General Ecology EEOB 404

1
General EcologyEEOB 404

• Grant Gentry
• Tulane University

2
Preliminaries student information desired

• Fill out 3X5 card
• Information desired
• Name, class or status (e.g., Junior)
• e-mail address, phone number
• Past classes--relevant to ecology
• Classes this semester
• Why taking class?

3
Course requirements

• See lecture syllabus
• Lectures Information comes FAST
• Preparation read the book download and print
  the lecture outline for notes.
• Supplementary materials read them
• learn fast or suffer
• Electronic communications
• Website tulane.edu/ggentry/
• Electronic Reserve (Eres)--password ecodocs
• Lecture course requirements
• Exams
• Grading

4
Questions?

• Classroom discussions
• Value of actually attending lectures (considering
  that notes will be posted electronically)
• Preparation for classes ( labs)

5
Introduction to instructors

• Instructor research interests
• Insect Plant Interactions
• Effects of plant chemistry on multitrophic
  interactions
• Parasitoids as invasive species
• For more information see personal web pages
  http//www.tulane.edu/ggentry and
  caterpillars.org
• Dyer lab----
• Instructor teaching interests
• General Ecology
• Entomology
• Tropical Biology
• Instructor personal information
• Teaching assistants LAB in Stern 2002 the fun
  part sci-writing, some stats

6
Labs will be GroovyANDHot- HatScratchy-
Long sleeves, long pants, sturdy shoes.Buggy-
DEET (goes on the clothes

7
What is Ecology?

• The study of living systems, at and above the
  level of organization of the individual (whole
  organism biology)
• Definition (text) Ecology is the study of
  interactions between organisms including humans
  and between organisms and their environments
• Its about what controls abundance of species,
  and the diversity and functions of species

8
Mathmatical
Evolutionary
Population (metapopulations)
Behaviour
Chemical
Community (Ecosystems)
9
What is Ecology NOT?

• Environmental Science
• Environmentalism
• Conservation Biology/Science
• Resource management
• Wildlife
• Fisheries
• Soil Resources
• Forestry

10
Why study Ecology?

• Because its there--intellectual curiosity as to
  how our world works
• Value of ecological systems to humans
• Ecosystem services (Table 1, Stiling text)
• Valuation of global ecosystem services (Table 2,
  Stiling)
• Huge (often detrimental) impact of humans on
  global ecosystems--ecology holds key to
  predicting our future
• (informs political and societal choices)

11
How do Ecologists go about their science?

• Scientific method hypothetico-deductive method
• Verification versus falsification of hypotheses
  (Popper)
• Search for unifying principles

Inductive logic
Observations, experiments, patterns
Models, hypotheses as to how systems function
i.e., processes
black box
Deductive logic
12
Other aspects of ecological method

• Diverse activities
• Hypothesis testing (experimental, observational
  proximate versus ultimate, pattern vs mechanism)
• Kinds ( merits) of experiments (lab, field,
  natural)
• Use of statistics models (e.g., meta-analysis)
• Induction/synthesis of hypotheses
• Advances in observation, measurement precision
• Review of literature (e.g., meta-analysis)
• Use of null models, null hypotheses (H0)--e.g.,
  idiosyncratic hypothesis for relationship
  between ecosystem process and species richness
  (Hubbell etc.)

13
Statistical analysis

• Is the difference between population means
  (averages) large enough to be meaningful, i.e.,
  statistically significant (e.g., t-test)
• Association among variables
• Correlation and regression
• Contingency tables (e.g., chi-squared test)
• Meta-analysis combination of the effects of
  multiple experiments (treatment effect size, d,
  averaged by study, weighted by number of
  replicates)

14
Range of questions asked

• Levels of organization important to ecology
• Behavior ( physiological ecology..I./e.
  individuals)
• Population (example of Centauria diffusa--
  Stiling text, ch. 1)
• Community
• Ecosystem
• Biosphere global change
• Scale of ecological phenomena, in space and
  time--depends on nature of question
• Spatial scale related to level of organization
• Temporal scale (e.g., Jackson et al., 2001,
  Historical overfishing and the recent collapse of
  coastal ecosystems. Science 293 629-638.)