The course aims to present ecology as a science of complexity capable of connecting different knowledges. The presentation of the basic concepts of ecology is presented in a holistic key with a rigorous and simple language to allow an effective transfer of ecological knowledge to students often not fully equipped with appropriate scientific tools.

Educational goals are therefore deeply rooted in a general knowledge that can be spent in the relationships between man and nature on all the levels. Ecology is thus presented as a science capable of understanding the different processes occurring both in the physical and cognitive environment, the latter dominated by man and his biosemiosis.

The theoretical aspects of ecology are incorporated into a wider scenario of the quantitation of the natural forces in play, they are of an exogenous nature such as solar radiation, both endogenous and plant production cycles.

The cycles of matter and therefore of life are explained within the paradigm of complexity with the aim of providing the student with the appropriate interpretive tools of his Umwelt.

The course is therefore to update the student on ecological issues in a non-emergency key but in a proactive key to the completeness of their cultural growth in a globalized world where human intrusion in natural processes has allowed to call the current era anthropocene.

The integrated approach of ecology allows linking processes and cultural themes often kept separate from new knowledge sciences and the course aims to provide a new interpretative key to the ongoing tradeoff that modern human societies need  to avoid the depletion of primary resources.

History of ecology and ecological thinking. Environmental complexity: definitions and characters. Emerging Properties of Complex Systems (eg Resilience, Resistance, Diversity, Adaptability) I. Emerging Properties of Complex Systems (eg Resilience, Resistance, Diversity, Adaptability) II. The ecosphere's functioning mechanisms: the cycles of matter and energy I. The ecosphere's functioning mechanisms: the cycles of matter and energy II. Resources as an Interpretative Mechanism of Life Cycles I. Resources as an Interpretative Mechanism of Life Cycles II. Biosemiotic Principles and Code Biology I. Principles of Biosemiotics and Code Biology II. Functional aggregations (population, community, ecosystem, landscape) as a tool for analyzing complexity: Populations I. Functional aggregations (population, community, ecosystem, landscape) as a tool for complexity analysis: Populations II. Functional aggregations (population, community, ecosystem, landscape) as a tool for complexity analysis: Community. Functional aggregations (population, community, ecosystem, landscape) as a tool for analyzing complexity: Community I. Functional aggregates (population, community, ecosystem, landscape) as a complexity analysis tool: Ecosystem I. Functional aggregations (population, community, ecosystem, landscape) as a tool for complexity analysis: Ecosystem II. Functional aggregations (population, community, ecosystem, landscape) as a tool for analyzing complexity: Landscape I. Functional aggregates (population, community, ecosystem, landscape) as a tool for complexity analysis: Landscape II. The great themes of the relationship between human society and ecological systems (eg sustainability). Principle of conservation and protection of natural and human resources. Relationships between species, analysis of competition concepts, predation, parasitism, etc. Host Capacity and Population Dynamics.Metapopulation theory. Ecological niche theory. Island bio-geography theory. Source-sink system theory. Basic principles of the ecology of population, community, ecosystem ecology and ecology of the landscape. Basic principles of the ecology of population, community, ecosystem ecology and ecology of the landscape. Ecology and ecology. Theoretical bases in the relationship between man and nature I. Theoretical bases in the relationship between man and nature II. Theoretical backgrounds in the relationship between man and nature III.

The student will acquire the basic knowledge of ecology to address the challenges of environmental complexity in a rapidly changing world of environmental and socio-economic constraints.

The student will be able to deal with complex and conflicting issues between natural processes and anthropic development in the light of the increasing knowledge of the global scale of major socio-economic and political changes. and geo-climatic change in progress.

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

Individual research on topics of particular relevance and / or relevance

Teaching

Class lessons and field exercises

Course books

Elementi di ecologia  - TS Smith & RL Smith, Pearson

Lezioni di ecologia - A. Farina, UTET Libreria

Verso una scienza del paesaggio - A. Farina, Perdisa editore

General system theory, Bertalanffy, Braziller, 1969

System Ecology, Odum,  Wiley & Sons, 1983

Perspectives in ecological theory, Roughgarden, May and Levin, Princeton Un. Press, 1989

Ecology and our endangered life-support systems, Odum, Sinuauer Associates, 1989

Foundations of Ecology,  Real & Brown, Un. of Chicago Press, 1991

Foundamentals of ecology, Odum, Barrett, Thomson, 2005

Principles and methods in landscape ecology, Farina, Springer, 2006

The theory of ecology, SCheiner, Willig, The University of Chicago Press, 2011

Soundscape ecology, Farina, Springer, 2014

Ecoacoustics, Farina & Gage, Wiley, 2017

Course books

Elementi di ecologia  - TS Smith & RL Smith, Pearson

Lezioni di ecologia - A. Farina, UTET Libreria

Verso una scienza del paesaggio - A. Farina, Perdisa editore

General system theory, Bertalanffy, Braziller, 1969

System Ecology, Odum,  Wiley & Sons, 1983

Perspectives in ecological theory, Roughgarden, May and Levin, Princeton Un. Press, 1989

Ecology and our endangered life-support systems, Odum, Sinuauer Associates, 1989

Foundations of Ecology,  Real & Brown, Un. of Chicago Press, 1991

Foundamentals of ecology, Odum, Barrett, Thomson, 2005

Principles and methods in landscape ecology, Farina, Springer, 2006

The theory of ecology, SCheiner, Willig, The University of Chicago Press, 2011

Soundscape ecology, Farina, Springer, 2014

Ecoacoustics, Farina & Gage, Wiley, 2017