Community Ecology BDC331 Pt1

1. Community Ecology BDC331 Pt1 Mark J Gibbons, Room 4.102, BCB Department, UWC Tel: 021 959 2475. Email: mgibbons@uwc.ac.za Image acknowledgements – http://www.google.com

2. Course Aims and Structure Objectives: • To train students in some of the basic theories of community ecology • To provide students with the necessary skills to enable them to undertake surveys and identify biological communities Required Background: Any course on community ecology requires a certain level of background theory and skills - if it is to be successful. For this course, they include a working knowledge of: Measures of central tendency and dispersion MSExcel It is also assumed that students are able to build simple single-species models of population growth and that they have a knowledge of intra-specific competition. As many of you may have forgotten this background, it will be necessary to spend a short period of time completing this work.

3. Approach: The course is a balance between theory, laboratory and field: any person that goes on to work (e.g.) in nature conservation needs to know why data on communities need to be collected, they need to know how to collect the data and then how to analyse the data. They may also need to make informed decisions (often of a management nature) based on the data. As a consequence, any course on community ecology needs to include elements of theory, fieldwork and laboratory simulation, and here the theory and laboratory simulation go very much hand in hand. NB: It is not possible to cover everything in the theory AND develop your field, analytical and report-writing skills. As a consequence, some areas of theory are ignored entirely or are glossed over very superficially. ALL LECTURES AND SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL WILL BE PROVIDED ON THE INTERNET AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN PRESENTED

4. Contents Introduction: Definitions Defining a community Summarizing characteristics Examining links Inter-specific Interactions I: Competition Inter-specific Interactions II: Predation Community changes in space and time: Succession Disturbance Effect of Competition and Predation in structuring communities Theory, Modelling [and Field] [Field &] Analytical Theory & Modeling

5. Timetable There will be three lectures per week and two practical classes. ALL classes will take place in the seminar room on the 5th floor of the Life Sciences Building IT IS EXPECTED THAT YOU WILL ATTEND ALL CLASSES ON TIME

6. Assessments and Deadlines Evaluation will take the form of continuous assessment. This continuous assessment is broken up as follows: Class test (33%) + Practical work (67%) = Course Mark Course Mark (60%) + Exam (40%) = Final Mark Class Test The class test will be held on THURSDAY 6 March 2014 during the scheduled practical class. Students will be tested on ALL material covered prior to that date.

7. Practical Work In this course, the practical component will comprise four evaluations. These are listed below: Poster 1: Changes in Communities – 25% to Prac Mark Final Deadline – Monday 10 February 2014 Poster 2: Literature – 25% to Prac Mark Final Deadline – Monday 3 March 2014 Searsia Practical Report – 10% to Prac Mark Final Deadline – Monday 24 February 2014 CFNR Community Report - 40% towards Practical Mark Final Deadline – Friday 14 March 2014 PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT FACULTY RULES REGARDING PLAGIARISM AND THE SUBMISSION OF LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE UPHELD You will be expected to use Turnitin

8. POSTER 1 IN THREES Create a poster (size A0) in MS PowerPoint to illustrate changes in the biological communities, and the factors that contribute to these changes, associated with the following environmental gradients • From sea-level to 8 000 m altitude • From canopy to forest floor in a tropical rainforest • From epipelagic to deep-sea bathypelagic • From kelp beds to the hadal - benthos • From the land to the sea – rocky intertidal • From freshwater to seawater – estuaries • From leaf-litter to bedrock – a soil profile • From freshly dead to remineralisation • From rocky to muddy shores – sediment size

9. The poster MUST be professional in appearance The audience is undergraduate students – Teaching Tool The poster will be assessed using a rubric and ALL TEXT must be submitted to Turnitin and the report attached

10. POSTER 2 Create a poster (size A0) in MS PowerPoint to illustrate one of the following topics: • Mutualism • Commensalism • Defensive responses of plants to grazing • Optimal foraging and diet width • Type I, II and III functional responses • Primary succession on sand dunes • Secondary succession in forest gaps • Concept of successional climax • Competition-colonisation tradeoffs in succession • Resource-ratio hypothesis in succession • Vital attributes in succession • The role of animals in succession • The effect of fire on plant communities • The effect of keystone predators in marine ecosystems • The effect of keystone predators in terrestrial ecosystems • Community changes linked to seasonality IN [different] THREES

11. POSTER 2 The poster should be based on a published, peer-reviewed scientific paper that CLEARLY illustrates the concept behind the topic OR that CLEARLY shows how the concept can influence biological community structure. NB in some cases, more than one source will be needed. 1 000 word maximum The poster MUST be professional in appearance The audience is undergraduate students – Teaching Tool The poster will be assessed using a rubric and ALL TEXT must be submitted to Turnitin and the report attached

12. Legend * Legend Legend Legend TITLE CONCEPT NOTE & DEFINITION Article Details METHODS RESULTS & DISCUSSION Acknowledgements

13. Resource partitioning amongst Searsia species Collect data from the CFNR: enter and consolidate data; analyse data; prepare figures and/or tables that illustrate findings; write text that summarises results. 250 words maximum, including legends to figures and/or tables.

14. CFNR REPORT To undertake a vegetation survey along a line transect across the CFNR using appropriate field techniques, and to prepare a fully referenced report entitled “ Preliminary descriptions of the plant communities of the CFNR” for consideration of publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal of your choice. Your report mustbe no more than 1500 words max: 2 line spacing, Times Roman, pages numbered etc etc Keep figures to a minimum - only essential ones: NO raw data. NO use of personal. Be efficient with words in the methods but be clear how you have cleaned up the data and if you have transformed data. Your reports MUST include: • A dendrogram from which communities are identified. • A concise description of each of the identified communities • An estimate of each community’s diversity (with 95% CI)

15. Pass or Fail? A student is deemed to have passed the course if her/his Final mark (i.e. Coursework + Exam) is ≥50% AND the Exam mark is ≥40% AND the Practical mark is ≥50% Should a student obtain a Final mark of ≥50% AND have a Practical mark of ≥50% BUT have an Exam mark <40%, then that student will get an opportunity to write a Supplementary Exam* Should a student obtain a Final mark of 45-49%, AND the Practical mark is ≥50%, then that student will have an opportunity to write a Supplementary Exam* Should a student obtain a Coursework mark (i.e. Class tests + Practical) of ≥50% AND have a Practical mark of ≥50% AND have an Exam mark of ≥30% then that student will get an opportunity to write a Supplementary Exam* A student who does not meet the above grades fails and is not eligible to sit the Supplementary Exam. A student who fails to get a mark of 50% in the Practical work automatically fails, regardless of the Coursework or Exam mark – such a student not being eligible to sit the final exam. Similarly, a student that fails to obtain a course-work mark of less than 40% is not eligible to sit the final exam. * - Supplementary exams will be held at the end of the examination period. This exam will test the student on ALL the work undertaken in the module.

16. Readings Although there are no prescribed books for this course, the following texts are recommended (especially those in bold-typeface). • Begon, M., Harper, J.L. and Townsend, C.R. (1990). Ecology: Individuals, Populations and Communities. Blackwell Scientific Publications, 945pp. • Begon, M. and Mortimer, M. (1986). Population Ecology: A Unified Study of Animals and Plants. Blackwell Scientific Publications, 220pp. • Krebs, C.J. (1999). Ecological Methodology. Benjamin Cummings, 620pp. • Morin. P.J. (1999). Community Ecology. Blackwell Science, 424pp • Zar, J.H. (1984) Biostatistical Analysis. Prentice-Hall