Course Outline and Assignments

Aug 21 Introduction to Course HW
Aug 26 Single Species Models H
Aug 28 Discussion of Robert May Paper
Sep 02 Population Growth with Age Structure W
Sep 04 Discussion of Birch Paper
Sep 09 Fitness and Population Genetics W
Sep 11 Discussion of Sewall Wright Paper
Sep 16 Discussion of JBS Haldane Paper
Sep 18 Life History Evolution H
Sep 23 r- and K-selection W
Sep 25 Discussion of Life History Papers
Sep 30 Metapopulations - Model Building H
Oct 02 Discussion of Marine Metapopulations
Oct 07 Discussion of Metapopulations
Oct 09 FALL BREAK
Oct 14 Students pick a theoretical paper from Trends in Ecology and Evolution and lead discussion
Oct 16 Students pick a theoretical paper from Trends in Ecology and Evolution and lead discussion
Oct 21 Interference and Exploitation Competition   W
Oct 23 Discussion of Competition Papers
Oct 28 Foraging Strategies H
Oct 30 Discussion of Foraging Papers
Nov 04 Election Day Break
Nov 06 Predator-Prey / Host-Parasitoid Models HW
Nov 11 Discussion of Predation Papers
Nov 13 Community Structure: Disturbance HW
Nov 18 Discussion of Disturbance Papers
Nov 20 Food Webs / Ecosystems HW
Nov 25 Presentation of Final Papers
Nov 27 Thanksgiving Break
Dec 02 Presentation of Final Papers
Dec 04 Presentation of Final Papers

Dec 08, 2 PM Project Papers Due

Our object is to provide students with a common framework of ecological and evolutionary theory that they can apply to their own research projects. The final papers are to explore the use of ecological theory in the students' own research area.

Grading: 25% abstracts for discussions, 25% TREE discussion, 25% presentation of project, 25% paper