Course content

The course introduces community ecological theory and analysis methods and ecosystem processes and services. Central themes are patterns in species richness and biodiversity, methods to describe patterns on community level, ecosystem functions, predation and other interspecific interactions, disturbance effects, succession, and food webs. The links between community and ecosystem processes and services will be described with theory and examples. The course gives a background for conservation biology with examples on management in different landscapes and ecosystems. The students work in groups and during a field course they gather data, during exercises they process their data with different mathematical methods and discuss central themes in community ecology.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:
After completing the course the students should:
Have knowledge about different drivers for community composition.
Know the basic theories about mechanisms important to species distribution and abundance
Have a general understanding if the links between community composition and ecosystem functions.
Be able to understand and interpret methods used to describe patterns in occurrence and distribution of species in natural communities.

Skills:
The student can:
Apply different diversity indices
Understand patterns based on uni- and multivariate analyses
Explain central theories and discuss important ecological mechanisms that influence ecosystems and community ecological patterns in nature.

General competence:
The student can:
To some extent plan, carry out, analyse and report a scientific project

Learning methods and activities

Learning methods and activities
Lectures: 30 hours
Seminars: 22 hours
Written and oral presentation of group project and active seminar participation
4-days field course during the first week of the semester
4 hours labwork in addition

Mandatory activities
Approved presentation of project work
Seminar and exercise participation
Approved field course participation
Compulsory assignments APPROVED

Compulsory assignments

• APPROVED
• Approved fieldcourse
• APPROVED

Recommended previous knowledge

The course builds on BI 1003 and also knowledge of plant and animal taxonomy.

Credit reductions