Meeting Schedule and Overview

Week Ecology Topic Data Reading
1 Physical Environment Intro Fish metabolism
2 Physical Environment Sampling Fish metabolism p. 1-16
3 Physical Environment Variation, Graphing Fish metabolism p. 23-43
4 Physical Environment Models Fish metabolism p. 539-547
5 Physical Environment Writeup Fish metabolism p. 149-167
6 Population Ecology Variation, Graphing Kelp Populations p. 43-46
7 Population Ecology Statistics Kelp Populations p. 65-73, 96-107
8 Population Ecology Models Kelp Populations p. 73-80, 338-340
9 Population Ecology Writeup Kelp Populations p. 176-177
10 Community Ecology Experimental design Aquatic invasives p. 423-445
11 Community Ecology Data management Aquatic invasives p. 459-473
12 Community Ecology Models Aquatic invasives p. 115-116
13 Ecosystem Ecology Wrapup Grassland productivity p. 503-512, 201-202

Data Content

Week Content
1 Introduction to ecological data
2 Using R, exploring data, sample variation, basic graphing
3 Correlation and regression
4 Summary statistics including mean and variance
5 Drawing conclusions from graphs and models
6 Variance, boxplots, median, quartiles, histogram
7 Comparing samples using a t-test
8 Drawing conclusions from boxplots and statistical tests
9 Experimental design
10 Standard error, standard deviation, and confidence intervals
11 Hypothesis testing
12 ANOVA
13 Conclusions from correlation, regression, and ANOVA

Complementary ecology concepts

Note: Concepts in ecology will be reinforced by analyzing ecological data. It is assumed that you have studied the underlying concepts in BIO 262.

Week Item Content
1-5 Question How do nutrient cycling rates of fish in lakes scale with body size and temperature?
Concepts Nutrient cycling, Allometry, Metabolism, Genetic variation
System Aquatic ecosystems and fish (vertebrates)
6-9 Question How do primary productivity and growth rates of kelp vary among seasons, years, and sites?
Concepts Primary productivity, Population growth
System Marine ecosystems and kelp (algae)
10-12 Question What are the effects of invasive species on a native aquatic community?
Concepts Food webs, Predation, Competition, Population dynamics, Direct and indirect effects
System Aquatic ecosystems; Amphibians and fish (vertebrates), snails and Daphnia (invertebrates), algae
13 Question What are the effects of plant diversity on ecosystem productivity?
Concepts Diversity, Ecosystem function, Nutrient cycling
System System: Grassland ecosystems and plants