00 PM). As with the midterm, questions will be short answer and a choice of essays, and grading of essays will be in part based on the clarity with which you express your answers. Again, you must be able to express your knowledge in a coherent answer to a question.
LECTURE OUTLINE
(the instructor reserves the right to change the outline at any time)
Topic Assigned reading in: .
Morin 1999 Chase &Leibold 2003
Introduction
Hierarchical organization in ecology pp. 1-17
What is community ecology supposed to explain? pp. 21-28
Methods in community ecology
Patterns
Species Diversity: Concept (or non-concept) pp. 17-21
A diversity of indices
Diversity & Stability, Diversity & Productivity pp. 305-338
Species-area relationships & Biogeography pp. 293-301
Processes:Competition
Interspecific competition pp. 29-34
Traditional models (brief review) pp. 34-40
Resource competition models pp. 40-53 pp. 19-36; 45-47
Experimental data on competition pp. 67-98 Ch. 4, 6
Different kinds of resources Ch. 5
Processes: Predation
Predation and parasitism pp. 104-105
Traditional models (brief review) pp. 136-153
Resource based predator-prey models pp. 47-50
Experimental data on predation pp. 108-135 pp. 62-64
Keystone species effects pp. 123-135, 132-134 pp. 36-45; 47-50
Processes: Disturbance
Disturbance & Stress pp. 37-40
Nonequilibrium coexistence pp. 318-322 Ch. 6
Processes: Mutualism
Mutualism pp. 185-186; 191-204
Population models of mutualism pp. 187-190
Conditional mutualism
Putting things together
Ecological niche pp. 54-66 Ch. 1,3
Evolution in response to competition - character displacement Ch. 7, 10
Null Hype: Null models in community ecology pp. 98-103
Direct and indirect effects pp. 205-212, 221-231 p. 36
Indirect mutualism pp. 212-214
Trophic cascades pp. 214-221
Patterns Redux
Assembly, succession, and productivity pp. 235-258; 353-357 Ch. 8
Patterns in food webs pp. 154-167
Hypotheses for the patterns pp. 167-184
Unified Neutral Theory of Community Ecology Ch. 11
Applied community ecology
Disease, biological control, conservation pp. 106-107; 366-375
LABORATORY SCHEDULE
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Laboratory Topic |
Assignment Due (before 5:00 PM) |
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Jan. 19 |
NO LAB |
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Jan. 26 |
Does R* quantify competitive ability of mosquitoes I. Intro & Set up |
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Feb. 2 |
Introduction to computers: Populus 5.3 etc. |
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Feb. 9 |
Interaction of competition & predation: Simulations with Populus 5.3 |
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Feb. 16 |
Interaction of competition & predation: Simulations with Populus 5.3 |
Pre-proposal |
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Feb. 23 |
P Habitat heterogeneity and invertebrate diversity I. Field |
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Mar. 2 |
OPEN (Phi Sigma Symposium) |
Models (Populus) |
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Mar. 9 |
Does R* quantify competitive ability of mosquitoes III. Analysis |
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Mar. 16 |
Spring break – no laboratory |
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Mar. 23 |
P Habitat heterogeneity and invertebrate diversity II. Field |
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Mar. 30 |
Habitat heterogeneity and invertebrate diversity III. Sort & count |
R* & Competition |
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April 6 |
Habitat heterogeneity and invertebrate diversity III. Sort & count |
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April 13 |
Habitat heterogeneity and invertebrate diversity V. Analysis |
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April 20 |
OPEN |
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April 27 |
OPEN |
Habitat Heterogeneity |
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May 4 |
OPEN |
Final Proposal |
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P Field Laboratory. There is potential for late returns, intense cold (believe it), & other ecological inconveniences.