History of Ecological Thought

From Thoreau to modern times

A sound definition

Ecology vs Environmentalism

Scientific societies and activist groups

Earth First, Greenpeace, and WWF

Industry support

GMO’s: Pandora’s box or chicken little?

Individuals vs populations

Hawaii: PETA vs Nature Conservancy

Scientific Method and Hypothesis Testing

Judging good science

Hudson River PCB dredging

Electromagnetic radiation and cancer

Sea otters, killer whales and overfishing

Marine mammals and military explosives

What is the organization of ecology?

• The basic fields of ecology
• Population ecology
• Community ecology
• Ecosystem ecology
• Evolutionary ecology

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Why does a Population Size Change?

Density-Independent Forces

Types

Dinosaurs in the K-T boundary – dominance to extinction

Density-Dependent Forces and the Carrying Capacity

Types of these forces

Why killing coyotes causes trouble for their prey

Stochasticity

Demographic and Environmental

A butterfly flaps its wings and golden frogs go extinct

Life and death of small populations

Unlimited, Exponential Population Growth 

Examples and conditions under which this occurs

Human population growth

General theoretical conditions in natural settings

Derive the Base Population Growth Equation

Factors that change population growth

Logistic Population Growth Rates

Carrying Capacity

What is it and what determines it?

Zebra mussels in the Hudson

How do we model logistic growth?

Expand the base exponential model

Exponential Growth vs logistic growth

• How many humans can we expect?
• K vs. r selected growth rates
• Why most weeds are weedy
• Edge species 
• Why we don’t get Oaks in young forests
• K-selected species

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Community Classifications

• What is a community?
• Why are there no rainforests in NY?
• Is there tundra in the tropics?

Island Biogeography

• Why losing 95% of a park only lead to a 10% species loss

Keystone Species

• Lose one and the system crashes?
• Do the big things run the world?

Succession 

• Why a deer carcass is like a fallen tree
• Types of succession
• Do communities climax? Or is this an artificial construct?

Measuring Biodiversity

• What exactly is biodiversity?
• How many species are there: 1.4 or 30 million? 
• How do we measure it?
• Why is the Amazon of Amazonian proportions?

Global distribution of biodiversity

• Biodiversity Hot Spots
• Latitude versus altitude
• An overview of the world’s biomes

Community Stability and Diversity

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Trophic Structure

Top down or Bottom up

Is a community controlled by sunlight or terminal predators?

Keystone species – not just those in Pennsylvania

Nutrient cycles and food webs

How does energy flow through a system?

Where does our water come from?

Where does our waste go?

Ecological footprints: My SUV is bigger than yours

What do we eat and what eats us?

Ecosystem Processes

What are they? What changes them?

What has the ecosystem done for me lately?

Global Changes

Is there evidence of Global Warming?

Acid Rain in the Adirondacks 

Dead lakes and crystal clear water

Global transport of contaminants

From Ohio to polar bear milk

Ecosystem engineers

• Exemplary examples
• Brazilian peccary wallows and frog extinction
• Beavers in Massachusetts
• Elephants and forest destruction
• Are cows good bison substitutes?
• Are these just keystone species?

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Times change - due to us

What can we expect to see in the future?

What are we doing?

What are you going to do about it?

Habitat Loss and Fragmentation 

Why is this possibly the single largest contributor to species loss?

Edge effects – Don’t stand too close

Invasive species

Is that kudzu on the shipping label, sir?

Alien Ant Farms and Hawaiian species loss

Disease ecology

Should I care if Foot and Mouth disease is present in Britain?

Emerging infectious disease: is West Nile really a concern?

Ecotoxicology

PCBs in the Hudson – Should we dredge?

Where do hormone replacement and birth control pills go?

Sex and the life of the single alligator

What are you going to do about this?