OF PRINCIPLES ECOLOGY "Principles of Ecology" (EBIO 2040) is a required course for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology majors and is also taken by many Environmental Studies majors in the science track. The course provides you with an overview of ecology, covering topics ranging from global abiotic processes to biomes, and community, species and population level dynamics. The lab portion of this course emphasizes techniques of field biology. It complements the lectures by helping you to understand how to generate and test ecological hypotheses by examining issues such as how to quantify and estimate diversity, how to measure landscape level patterns and how to utilize computer programs to help analyze ecological data. You will also develop, conduct and present an independent project that will allow you to implement the skills you have learned throughout the course. Although we will address a wide range of ecological questions in this lab, it is important to realize that the goals of this course are two fold: (1) to familiarize students with hypothesis testing and (2) to teach students the different tools and methods that researchers use to study a variety of topics in ecology. Hypothesis Testing Hypothesis testing, also commonly referred to as the scientific method, is essentially a formalized argument that helps you understand how biology works. It is a process that involves making observations, posing questions, formulating hypotheses, and creating experiments to test whether a hypothesis of interest is supported. In this lab, we will begin by formalizing what we mean by the scientific method. After addressing the scientific method, we will briefly look at a few statistical tools that researchers use to quantify their findings and we will learn to present our data using Microsoft Excel and JMP, a more sophisticated statistical package. As the labs proceed, we will then either frame our experiments using the scientific method or have you think about how you might use the different methodology we expose you to test hypotheses.
Learning to use ecological tools and methods Although learning to use the scientific method will be a central theme of this lab, we will, in certain labs, focus primarily on the use of tools to quantify or describe patterns without explicitly stating and testing a hypothesis. For example, we will explore methods that estimate species diversity, stream quality, distributional patterns, and population sizes. Learning different ecological methods is important because describing and quantifying patterns (making observations) is an important first step when we use the scientific method. We will thus explore tools and methods that are commonly used in ecology to provide you with the means by which you yourself could test a variety of hypotheses or produce observations that help you generate hypotheses. In this lab, we will have the opportunity to apply the scientific method, concepts in ecology, and the different tools you learn by conducting an independent research project that you will present to your peers.
Principles of Ecology Hypothesis Formation
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Grading Policy and Lab Expectations
The lab grade will be based on 200 pts and will constitute 1/3 of the overall class grade. Lab Write-Ups/Homework Hypothesis Formation...................................................................................5 pts Ponderosa Pines II (Statistical Analyses).............................................................10 pts Intermediate Disturbance...............................................................................10 pts Prairie Dog I (Dispersion Pattern)...................................................................5 pts Prairie Dog II (Urbanization Paper).................................................................20 pts Boulder Creek II (Invertebrate Diversity)...........................................................5 pts Total: Independent Project Pre-Proposal Form (completed before project proposal lab).................................... 5 pts Project Proposal Form (completed project during proposal lab)...............................5 pts Presentation.............................................................................................25 pts Paper.....................................................................................................40 pts Total: Laboratory Examination...........................................................................30 pts Participation...........................................................................................20 pts Quizzes.................................................................................................20 pts Grand Total: 200 pts
55 pts
75 pts
Attendance at labs is mandatory. If you miss a lab, it is your responsibility to make it up in another lab section that same week. Please be aware that there is limited room in the vans that will be used on travel days and to make up a lab, you will need to make arrangements with a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) that may have 14 or fewer students in his/her section (see the course web page for lab schedules and contact information for each of the GTAs). If you have a valid medical excuse or otherwise, your GTA may let you make up the lab at his or her discretion. An unexcused absence will result in the loss of 5 participation points. Be on time and come to lab prepared. It is expected that you will arrive on time, as labs will begin promptly and will most often last the whole time period. On travel days, the lab sections will be conducting field experiments and you may be left behind. Not only are you expected to be on time, you are also expected to have read the week's lab and to come to lab prepared (e.g. have travel gear for travel days, have writing tools, etc.). Given the limited time in lab during some sessions, the GTAs will go over the concepts briefly because they will assume you are familiar with the lab materials. Working together. In this lab, we will have a strong emphasis on students working in groups and we will also have a strong emphasize on groups presenting their results and ideas to the lab. Although students will be encouraged to work with others, it is expected that all assignments that are turned in are original works written in a student's own words.
Principles of Ecology Hypothesis Formation
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We strongly encourage participation and we hope that students use this course as an opportunity to explore concepts, methods and wa...