Week 1: Intro to Ecology

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## Note takers??

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# Introduction to me

## https://www.dlilab.com

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# .font200[[Syllabus](https://ecology.dlilab.com/syllabus/)]

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# .font200[[Final project](https://ecology.dlilab.com/project/)]

# Group of 3-5

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# Readings

.font200[Purugganan, Mary, and Jan Hewitt. "How to read a scientific article." Rice University (2004). ]
<https://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~cainproj/courses/HowToReadSciArticle.pdf>

.font200[Ecological Society of America. What does ecology have to do with me?] 
<https://www.esa.org/about/what-does-ecology-have-to-do-with-me/>

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# Currently there are about 8 billion people on earth. When did the human population reach half its current level?

???

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

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# How many species of animals and plants are there on earth?
	
.font300[
	a. 300,000  
	b. 1 million  
	c. 10 million  
	d. 30 million
]

???

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# How many new bird species are discovered each decade?
	
.font300[
	a. 0  
	b. 1  
	c. 10  
	d. 60
]

???

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bird_species_discovered_since_1900

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# What fraction of the world's bird species has been driven extinct or near threatened by humans over the last 1,000 years?
	
.font300[
	a. 0.1%  
	b. 1%  
	c. 5%  
	d. 20%
]

???

c. but the acutal percentage probably is much higer, 10-20%.

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# Scientists have been aware of the "greenhouse effect" for
	
.font300[
	a. 10 years  
	b. 25 years  
	c. 100 years
]

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# [R code demo](./Rcode.html)

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# That's all for today

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# What is ecology?

## The study of .blue[interactions] among biological organisms and between organisms and their .red[environment].

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# Interactions with same species

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# Interactions with different species

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# Interactions with the environment

.font250[
+ Allelopathy
+ Thermal tolerance
+ Disturbance ecology
+ Dispersal limitation
+ Ecosystem engineers
]

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# What ecology isn't

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# Environmental Science

### Interdisciplinary field that draws concepts, expertise, and tools from natural and social sciences

### Ecology is a Component of Environmental Science

# Environmentalism

### A political and social ideology seeking to limit human impact on the environment

### Ecology Can Inform Environmentalism

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# Biomedicine

###  Gets conflated with ideas of "mainstream medicine"

### Generally applies to clinical practice and only to human populations (can some part of the environment make me better?)

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# Natural history

### Descriptive study of natural organisms

### Slightly separate from ecology, though ecological studies often utilize museum collections, and museum collections are essentially natural history storehouses

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# Evolution

### Change of allele frequencies over time

### Strong feedbacks with ecological processes

>  .font250["Nothing in Biology Makes Sense except in the Light of Evolution"]
- Theodosius Dobzhansky

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# Ecology is a Science

![](figs/ecology_is_science.jpeg)

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# levels of biological organization

![](figs/ecologicalOrganization.png)

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# Individual

## A single individual of a species. Unit of natural selection

### e.g., a single trout in lake superior

### domain of physiological and behaviour ecology; e.g., how do zebras regulate their internal water balance?

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# Population

## A collection of individuals that occupy a given geographic area and interact with one another. Unit of evolution

### e.g., trout in lake superior

### population structure, growth, distribution and abundance? How these processes are affected by biotic (e.g., .blue[predator]) and abiotic aspects of the environment?

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# Community

## A set of interacting species that occupy a given geographic area.

### e.g., fish communities in lake superior, focus on kinds and diversity of organisms

### What factors influence the number of fishes living together in a lake? How multiple species be able to coexist in a small forest?

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# Ecosystem

## The set of interacting species (the community) and the interactions between these species and their physical environment.

#### e.g., a grassland, focus on ecological processes such as energy flow or nutrient cycle

### How does fire affect nutrient availability in grassland ecosystems?

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# Biosphere

## The global environment, consisting of all living things on the planet.

### e.g., the planet

### What role does concentration of atmoospheric CO2 play in the regulation of global temperature?

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# Human activities have altered over 75% of the Earth's land surface. What is the role of the environment and land use change to each level?

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## Individual

[Mockford and Marshall 2009](https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2009.0586)

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## Population

[Loss et al. 2013](https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380)

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## Community

[Bovo et al. 2018](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2530064417301049)

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## Ecosystem

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## Biosphere

[Gilbert et al. 2018](https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata2018227)

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# How do we do ecology?

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## Observations

![](figs/observation.jpg)

[Dr. Jane Goodall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall)

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## Manipulative experiments

![](figs/field.png)

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## Laboratory experiments

![](figs/lab.jpg)
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# Ecological modeling

<br>

## SI model as an example

.font150[
`$$S_{t+1} = bS_{t} - \beta S_{t} I_{t}$$`
`$$I_{t+1} = \beta S_{t}I_{t} - \gamma I_{t}$$` 
]
]