Community Ecology

Catalog description

This course explores the various mechanisms structuring ecological communities. The course builds on community ecology topics introduced in other courses, by providing an advanced understanding of the theoretical and quantitative nature of community ecology. Topics covered include two-species interactions (e.g. predation, competition, parasitism, mutualisms), multispecies interactions, food webs and ecological networks, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, estimation of and regulation of species diversity at ecological and evolutionary time scales, higher order interactions, community succession, and biogeography. Emphasis will be on concepts and theory, quantitative and mathematical models, experimental and other empirical approaches, and hands-on use of data and computer software to address basic and applied questions in community ecology.