Functional ecology

Teacher(s)

Nieberding Caroline; Wesselingh Renate;

Language

English

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of ecology (for instance LBIO1117)

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Main themes

In this advanced ecology course we cover aspects of individual and population ecology that are important in adaptation and evolution, such as ecophysiology, phenotypic plasticity, dispersal and life history variation.

Content

In this advanced ecology course, we treat aspects of individual and population ecology that are important for adaptation: fitness and trade-offs between phenotypic traits, notably life-history traits, the role of phenotypic plasticity in adaptation, the importance of behaviour, especially learning behaviour, in local adaptation. We will discuss experimental studies to illustrate the collection and analysis of data in functional ecology.

Teaching methods

Theoretical course with lectures.

Evaluation methods

Written examen with open questions, a separate part for each lecturer. The final score is calculated as the average of the two scores. If a passing score (10/20 or more) was obtained for one of the two parts of the exam, a student can ask for this grade to be maintained for the next exam by writing to the lecturer responsible for this score.

Other information

The course will be taught in English, but questions can be asked in French.

Online resources

The contents of the course and announcements are available on Moodle: LBIO1317 on Moodle

Bibliography

Livre de référence "Ecologie, l'économie de la nature» par Ricklefs et Relyea (2019), disponible à la biliothèque des Sciences et en ligne pour les étudiants inscrits à UCLouvain.

Teaching materials

• Ecologie (l'économie de la nature) de Ricklefs et Relyea

Faculty or entity

BIOL