Animal Ecology

Course unit

title

Scientific direction

Scientific code

Faculty

Department (s)

Animal Ecology

Zoology N 014

Life Sciences Center

Institute of Biosciences

Course credit ambit

10

Mode of studies

Number of credits

Mode of studies

Number of credits

Lectures

0

Consultations

1

Self-studies

9

Seminars

0

Aims of course

To raise skills for individual study of scientific literature. To acquaint with methodology of scientific research and major regularities of animal ecology. To raise skills for critical analysis and synthesis of information. To qualify for autonomous scientific research.

Main topics

Ecology definition, methodology, links with other sciences. Problem of distribution: dispersal, habitat selection, abiotic and biotic factors that limit distributions.  Relation between distribution and abundance. Problem of abundance. Concept of population and it‘s parameters. Demographic statistics. Evolution of demographic traits. Population growth: deterministic and stochastic models, probability of extinction. Species interactions. Competition, it‘s model.  Ecological niche. Evolution of competitive ability. Predation, it‘s model.  Premises of predator efficiency. Predator-prey coevolution.  Herbivory. Parasitism. Mutualism, it‘s model. Detritophagy. Natural regulation of population size. Ecology of invasive species. Applied problems: harvesting populations, pest control, conservation biology. Concept of community, it‘s parameters. Physical and biological community structure. Community change. Species diversity, biodiversity gradients and regulating factors. Intermediate disturbance hypothesis. Community organization. Concept of equilibrial communities: food chains and webs, functional roles and guilds, keystone and dominant species. Community stability. Concept of nonequilibrial communities: patches and disturbances, community persistence, links between physical impacts and biotic interactions within community. Hypothesis of trophic cascade. Human impacts: global change, biodiversity, biotic pollution, ecosystem health.

Main literature

Krebs, C. J., 2013. Ecology: the Experimental Analysis of Distribution and Abundance (6th edition),

Pearson Education Limited.

Begon M., Howarth R.W., Townsend C.R., 2014.  Essentials of Ecology (4th edition). Wiley.

Krebs, C. J., 1999. Ecological Methodology (2nd edition). Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc.

Assessment strategy

Assessment criteria

Exam consists of two parts – scientific presentation and exam test. Both exam parts have equal weight for final evaluation. Final grade is the arithmetic mean of grades of two exam parts.

Exam, seminar presentation, etc.

Requirements (number of questions in the exam, duration of the presentation, number of publications discussed during the seminar, etc.) and criteria for assessing compliance with them

Scientific presentation

Presentation is arranged on in advance agreed topic basing on scientific papers and other scientific literature.  Duration – up to 20 min, presentation – in a PowerPoint format. Assessed are quality of content and delivery of presentation, correspondence to agreed topic, participation in a scientific discussion, ability to answer questions and defend scientific propositions. 10-point grading scale is used for evaluation.

Exam test (orally)

Exam test consists from two open type questions. Assessed are profoundness and accuracy of subject concepts and scientific knowledge, ability to collate, critically analyze and clarify. 10-point grading scale is used for evaluation.

Kęstutis Arbačiauskas

Dr.

Prof.

Approved by the Council of Graduate School of Life Sciences Center No 600000-…-… on the …. of …… 2021

Chairman