BIOSM 1610

Ecology and the Marine Environment

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2020-2021.

This course provides an introduction to ecology, covering interactions between marine organisms and the environment at scales of populations, communities, and ecosystems.

When Offered Summer.

Distribution Category (BIO-AG, BIOLS-AG, PBS-AS, BIO-AS)

• Where and why different biomes occur globally as a function of Earth's climate dynamics.
• How plants and animals cope with environmental variation through a range of adaptations that modify their respective heat and water balances.
• Processes of autotrophic and heterotrophic means of energy acquisition, and tradeoffs among these strategies.
• Fundamental principles of population growth and demography, including application to human populations and population harvest.
• Introduction to species interactions including predation, parasitism, competition, and mutualism.
• Overview of community ecology, including factors that control patterns of species distribution, diversity and abundance.
• Basic understanding of broad biogeographical patterns of species distributions, including hypotheses explaining latitudinal species gradients, species diversity on islands, and the application of island biogeography theory to the design of nature reserves.
• Threats to biodiversity and key principles of conservation biology.
• Major pathways and mechanisms of nutrient cycling, including nutrient inputs, acquisition strategies, limitation, and losses, and major human impact on these cycles.
• Causes, general magnitudes, and likely consequences of human-driven alterations to global cycles of carbon, nutrients, and climate.

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