Undergraduate Course: Principles of Ecology (ECSC08006)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | An introduction to the factors determining the distribution and patterns of abundance of organisms, and which relate plant and animal populations to their environment in both terrestrial and marine environments. It includes the physiological ecology of plants and animals, the life history strategies by which organisms adapt to their environments, trophic ecology and the ecological significance of the niche, biodiversity and co-existance. The importance of evolutionary history and succession for understanding patterns of distribution will also be emphasised. The course includes an introduction to marine ecology and ecosystems. Finally a section concerning the influence of the human species on ecosystems will be presented. A practical project report must be submitted as part of the course. The course will include basic statistical methods training. |
| Course description |
Not entered
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2019/20, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 99 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 25,
Dissertation/Project Supervision Hours 20,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 15,
Fieldwork Hours 15,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 3,
Formative Assessment Hours 2,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Revision Session Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
112 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
67 %,
Coursework
33 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Assessment details
Written Exam: 67%, Course Work: 33 %, Practical Exam: 0%.
The exam in the December diet will cover the theoretical and statistical aspects of the course. The course work assessment takes the form of the field project report.
Assessment deadlines
One page project outline deadline: Wednesday October 2nd 2019 by 10am
The project report deadline: Wednesday November 27th 2019 by 10am.
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| Feedback |
Students will receive formative feedback from practical demonstrators and teaching staff on their hypotheses and experimental design for a six week group practical field project. This will take the form of a personalised one page sheet addressing specific issues relevant to each group's project proposals. As projects proceed students will receive weekly feedback from laboratory demonstrators and where necessary the teaching staff. Students will receive formative feedback from the course statistics lecturer, Prof Josephine Pemberton concerning the proposed statistical analysis of their project data. Formative feedback will be received following a group oral presentation of the project work. This feedback will immediately follow the presentations and will take the form of written peer assessment and oral suggestions from the project demonstrators and teaching staff. Project reports will receive a written half page sheet of summative feedback from project demonstrators. Feedback will be given on summative assessment at the end of the course and all students will be invited to an examination feedback session following release of course results.
Examples of feedback can be found here: http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/geosciences/teaching-organisation/staff/feedback-and-marking
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| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
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| Main Exam Diet S1 (December) | | 2:00 | | | Resit Exam Diet (August) | Principles of Ecology | 2:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a broad knowledge of the defining principles of ecology and understand the factors controlling the abundance and distribution of organisms globally.
- Understand and use introductory statistics; hypothesis testing, basic experimental design and field sampling.
- Demonstrate a broad knowledge of the ecological theory explaining patterns of spatial and temporal variations in species numbers in both terrestrial and marine environments.
- Carry out a scientific research project related to an ecological question: formulate clear, precise and potentially answerable questions, collect unbiased data and test hypotheses.
- Communicate by means of an oral presentation and a written scientific research report the basis of their research findings and through this critically analyse mainstream concepts within Ecological Science.
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Reading List
The following are generally useful as sources of first reference on many topics. They cost £20-35 each.
Begon, M., Townsend, C. R. & Harper, J. L. (2006). Ecology (4th edn). Blackwell Science, Oxford. (The recommended text for this course)
Colinvaux, P. (1993). Ecology 2. Wiley, New York. (Readable and very good on some aspects)
Grime, J. P., & Pierce, S. (2012). The evolutionary strategies that shape ecosystems. John Wiley & Sons.
Ingrouille M. (1995). Historical Ecology of the British Flora. Chapman and Hall.
Kaiser MJ et al. (2011) Marine Ecology. Oxford University Press. (Highly recommended for overview of marine ecology & ecosystems)
Krebs, C. J. (1994 & 2001). Ecology. (4th & 5th edns). Harper Collins, New York. (Good on animal populations)
Levinton (2010) Marine Biology. Oxford University Press (Good for more in-depth review of biological topics)
Molles, M. (2015). Ecology: concepts and applications. McGraw-Hill Education.
Ricklefs, R. E. & Miller, G. L. (1999). Ecology. (4th edn). Freeman, New York.
Townsend, C.R., Begon, M. and Harper, J.L. (2014). Essentials of Ecology (2nd Edition). Wiley. (Highly recommended).
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
https://path.is.ed.ac.uk/courses/ECSC08006_SV1_SEM1 |
| Keywords | Principles of Ecology |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Barbra Harvie
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Emma Latto
Tel: (0131 6)50 5932
Email: |
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