Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
---|---|---|---|
2500250 Biology | OB | 3 | 1 |
There are no official prerequisites, but it is assumed that the student has previously acquired enough solid knowledge on subjects like: Biostatistics, Botany, Zoology, Extension of Zoology and Genetics
This is a general subject that introduces the student to concepts and basic methodologies of Ecology. The subject also includes an approach to most current topics around this science.
This subject provides the basic contents and methodologies for the study of the structure and dynamics of natural systems in three basic levels of organization:
1. Populations: studding the concept of population and introducing students in techniques of sampling abundance of organisms, in demography ecology and in population dynamics.
2. Communities: teaching the student to evaluate the structure of the communities, the interactions between species and their manifestations at community level (food webs)
3. Ecosystems: Introducing the student in the exchange of matter and energy in food webs, as a preliminary step to the study of biogeochemical cycles wihich will be studied mainly in the Biosphere Sciences subject
The subject contents are organized into 11 topics
Introduction to Ecology
Organisms responses to environmental factors
Populations: basic demographic concepts and processes
Population dynamics
Species interactions
Composition and structure of communities
Community dynamics - Disturbances
Trophic webs
The flux of energy and matter through ecosystems
Ecological succession
Global change
“*Unless the requirements enforced by the health authorities demand a prioritization or reduction of these contents
The training activities are organized into three main blocks: theoretical expository classes, seminars on various topics of ecology prepared by the students themselves and practices.
Theoretical classes
The theoretical classes are developed through expository master classes by the professors. To follow the classes the student will have a complementary material that will facilitate the monitoring of the class. This material will be previously available in the moddle classroom of the subject. Interposed between the theoretical classes, which will be organized approximately in three blocks, there are between three and five theory sessions where the students discuss with the teacher the answer of a series of short questions about the content given in the expository classes and that the students have previously available. At the beginning of this class, for 10-15 minutes, students should answer one of the questions individually and in writing. The correction of this answer by the teacher is part of the evaluation of the theoretical part. The rest of the question session consists of discussing the answer of the questions that the students propose from the wide list already available.
Debate sessions
At the beginning of the course a series of discussion topics on ecology issues are proposed that can be discussed from 2 points of view. The students are organized in groups and each group is assigned a topic and one of the possible approaches. Each group must document and try to argue the convenience of their approach or point of view on the subject. The result is shown in an oral presentation to classmates and the teacher where the students of the group must defend their point of view in contrast to the other point.
Practices
The practices are carried out in a group and consist of a field trip of a whole day in which data is collected directly in the field by the students. From thedata taken by the students themselves, a small work must be done in the format of a scientific article. In order to make data processing, students will also have a computer practice session with the teacher.
*The proposed teaching methodology may experience some modifications depending on the restrictions to face-to-face activities enforced by health authorities
Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
---|---|---|---|
Type: Directed | |||
Computer practices | 4 | 0.16 | 3, 11, 4, 22 |
Debate sessions (classroom practices) | 5 | 0.2 | 11, 9, 4, 22 |
Field practices | 8 | 0.32 | 8, 4, 22 |
Theoretical classes | 32 | 1.28 | 5, 8, 10, 11, 9 |
Type: Autonomous | |||
Personal study | 70 | 2.8 | 5, 10, 11 |
Preparation of the debate sessions | 12 | 0.48 | 4, 22 |
Preparation of the memory of practices | 12 | 0.48 | 3, 4, 22 |
The evaluation will be done in three blocks: the theoretical part, the debate sessions and the practices.
Theoretical part (60% of the final grade, individual grade)
The answer to the questions asked in class, see the methodology section, 10% of the final qualification.
A first partial written exam approximately midway through the semester. Represents 25% of the final qualification.
A second partial written exam at the end of the theoretical part. Represents 25% of the final qualification.
In case the joint note of the two partial exams is equal to or greater than 4 out of 10, the average can be calculated for the overall score. If the mark of the two partials does not reach 4, it will be necessary to go necessarily to the final exam if the student wants to pass the subject.
Final exam, an exam that includes the contents examined in the two partials (50% of the final qualification). This exam can be done by all students who want to improve their qualification. In the case that students who have passed the partial exams but want to improve the note are presented, they should not renounce to the partial marks so that they will always be average with the highest mark, either partials or this final exam. To be able to make average with the rest of the qualifications, the student has to reach a minimum of 4 out of 10 for this final exam.
Debate sessions (20% of the final grade)
The evaluation of this content consists of two parts: an oral presentation to the classmates and the teacher where the groups must defend their point of view (10% of final qualification, individual note) and a written text explaining the main arguments and justifying the degree of rigor of the two positions of one of the other debates (10% of the final qualification, group qualification).
Practices (20% of the final qualification, group qualification)
The teacher's assessment of the work in the form of a scientific article, the instructions for its writing are provided by the teacher. Students who wish may submit a second version of this work once corrected, the grade will be reevaluated and can increase the qualification to a maximum of three points with respect to the first version.
In order to pass the subject, the student must achieve a minimum of 4 out of 10 in the practices qualification.
General aspects of the evaluation
The student must take a minimum of 5 out of 10 to pass the course.
To participate in the recovery exam, students must have been previously evaluated in a set of activities the weight of which equals a minimum of two thirds of the total grade of the subject or module. Therefore, the students will obtain the "Not Valuable" qualification when the evaluation activities carried out have a weight lower than 67% in the final qualification".
The attendance to the practical sessions (or field trips) is mandatory. The students will obtain the" Not Valuable "qualification when their absence is higher than 20% of the time of the scheduled sessions.
Student’s assessment may experience some modifications depending on the restrictions to face-to-face activities enforced by health authorities.
Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Classroom questions | 10 | 0.75 | 0.03 | 5, 8, 10, 11, 4 |
Partial or final exams | 50 | 6 | 0.24 | 20, 5, 8, 10, 11, 19, 18, 4 |
Practices document | 20 | 0 | 0 | 1, 2, 3, 12, 13, 4, 6, 22 |
Presentation of the debate session | 10 | 0.25 | 0.01 | 21, 7, 13, 14, 17, 15, 16, 9, 4, 22 |
Written document about a debate session | 10 | 0 | 0 | 9, 4, 6, 22 |
Begon M., Townsed C.R., Harper J.L. (2006) Ecology. From Individuals to Ecosystems (4ª ed.). Blackwell Publishing, Oxford
Gotelli N. J. (2001) A primer of Ecology. (3º ed.). Sinauer Associates Inc.,Sunderland, Massachussets.
Krebs CJ (2001) Ecology: The Experimental Analysis of Distribution and Abundance (5ª ed.). Benjamin-Cummings Publishers Co.
Margalef (1986) Ecología (2ª ed), Omega, Barcelona
Molles M.C. (2006) Ecología: conceptos y aplicaciones. McGraw-Hill, Madrid
Odum E.P., Warret G.W. (2006) Fundamentos de Ecología (5ª ed.). Internacional
Pianka E.R. (2000) Evolutionary Ecology. 6th. ed. Addison Wesley Longman, San Francisco.
Piñol & Martínez-Vilalta (2006) Ecología con números. Lynx, Bellaterra, Barcelona.
Ricklefs R.E., Miller G.L. (2000) Ecology (4ª ed.). W.H. Freeman & Co., New York.
Thompson Editores, México.
Townsend C.R., Harper J.L., Begon M. (2003) Essentials of Ecology (2ª Ed.). Blackwell Science, Oxford
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