BASIC CONCEPTS IN ECOLOGY 
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY 507 Section#33583 
SPRING 1998

Drs. Louis Gross (gross@tiem.utk.edu) & Mac Post (wmp@ornl.gov) Home
Page: http://www.tiem.utk.edu/~gross/eeb507.html 
Meeting time: 9:05-10:30 MW 
Place:  Dabney 575

Objectives: The goal of this course is to provide a survey of key
ideas, methods and approaches in ecology. The intended audience is
students with extensive undergraduate background in biology, some
exposure to undergraduate ecology, and the desire to carry out research
in ecology. Due to the extensive nature of the topic, the course will
include a variety of survey lectures which rapidly cover the key
concepts and provide an introduction to the specialized literature.
Participants should leave the course with a broad understanding of the
key open issues of modern ecology, the ability to read with
comprehension the research literature in the field, and the capability
to develop their own research projects.

The course will have both lectures and discussions. Attendance may be
required at additional meetings for special discussions or seminars.
Students who audit must attend lectures, do the assigned readings and
participate in discussions, including leading some discussions. The
success of this course depends on a large amount of effort being made
by both students and faculty. Note that your participation in class
will be taken into consideration in your final grade.

This is a graduate-level course, and thus we expect graduate-level
performance.  You are expected to conduct extensive readings outside
the assigned material and be actively involved in leading and
suggesting original topics for discussion.

Class Grading:

We will assign 2 term papers, worth 25% each, give 2 tests, worth 15%
each, have one computer-based project counting 10%, and evaluate your
participation in discussions for the final 10% of the grade.

Topics for term papers (1) and (2) are as follows:  Choose according to
your research interests (1) a paper published in Ecology or Ecological
Monographs during the 1950's or 1960's and (2) a paper published in
these journals during the 1970's or 1980's. The papers chosen should be
related to some particular theme, which must be approved by the
instructors. Carry out an assessment of these papers results relative
to the literature prior to their time of publication on topics the
paper is concerned with. The term papers should be written in standard
review-style, as if you were writing an article for Trends in Ecology
and Evolution. For the second of these term papers, include a section
describing more recent ideas related to the paper, referencing articles
appearing in the 1990's. Each paper should be 5-10 pages in length, not
including references or figures. The objective here is to provide the
possibility that combining these two term papers and with some
additional work, a participant could submit the results to TREE for
consideration for publication.

There will be a computer project that shall be done by groups of two
participants for each project. The objective here is to both
familiarize participants with the use of spatially-explicit simulation
tools, and to encourage participants who may be interested in teaching
careers to work on a project that could aid undergraduate understanding
of some ecological principle. The project is:

Using EcoBeaker, develop a laboratory similar to those included in the
Lab Guide, to illustrate an ecological concept for which no Lab exists
in the Guide. This should not entail any new programming, as you can
use the built-in features of the program to develop new simulations.
However, if you want to revise the program, the C++ code can be
obtained. The lab should be written up similar to those in the current
guide, and appropriate for use in an undergraduate ecology course (not
necessarily limited to general ecology). An example would be a lab on
predator-prey cycles, which is not included among the current labs, or
a lab to compare the results of a spatially-explicit simulation to more
aggregated models such as those in Populus. Before beginning this
project, write up a one-page summary of what you propose to discuss and
have this approved by the instructors.