2005 Handbooks

Ecology is biological science at the level of populations and ecosystems. This unit continues from 200 level ecology and provides core knowledge relevant to the various ecology-related units offered in the Department. Topics include behavioural ecology of both plants and animals; field experimental methodology and design; evolutionary ecology and phylogenetic methods; life-history evolution; competition, predation, interaction webs and community structure; local and regional community dynamics; macroecology. Ecology is intimately related to evolution because the components of ecosystems need to be understood as products of evolution, while the evolutionary process plays itself out in the ecological theatre.

For internal students, there is a 2-hour lecture and a tutorial weekly. Practicals take the form of an optional individual experiment conducted in the student's own time.