Overview of Course

Ecology is the exploration of the myriad interactions among organisms and their environments. The goal of this course is to familiarize you with basic ecology concepts and equip you with tools to apply them at different scales (local to global), to various environments (terrestrial, aquatic, and urban), and in the field at ports of call. We will consider the perspectives of various ecological subdisciplines (e.g., ecosystem, landscape, community, population, microbial) throughout the course to best understand the many ways to study and describe ecological dynamics. Global and regional trends in climate, productivity, biome distribution, and biodiversity will be revisited throughout the course in anticipation of each port. Plants and water are unifying themes that will guide our studies of ecosystem productivity, environmental controls, trophic interactions, decomposition, soil development, watershed science, and pollution. Concepts of diversity, disturbance theory, and restoration will also be discussed.

This course is also offered as LIFE 220 through the CSU Area of Natural Sciences.