Bi6340 Animal ecology

Faculty of Science
Spring 2008 - for the purpose of the accreditation
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 2 credit(s) (fasci plus compl plus > 4). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
prof. RNDr. Andrea Vetešníková Šimková, PhD. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. RNDr. Milan Gelnar, CSc.
Department of Botany and Zoology – Biology Section – Faculty of Science
Contact Person: prof. RNDr. Andrea Vetešníková Šimková, PhD.
Prerequisites (in Czech)
( Bi5080 Basics of ecology || Bi2000 Animal System and Evolution )&&( Bi1030 Syst. & evol. of invertebrates || Bi2000 Animal System and Evolution )&&( Bi2090 System evolution vertebrates )&&( Bi5040 Biostatistics - basic course )
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
Ecological faktors and its classifications, aminal adaptations to environment, climatic conditions, nutrition and biotic factors, population and community ecology,ecosystem, trophic chains, ecosystem metabolism and processes, production, biomes,pollution and global warning.
Syllabus
  • Introduction to ecology, definition and roots of ecology, scientific interference, ecology as e system, patterns of living world, ecology today. Environment, ecological factors and its classification, limiting factors, ecological valence and tolerance, selection and adaptations, genotype and phenotype context of speciation. Climate, atmospheric movement, climate modification, microclimate, ecological scienificance of climate diagrams. Important abiotic factors that limit distribution: - temperature, thermal relations in animals, poikilotherms and homoiotherms, animal heat strategies; - lihgt, nature of light, light tolerance, photoperiodism, annual, circadian and other periodicity and rhytms; - moisure ans water, structure of water, physical properties of water, humidity, water balance in animals; - soil, definition of soil, soil as an environment, soil characteristics, development and major orders, humus, other physical and chemical environmental factors; Important biotic factors that limit distributions: - intraspecific competition and its nature, main characteristics, actual effects of intraspecific competition, density dependence, negative competition, food ecology; - reproducitve effort, cost of reproduction, diapause and dormancy, ecology of sex, paradoxial costs of sex, geografphical and taxonomical distribution of sex, individual variability, maintenance of variability and biological heterogenity; - interspecific competition, predation, canibalism, predato-prey systems, herbivory, commensalism, ammnesalism, parasitism and mutualism, parasitism and disease, parasite diversity. Population ecology, density, distribution and age, mortality, natality and migrality, structure of population growth and dynamics, population regulation, r-K selection. Community ecology, community organization and structure, spatial patterns, niche, synusia and guild, species dominance, species diversity, theories of diversity, vertical structures, horizontal patterns, island ecology. Community change, temporal structure, terrestrial and aquatic succession, cuccession and time, climax. Ecosystem ecology, production in ecosystems, primary and secondary production, trophic structure, food chains and webs, trophic levels, ecological pyramids. Ecosystems diversity, biomes, grasslands and savannas, shrublands and deserts, tundra and tajga, temperate and tropical forests, alkes and ponds, flowing-water ecosystems, wetlands, oceans, coral reefs, estuaries and salt marshes. Biosphere, environmental chemistry, lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, Earth-air-water factory, essential nutrients, cycles in ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles, water cycle, gasseous cycles, sedimentary cycles. Effects of humans, human population growth, loss of wildlife trough human activity, habitat destruction, how to solve ecological problems, indicator species, waste and population. Recommended literature: Begon M., Harper J. I., Towsend C. R.: Ecology, Individuals, populations and communities, Blackwell Sci. Publ., 1991, 945 pp. Begon M., Mortimer M.: Population Ecology, Blackwell Sci. Publ., 1993, 220 pp. Brewer R.: The Science of Ecology, Saunders Coll. Pulb., 1994, 773 pp. Cockburn A.: An Introduction to Evolutionary Ecology, Blackwell Sci. Publ., 1991, 370 pp. Collin P. H.: Dictionary of Ecology and the Environment, Peter Collin Publishing, 1992, 236 pp. Cox, C. B., Moore P. D.: Biogeography. An Ecological and Evolutionary Approach, Blackwell Sci. Publ., 1994, 326 pp. Duvigneaud P.: Ekologická syntéza, Academia Praha, 1988, 414 pp. Dykyjová D. a kol.: Metody studia ekosystémů, Academia Praha, 1989, 690 pp. Losos, B.: Ekologie živočichů, SPN Praha, 1984, 316 pp. Michal I.: Ekologická stabilita, Veronica a Ministerstvo životního prostředí ČR, 1994, 275 pp. Odum E. P.: Základy ekologie, Academia Praha, 1977, 733 pp. Rainswell R. W., Brimblecombe P., Dent D. L. Liss P. S.: Environmental Chemistry, The Earth-Air-Water factory, Edward Arnold, London-melbourne-Aucland, 1994, 184 pp. Smith R. L.: Elements of Ecology, Harper Collins Pulb., 1992, 617 pp.
Literature
  • Doporučená literatura viz osnova přednášky
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
Listed among pre-requisites of other courses
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2010 - only for the accreditation, Spring 2003, Spring 2004, Spring 2005, Spring 2006, Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Autumn 2010, Autumn 2011, Autumn 2011 - acreditation, Autumn 2012, Autumn 2013, Autumn 2014, Autumn 2015, Autumn 2016, autumn 2017, Autumn 2018, Autumn 2019, Autumn 2020, autumn 2021, Autumn 2022, Autumn 2023, Autumn 2024.