1. komponenta

Lecture type	Total
Lectures	30
Practicum	30

* Load is given in academic hour (1 academic hour = 45 minutes)

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Students will be able to:
1. Describe the basic principles of ecology
2. Recognize the importance of molecular techniques in ecology
3. Recognize the importance of ecological processes in launching the evolutionary mechanisms
4. Identify physical resources and explain the relationship between organisms and the physical environment
5. Record and explain species interactions
6. Assess key concepts of terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystem functioning

COURSE CONTENT:

LECTURES:

1. Definitions of ecology, objects and aims. Subdisciplines in ecology. Ecology as an interdisciplinary science. The abiotic factors and conditions for life; ecological valence.
2. Temperature as an ecological factor. The effects of temperature on organisms. Principles of heat transfer. Poikilotherms, homeotherms, and heterotherms.
3. Light as an ecological factor. Organism adaptations to light stimuli; circadian rhythms, photoperiodism and seasonality, bioluminescence.
4. Water and metabolic gases. Water cycles between Earth and the atmosphere. Moisture as an ecological factor. Organism adaptations for water balance. Oxygen and carbon dioxide in water and atmosphere.
5. Properties of populations; population density, dispersion, age structure, population growth and life history patterns. Patterns of population fluctuation. Metapopulation. Theories of population regulation.
6. Interspecific interactions; intraspecific and interspecific competition, ecological niche, the effects of competition. Symbiosis, mutualism, commensalism and amensalism.
7. Interspecific interactions; predation, predator and prey adaptations, the Lotka-Volterra model, functional and numerical responses to predation. Parasitism, parasites adaptations.
8. Community Structure, Biodiversity, ecotone and succession.
9. Ecosystem energetic, primary and secondary production and trophic structure.
10. Biogeochemical cycles; nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.
11. Importance of ecology and evolution in field of molecular biology (ecology & evolution vs molecular biology); speciation, extinction, social behaviour, altruism
12. Global environmental change (global warming, the ozone hole, acid rains and habitat loss).
13. Biomes and the major terrestrial ecosystems; tundra, grasslands, shrublands and deserts, taiga, temperate and tropical forests.
14. Structure and function of freshwater and marine ecosystems
15. Synthesis and repetition

PRACTICUM:
1. Introduction
2. Dissolved oxygen in freshwater
3. Carbon dioxide in freshwater
4. Population age structure; demography
5. Spatial distribution of population
6. Predation; insect predators
7. Community structure; diversity indices
8. Community structure; similarity indices
9. Primary production
10. Secondary production part 1
11. Secondary production part 2
12. Basic plankton community properties: ideal plankton
13. Plankton adaptations
14. Specific adaptations to subterranean habitats
15. Morphological adaptations of benthic invertebrates to stream flow

1. Mihaljević, Z. Opća ekologija. Nastavni materijali. www.pmf.unizg.hr/biol/predmet/eko
2. Smith, R.L., Smith, T.M., 2006: Elements of Ecology. Pearson, Benjamin/Cummings Science Publishing, ISBN 0-321-41029-7
3. Ternjej, I., Kerovec, M., Tomev Mitrikeski, P., Jelenić, S., Mihaljević, Z., 2014: Živi svijet 4. Profil, Zagreb.
4. Relevantni članci iz vodećih međunarodnih multidisciplinarnih časopisa (Science, Nature).

Izborni predmeti - Regular study - Molecular Biology