BSC 385 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Snowshoe Hare, Ecosystem Ecology, Natural Resource Management

• School: University of Alabama
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BSC 385
• Professor: Carla Atkinson

Document Summary

Natural resource management (e. g. , the relationship between biodiversity and (cid:862)e(cid:272)osyste(cid:373) servi(cid:272)es(cid:863)) Environmental problems (e. g. , climate change, pollution, invasive species) Human health (e. g. , emerging diseases, antibiotic resistance, gene x environment interactions, senescence) Abiotic (physical) environment: temperature, water availability, soil, salinity, nutrients. Biotic (biological) environment: predators, prey, parasites, pathogens, symbionts. Organismal ecology: interactions between individuals and their environment: physiological ecology, behavioral ecology. Population ecology: dynamics of a group of individuals of a single species: population genetics, demography. Community ecology: interactions among a group of coexisting species. Ecosystem ecology: interactions between ecological communities and their abiotic environment. E(cid:272)osphere or (cid:271)iosphere: su(cid:373) of all earth"s e(cid:272)osyste(cid:373)s. Observations: coat color of a snowshoe hare changes in spring and fall, color change is asynchronous among individuals, highest mortality is observed in spring and fall (compared to winter and summer) Proximate causes: direct effects of external stimuli; direct, immediate causes, e. g. , temperature and photoperiod.