ECOLOGY 1
Academic Year 2025/2026 - Teacher: GIUSEPPE NICOLOSIExpected Learning Outcomes
The main objective of the Ecology course is to understand the biosphere as a single large ecosystem, in which the different species, including humans, interact with one another and with the surrounding environment. This involves understanding how ecological systems function and, in particular, energy relationships and the cycling of matter, as well as numerical fluctuations in populations and interspecific relationships.
Course Structure
The course is delivered through interactive lectures, supported by PowerPoint presentations and other multimedia tools.
Required Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of mathematics, chemistry, physics, and statistics. Knowledge of botany and zoology. The concept of species and biodiversity.
Attendance of Lessons
Attendance is mandatory, as provided for by the degree programme’s academic regulations.
Detailed Course Content
Scope and limits of ecology - Ecosystem and its properties; emergent properties. Biotope, Biocoenosis. Habitat and ecological niche: concepts and definitions - Gause’s principle - Ecological compression hypothesis. Relationships between organisms and their environment - Environmental resistance - Continental drift, biogeographical regions and distribution of organisms. The physical environment – Soil, water - Physical and chemical variables. The main biogeochemical cycles: water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur. Concept of population - Population properties and dynamics - Methods for estimating population size - Logistic equation - Demographic analyses - Evolutionary strategies. Population regulation - Exponential growth - Regular or irregular cyclic fluctuations - Density-dependent and density-independent factors - Territoriality. Limiting factors - Liebig’s law - Stoichiometric ecology - Ecological valence - Optimization theory - Optimal foraging - Reproductive and parental strategies - Alternative strategies - Functional traits - Ecological pyramid, food webs and energy flow - Networks - Allometry and isometry - Primary production - Relationships between organisms - Ecological succession - Concept of climax - Biomes - Disruption of biogeochemical cycles, pollution and desertification - Ecology and sustainable development - Fragmentation and stress ecology - Ecological footprint - Biodiversity and stability: a functional concept.
Textbook Information
- M. Begon, J. L. Harper & C. R. Townsend - Ecology: from individuals to ecosystems. Blackwell/Wiley.
- Smith Thomas M. , Smith Robert L. - Elements of Ecology. Pearson Education
Course Planning
| Subjects | Text References | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ecological niche: concepts and definitions - Gause’s principle | |
| 2 | Ecosystem and its properties; emergent properties. Biotope, Biocoenosis. Habitat | |
| 3 | Relationships between organisms and their environment - Environmental resistance - Continental drift, biogeographical regions and distribution of organisms. | |
| 4 | Soil, water - Physical and chemical variables - Evolution during the Quaternary | |
| 5 | Biogeochemical cycles. Carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus - Stoichiometric ecology - Liebig’s law | |
| 6 | Territoriality. Limiting factors - Ecological valence | |
| 7 | Autecology - Functional traits - Primary production | |
| 8 | Concept of population - Population properties and dynamics - Methods for demographic estimation - Logistic equation - Evolutionary strategies. Population regulation - Exponential growth | |
| 9 | Synecology - Allometric relationships - Ecological pyramid, food webs and energy flow - History of food-web visualization - Interactions among organisms - Ecological networks | |
| 10 | Ecological succession. Primary and secondary succession - Concept of climax | |
| 11 | Biodiversity and stability | |
| 12 | Agroecosystems - Ecological footprint | |
| 13 | Biomes: general characteristics and distribution. Characteristics of the main terrestrial biomes |
Learning Assessment
Learning Assessment Procedures
Oral examination aimed at assessing the student's knowledge and critical understanding of the topics covered in the course.
Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises
- Emergent properties in ecological systems
- Concept of biotope and biocenosis
- Habitat and ecological niche
- Competitive exclusion principle (Gause's principle)
- Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles
- Definition and parameters of a population
- Exponential and logistic population growth
- r/K reproductive strategies
- Ecological successions and the climax concept
- Terrestrial and marine biomes