Ecology on Campus, 1st edition

PREFACE:  TEACHING AND LEARNING ECOLOGY IN A CAMPUS ENVIRONMENT

1. DESCRIBING A POPULATION

            Exercise A: Seed weights in legumes

            Exercise B:  Needle length in conifers

           

2. ALLOMETRIC RELATIONSHIPS

            Exercise A:  Modeling size and shape relations

            Exercise B:  Heat exchange in beetles

            Exercise C:  Size and shape of trees

 

3. ESTIMATING POPULATION SIZE

            Exercise A: Mark-recapture simulation

            Exercise B:  Mark-recapture estimate of a student population

            Exercise C:  Mark-recapture estimate of a mealworm population

 

4. POPULATION GROWTH

            Exercise A:  Calculating r from a published data set

            Exercise B:  Comparing exponential and logistic growth

            Exercise C:  Population growth of yeasts

           

5. DEMOGRAPHY 

            Exercise A:  Demography simulation

            Exercise B:  Developing a life table from the alumni newsletter

            Exercise C:  Demography of campus trees

 

6. POPULATION GENETICS

            Exercise A:  Population genetics simulation

            Exercise B:  Hardy Weinberg equilibrium in a fruit fly culture

                       

7. SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATIONS

            Exercise A:  Dispersion of plants in a lawn community

            Exercise B:  Dispersion of herbivores on plant resource units

            Exercise C:  Dispersion of isopods in an artificial habitat

 

8. THE NICHE

            Exercise A:  Feeding niches in the community aquarium

            Exercise B:  Niches of birds at a feeding station

            Exercise C:  Plant niches on a disturbance gradient

 

9. THE CONCEPT OF THE COMMUNITY

            Exercise A:  Geographical distributions of tree species

            Exercise B:  Direction of exposure and plant communities

            Exercise C:  Microbial communities on a salt concentration gradient

 

10. COMPETITION

            Exercise A:  Demonstrating allelopathy

            Exercise B:  Competition within and between species

            Exercise C:  Competition problems

 

11. PREDATION AND PARASITISM

            Exercise A:  Predator/prey simulation

            Exercise B:  Predation by Daphnia on Euglena

            Exercise C:  Simulating functional responses of a predator

 

12. MUTUALISM

            Exercise A:  Effects of Rhizobium on legumes

            Exercise B:  Microbial symbionts in termite gut and lichen thallus

            Exercise C:  Flower/pollinator mutualism

 

13.  BIODIVERSITY

            Exercise A:  Measuring biodiversity of campus birds

            Exercise B:  Measuring invertebrate biodiversity

            Exercise C:  Measuring biodiversity in sweep net samples

 

14. ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION

            Exercise A:  Succession in hay infusions

            Exercise B:  Comparing r-selection and K-selection in trees

           

15. PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL ATTRIBUTES OF SOILS

            Exercise A: Physical properties of soils

            Exercise B: Soil pH in two microhabitats

            Exercise C: Nutrient capture by soils

 

16. AQUATIC SYSTEMS

            Exercise A:  Dissolved oxygen and temperature

            Exercise B:  Sediment load and water clarity

            Exercise C:  LD₅₀ determination for a pesticide

 

17. ENERGY FLOW

            Exercise A: Productivity of plankton

            Exercise B: Pyramid of biomass for plankton

            Exercise C: Estimating ecological efficiency of leaf miners          

 

18.  ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY

            Exercise A: Biogeography simulation game

            Exercise B: Species-area relationship for bird communities

 

 

APPENDIX 1:  The variance

APPENDIX 2:  Critical values for the t-test

APPENDIX 3:  Correlation and regression

APPENDIX 4:  Critical values for the Mann-Whitney U test

APPENDIX 5:  Critical values for the Chi-square test

APPENDIX 6:  A table of random numbers

APPENDIX 7:  Writing a laboratory report

Comprehensive glossary of ecological terms