Garcia-Robledo & Kuprewicz
Community Ecology Syllabus – Spring 2017
| Date | Topic | Assignments | Readings | |
| March | ||||
| 7 | Tue | Competition: Niches and models | Ch.s 1 & 7. Rodriguez-Cabal et al. (2012), Stachowicz (2012) | |
| 9 | Thu | Competition: Resources | Ch. 7, Tilman (1977) | |
| 14 | Tue | SPRING RECESS | ||
| 16 | Thu | |||
| 21 | Tue | Competition: Evidence | Ch. 8, Hautier et al. (2009), Wilson et al. (2007), Grant and Grant (2006) | |
| 23 | Thu | Predation: Patterns and examples | Problem set 3 assigned | Ch. 5 |
| 28 | Tue | Predation: Models and consequences | Problem set 3 due | Ch. 5, Terborgh et al. (2001) |
| 30 | Thu | Mutualisms: Patterns and examples | Paper critique 2 assigned | Ch. 9 |
| April | ||||
| 4 | Tue | Mutualisms: Models and stability | Ch. 9, Roy and Widmer (1999), Holland et al. (2006), Palmer et al. (2008), Leigh Jr. (2010) | |
| 6 | Thu | Ecological interaction networks | Ch. 10, Bascompte (2010), Thébault and Fontaine (2010) | |
| 11 | Tue | Biodiversity, species abundance, and diversity indices | Paper critique 2 due | Jost (2006), Tuomisto (2010) |
| 13 | Thu | Island biogeography | Problem set 4 assigned | Ch. 2, Gotelli (2008), Ricklefs and Lovette (1999) |
| 18 | Tue | Null models and neutral theory | Ch. 13, Hubbell (1997), McGill et al. (2006), Rosindell et al. (2011) | |
| 20 | Thu | Coexistence mechanisms | Problem set 4 due | Ch. 14, Chesson (2000), Siepielski and McPeek (2010) |
| 25 | Tue | Biodiversity and ecosystem function | Ch. 3, Tilman (1999), Cardinale et al. (2006) | |
| 27 | Thu | Final exam (take-home) assigned | ||
| May | ||||
| 2 | Tue | Final exam due | ||
References (readings) for COMMUNITY ECOLOGY section of EEB 5301
Bascompte, J. (2010) Structure and dynamics of ecological networks. Science, 329, 765-766.
Cardinale, B. J., Srivastava, D. S., Duffy, J. E., Wright, J. P., Downing, A. L., Sankaran, M. & Jouseau, C. (2006) Effects of biodiversity on the functioning of trophic groups and ecosystems. Nature, 443, 989-992.
Chesson, P. (2000) Mechanisms of maintenance of species diversity. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 31, 343-366.
Gotelli, N. J. (2008) A Primer of Ecology. Sinauer Associates, Inc, Sunderland, Massachusetts, USA.
Grant, P. R. & Grant, B. R. (2006) Evolution of character displacement in Darwin’s finches. science, 313, 224-226.
Hautier, Y., Niklaus, P. A. & Hector, A. (2009) Competition for light causes plant biodiversity loss after eutrophication. Science, 324, 636-638.
Holland, J. N., Okuyama, T. & DeAngelis, D. L. (2006) Comment on “asymmetric coevolutionary networks facilitate biodiversity maintenance”. Science, 313, 1887b-1887b.
Hubbell, S. P. (1997) A unified theory of biogeography and relative species abundance and its application to tropical rain forests and coral reefs. Coral Reefs, 16, S9-S21.
Jost, L. (2006) Entropy and diversity. Oikos, 113, 363-375.
Leigh Jr., E. G. (2010) The evolution of mutualism. Journal of evolutionary biology, 23, 2507-2528.
McGill, B. J., Maurer, B. A. & Weiser, M. D. (2006) Empirical evaluation of neutral theory. Ecology, 87, 1411-1423.
Palmer, T. M., Stanton, M. L., Young, T. P., Goheen, J. R., Pringle, R. M. & Karban, R. (2008) Breakdown of an ant-plant mutualism follows the loss of large herbivores from an African savanna. Science, 319, 192-195.
Ricklefs, R. E. & Lovette, I. J. (1999) The roles of island area per se and habitat diversity in the species–area relationships of four Lesser Antillean faunal groups. Journal of Animal Ecology, 68, 1142-1160.
Rodriguez-Cabal, M. A., Barrios-Garcia, M. N. & Nuñez, M. A. (2012) Positive interactions in ecology: filling the fundamental niche. Ideas in Ecology and Evolution, 5.
Rosindell, J., Hubbell, S. P. & Etienne, R. S. (2011) The unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography at age ten. Trends in ecology & evolution, 26, 340-348.
Roy, B. A. & Widmer, A. (1999) Floral mimicry: a fascinating yet poorly understood phenomenon. Trends in plant science, 4, 325-330.
Siepielski, A. M. & McPeek, M. A. (2010) On the evidence for species coexistence: a critique of the coexistence program. Ecology, 91, 3153-3164.
Stachowicz, J. (2012) Niche expansion by positive interactions: realizing the fundamentals. A comment on Rodriguez-Cabal et al. Ideas in Ecology and Evolution, 5.
Terborgh, J., Lopez, L., Nunez, P., Rao, M., Shahabuddin, G., Orihuela, G., Riveros, M., Ascanio, R., Adler, G. H., Lambert, T. D. & Balbas, L. (2001) Ecological meltdown in predator-free forest fragments. Science, 294, 1923-1926.
Thébault, E. & Fontaine, C. (2010) Stability of ecological communities and the architecture of mutualistic and trophic networks. Science, 329, 853-856.
Tilman, D. (1977) Resource competition between plankton algae: an experimental and theoretical approach. Ecology, 58, 338-348.
Tilman, D. (1999) The ecological consequences of changes in biodiversity: a search for general principles. Ecology, 80, 1455-1474.
Tuomisto, H. (2010) A diversity of beta diversities: straightening up a concept gone awry. Part 1. Defining beta diversity as a function of alpha and gamma diversity. Ecography, 33, 2-22.
Wilson, J. B., Spijkerman, E. & Huisman, J. (2007) Is There Really Insufficient Support for Tilman’s R* Concept? A Comment on Miller et al. The american naturalist, 169, 700-706.
