Biology 357 – Evolutionary Ecology Professor: Eric R Biology 357 – Evolutionary Ecology Professor: Eric R. Pianka Office: Patterson 125, Mon., Fri. 1-2 PM 471-7472, erp@austin.utexas.edu Instructor and Course Websites: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~varanus/eric.html http://www.zo.utexas.edu/courses/bio357/ Download Syllabus from above site

No Teaching Assistant Discussion sections will not meet officially but can be used by students for self-organized study groups Wednesday 10-11, CAL 200 Wednesday 11-12, CAL 0.120 Friday 9-10, MEZ 1.102 Friday 10-11, UTC 1.118

Pianka, Evolutionary Ecology, 6th or 7th editions You can also read these on line at Blackboard’s “Course Documents” Please Read Chapter 1 Chapter 8 30 readings: “Scientific Methods” “Natural Selection” [Also, please look over Chapters 2 through 7 to make certain you are familiar with that background material]

For this generation, who must confront the shortsightedness of their ancestors . . .

An Illustrated Guide to Theoretical Ecology Suggested Additional Reading Case, An Illustrated Guide to Theoretical Ecology (read pp. 79-100) Gotelli, A Primer of Ecology (pp. 2-85) Ginzburg and Golenberg, Lectures in Theoretical Population Biology (read pp. 1-5 and 193-219) Ted J. Case

Exams:. First Exam: 26 Sept. Second Exam: 31 Oct. Third Exam: 5 Dec Exams: First Exam: 26 Sept. Second Exam: 31 Oct. Third Exam: 5 Dec. Final Exam: 13 December, 2-5 PM Best 2 of 3 = 50% + Final 50% [No “Make Up” Exams!]

Grades:. Three hour exams. 26 Sept. 31 Oct. > Best 2 of 3 = 50% Grades: Three hour exams 26 Sept. 31 Oct. > Best 2 of 3 = 50% 5 Dec. Final 50% : 13 December, 2-5 PM +/- Grading System will be used [No “Make Up” Exams!]

Politicians and other advertisers equate ecology with “beer cans and pollution” and environment with “clean air and clean water,” in short the human environment. Anthropocentric. All other organisms have environments, too. Environment is defined as all the physical and biotic factors impinging upon a particular organismic unit, as well as everything affected by that organismic unit.

An organismic unit could be an individual, a population, or even all of the organisms living together in a particular ecosystem, an entire community. These constitute different levels of organization in the biological hierarchy of life. Ecology is defined as the study of the interactions between organisms and their environments.

Ecology requires wild organisms in the natural environments within which they evolved and to which they have become adapted.

Ecology requires wild organisms in the natural environments within which they evolved and to which they have become adapted. Once, we were surrounded by wilderness and wild animals, now we surround them.

Anthropocentrism — humans see themselves at the center of the universe. What good are rattlesnakes?

Snakes in Cages

“Love” in Vials

Captive organisms are out of context, they don’t have a natural environment (they might as well be dead as far as an ecologist is concerned) Henry David Thoreau (1854) Walden “Book of Life” metaphor Holmes Rolston (1985) “Vanishing Book of Life” Humans are just beginning to be able to read it, but its pages are tattered and torn, and entire chapters have been ripped out. Need to save as much as possible (conservation biology), but also must READ it (ecology) before it is gone. Other Earthlings have a right to exist, too.

Holmes Rolston

Hierarchical Organization of the Biological Sciences <—————— Integrative Biology——————————>

Hierarchical Organization of the Biological Sciences Please go to course website and read NY Times: “Depth of Time” article Also, please read Nee’s one page commentary in Nature (downloadable pdf)

Scaling in Biology Daniel T. Haydon

Time and Space Scaling in Ecology Time and Space Scaling in Ecology Daily movements (home range, territory) Dispersal events (immigration, emigration) Colonization of new areas and habitats Geographic range expansion or contraction Geographical patterns of diversity Daniel R. Brooks

Models may be verbal, graphical, or mathematical Models may be verbal, graphical, or mathematical Model: mere “caricatures of nature” (all models are imperfect) Trade offs in construction of models precision generality realism