Dynamics of Complex Systems: Complexity in Ecology

Calendar

Lec #	Topics
Introduction
1	How many Species are there on Earth?
Food Webs
2	Introduction to Food Webs and Trophic Interactions
3	Empirical Examples and Critiques of the Cascade Model
4	Dynamical Models of Food Webs
Biodiversity and Ecological Stability
5	What is the Relationship Between Complexity and Stability?
6	Evidence from Experiments
7	Diversity Stability Relationships: Statistical Inevitability or Ecological Consequence?
Diversity and Ecosystem Function
8	Diversity in Terrestrial Ecosystems
9	Perspectives on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function
Species-area Relationships
10	Island Biogeography
11	Theoretical Foundation: Log-normal Distributions of Species Abundance Power-law Species-area Curves
12	Spatial Models
Species-energy Relationships
13	What is the Role of Resource Availability in Species-area Relationships?
14	Empirical Tests of Species-energy Theory
15	Issues of Scale
Extinctions and Home Range
16	Extinction Rates and Range Contraction of Endangered Species
The Role of Body Size in Ecology
17	Introduction to Body Size in the Context of Evolution and Ecology
18	Allometric Constraints, Resource Equipartitioning and Body Size
19	Cope’s Rule
20	Home Range Scaling and Statistical Artifacts in Abundance Sampling
21	Evolutionary Entropy and Body Size
Student Presentations
22-29	Student Presentations