Community Ecology – theory and applications

Aim

In this course, students will learn core concepts and theories in community ecology and develop an understanding of how these can be used to analyze and interpret ecological patterns and processes in natural systems. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Explain how biodiversity, species interactions, and environmental variation influence the structure and function of ecological communities.• Apply fundamental concepts and theories in community ecology to interpret ecological data and real-world ecological situations.• Analyze and interpret how ecological communities vary in space and time, including changes driven by disturbances and environmental change.• Use quantitative methods, statistics, and simulation models to investigate ecological patterns and to link theoretical knowledge to applied ecological and management-related problems.

Content

The first module introduces community ecology, with a focus on patterns of biodiversity and methods for their analysis, including multivariate techniques. It then addresses the problem of species coexistence, the ecological niche, and their evolutionary dimensions. The second module examines species interactions, beginning with two-species interactions such as competition, exploitative interactions, and mutualisms. This is expanded to multispecies ecological networks, such as food webs and pollination systems.The third module focuses on community dynamics in space and time, environmental heterogeneity, alternative stable states, tipping points, community assembly, and succession, with evolutionary aspects where time allows. The course concludes with an applied case study integrating theory with real-world management challenges, with implications for ecosystem management, conservation, and the sustainable use of natural resources.