ECOLOGY AND GIS APPLICATIONS - UNIT ECOLOGY
ECOLOGIA ED APPLICAZIONI GIS MOD. ECOLOGIA
Ecology
Ecologia
| A.Y. | Credits |
|---|---|
| 2015/2016 | 6 |
| Lecturer | Office hours for students | |
|---|---|---|
| Almo Farina |
Assigned to the Degree Course
| Date | Time | Classroom / Location |
|---|
Learning Objectives
To introduce students to the concept of environmental complexity as a set of interactions between abiotic and biotic components. The environment will be described through a space-time scale where landscape, ecosystem, community, population and individual species are distinguished as subjects on which capture information.
Students will be introduced to the concept of scaling and hierarchy as epistemic important components of environmental complexity.
The student at the end of the course will have the necessary information to better understanding the functioning of the environmental systems, their relationship with the physical biological and human components in the framework of a holistic view of environmental complexity.
Program
The science of ecology:
Introduction to a system approach
Foundations:
The object of the ecology
The ecology as a system science
The components of an ecological system
Ecology the science to investigate the environmental complexity
Energy and entropy
The feedback mechanisms
Autocatalitic cycles
Order, disorder and chaos
Stability and instability in the complex systems
The hierachical structure of of the ecological systems
The dynamic structure of the ecological systems:
definition of an ecological system
The development of an ecological system
Types and importance of the relations between component of ane ecological system
Types and importance of the relationships
Evolution of a system
Ecological plasticity
Autoecological approach:
Introduction
The autopoiesi concept
Autoecological rules: the relationships
Autoecological rules: the strategies
Ecological niche and eco-field
The cibernetic mechanisms that guide the eco-field
The formal properties of landscape
From the selfish to the collaboration
Life forms and allometric characteristics
Biological life-traits
The ecological proxies
Life in th extreme environment
Population ecology:
Definition of population
Population dynamics
The mechanisms that guide populations
R and K strategies
Limiting factors
The space in population ecology
Demography
Specie interactions
Community ecology:
Definition of community
The factors that shape a community
Complexity and community ecology
Plant communities
Temporal relationships
Ecological guilds
The role of species in the communities
Richness index
The ecological succession
Key species
The emergent properties of a community
The ecosystem:
Characters and structure
Symbols
Energy
The producers
Primary and secondary production
The components of the primary production
The marine productivity
The landscape:
Characters, dynamics
Spatial organization
Theories and foundations
Heterogeneity
Eco-field and landscape
Shape and spatial arrangement of patches
Land diversity
Ecotones
Sink-source systems
The cultural landscapes
Landscape ontogenesis
Biosemitics
The semiosphere
Sustainability and semiotics
The soundscape:
Patterns, principles and applications
Principles of acoustics
Acoustic sources: geophonies, biophonies and technophonies
Animal communication
Bioacoustics theories
The human dimension of the soundscapes
Noise
Choruses
Methods
Appplications
Global ecology:
Gaia hypothesis
Climate change
Climate definition
Climate perturbations
Climate fluctuaction
Climate change and the anthropocene effect
Boral forest changes
Biodiversity and conservation under the climate change scenario
Learning Achievements (Dublin Descriptors)
Implement ecological knowledge within a curriculum of earth sciences for a more conscious reading of environmental complexity, of the ecological relationships that are the basis of the environmental complexity.
Teaching Material
The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it
Supporting Activities
field trips
Teaching, Attendance, Course Books and Assessment
- Teaching
class presentation
- Course books
A. Farina - Lezioni di ecologia. Utet libreria, Torino 2004
A. Farina - Ecologia del paesaggio. Utet libreria, Torino 2002
A. Farina - Soundcape ecology, Springer 2014
- Assessment
Oral and a thesis
- Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)
Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.
To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.
Additional Information for Non-Attending Students
- Course books
A. Farina - Lezioni di ecologia. Utet libreria, Torino 2004
A. Farina - Ecologia del paesaggio. Utet libreria, Torino 2002
A. Farina - Soundcape ecology, Springer 2014
- Assessment
Oral and thesis
- Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)
Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.
To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.
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