12.517 | Spring 2000 | Graduate

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

Course Info

As Taught In
Spring 2000
Level