LEC241 Populations to Ecosystems

Course coordinator:
Dr Carly Stevens
Other lecturers:
Dr Ken Wilson
Lectures will be on:
Week 1 Monday 11-12 Fylde LT2, Tuesday 1-2 George Fox LT4
Week 2, 3 Tuesday 1-2 George Fox LT4, Thursday 9-10 George Fox LT4
Weeks 4-10 Monday 11-12 Fylde LT2, Tuesday 1-2 George Fox LT4
Note there are no lectures on Tuesday in weeks 8 and 9
Lecture programme
Lecture 1 5: Introduction to population ecology (Nigel Paul/Stuart Sharp)
These lectures will provide an introduction to population ecology and will cover the abiotic factors that
regulate populations, life history strategies of populations, competitive interactions within populations,
and meta-population dynamics.
Lecture 1 Introduction
Lecture 2 Population growth
Lecture 3 Density dependence
Lecture 4 Intraspecific competition
Lecture 5 Dispersal and metapopulations
Lecture 6 9: Species interactions (Carly Stevens)
These lectures will introduce how species interact both within and across trophic levels. They will look at
the fundamental theories and patterns behind interspecific competition, predation and mutualisms and
how these influence population dynamics. They will also investigate the drivers of species richness.
Lecture 6 Interspecific competition (CS)
Lecture 7 Predation (CS)
Lecture 8 Mutualism (CS)
Lecture 9 Parasitism (CS)
Lecture 10 20: Community ecology (Carly Stevens)
These lectures will introduce the belowground system and look at how the species interactions and soil
communities discussed in impact on community structure and dynamics. The lectures will introduce the
role of disturbance in structuring communities, by examining current theory on how communities change
over both long and short time-scales. The lectures will also examine the dominant issues in current
research the impact of invasive species on ecosystem functioning, and interactions between global
change and carbon cycling.
Lecture 10 Introduction to soils (CS)
Lecture 11 Above and below ground linkages (CS)
Lecture 12 Invasive species (CS)
Lecture 13 Succession (CS)
Lecture 14 Disturbance (CS)
Lecture 15 Climate change (CS)
Lecture 16 Self study
Lecture 17 Drivers of species richness (CS)
Lecture 18 Self study
Lecture 19 Paper discussion (CS)
Lecture 20 Revision lecture (CS)

Practical programme
Week 2: (Ken Wilson) Friday 2-5, Bowland North SR06: Workshop on applied population ecology: crop
pest control. POSTPONED, to be rearranged.
Week 6, 7 and 8: (Carly Stevens) Tuesday weeks 6 and 7 9-12 LEC A1 Laboratory experiment to
investigate the impact of invasive species on ecosystem function. Wednesday week 8 Friday 2-5 in
Hannaford lab for data analysis. In week 6 we will collect soil samples from woodlands on campus so
please dress appropriately.
Week 9: (Carly Stevens) Friday 2-5, Management School LT11: Group presentations.
Assessment
50 % of the course is examined by coursework, the remainder by a summer exam. There is no end of
module test, but there are two pieces of course work as follows:

Lab write-up 65 % (Carly Stevens) due: 20th April 11.00 am

Group presentations will be set on week 6 and presented to the group in the session in week 9 in the
Friday session 35 % (Carly Stevens).