BioCore: SU: Ecology and Evolution

Ecosystem and community structure, population growth, species interactions and niche dynamics, population and chromosomal genetics, speciation in fossil records, ecology of animal behavior, applied ecology. Prerequisites: BIOL 001 and BIOL 002, or BCOR 011 and BCOR 012, or BCOR 021; MATH 019 or MATH 021.

Prereqs enforced by the system: BIOL 01/02 or BCOR 11/12 or BCOR 21; and MATH 019 or MATH 021; Must register for a lab A01-A04; CDE students only even after level restrictions removed; Degree students register for BCOR 102 A

BCOR 102 takes a quantitative approach to understand general principles of ecological and evolutionary change, and then applies those general results to real-world problems. How can we predict changes in the abundance of individuals? How can multiple species coexist in a community? How fast can a population adapt to a changing environment? The math is mostly just simple algebra, but you'll see a lot of equations.

This course combines three lectures and one laboratory exercise per week. Labs involve group and individual work. Students should expect to spend 2-4 hours per week on coursework outside of class, with additional time for exam preparation.

There will be hourly midterm exams, quizzes, and a cumulative final exam. There will also be short weekly homework assignments. Labs will require short write-ups and a couple of formal lab reports. The laboratory component will account for about a quarter of the total points for the course.