population ecology

Among other things, the Population Ecology course will examine:

growth dynamics of single and multi-age class populations

why stochastic growth is always less than deterministic growth (the Lake Woebegone problem)

transient dynamics and momentum

why periodic matrices are superior to annual ones

elasticity and the importance of being Ernestine

competition and why coexistence is likely in the real world

predation, herbivory and whether tolerance is dynamically superior to resistance

metapopulations and why they go down the drain when the sink is too deep

The first class meeting is August 27, 2008. Since it will meet in a non-public area of the American Museum, please meet at the 1^st floor security entrance (under the steps on Central Park West) at 9:00 AM.

Date	Topic	Chapter
08/27	Introduction and Abundance
09/03	Exponential and geometric growth	1
09/10	Density-dependent models of continuous and discrete-time population growth	2
09/17	Age and stage structured models – the basics	3
09/24	Age and stage structured models – adding complexity with stochasticity and density-dependence	3
10/01	no classes
10/08	no classes	3
10/15	Age and stage structured models – transients, momentum and even more complexity	3
10/22	Sensitivity and elasticity analyses of population growth
10/29	Metapopulation dynamics	4
11/05	Spectacled eiders – a case study
11/12	no classes	5
11/19	Competition
11/28	Turkey Break
12/03	Predation	6
12/10	Island Biogeography and Ecological Succession	7, 8

Reading are from NJ Gotelli. 2008. A Primer of Ecology, 4th Edition, Sinauer, Sunderland.

Your grade in this course will be based on a combination of class participation and the quality of a "no more than 5 page" essay with at least 10 post-2003 citations that examines how one of the lecture topics (or portion thereof) is crucial to modern conservation or managment efforts. An electronic version of the essay - in a format compatible with WORD (Office Professional 2003) - is due 12/17/08 by 12 noon.