Ecology and Behavioural Ecology

Properties of ecosystems; Energy fluxes, productivity, food chain, food web and trophic levels; Biogeochemical cycles, general description and examples; Limiting factors, Liebig's and Shelford's laws; Organisms, populations and communities, communities in geographical gradients and development of the ecosystems through time, the concept of climax. Examples of ecosystems with laboratory and field experiences (soil, river and lake).

Summary of the history of the discipline. Mechanistic, functional and ontogenetic interpretations of behavior. Correlative, experimental and comparative approaches to the study of behavior. Experimental design in behavioural studies. Environmental and genetic sources of phenotypic varaition in behavioural traits. Natural/sexual selection on behavioural traits and their evolution. Phenotypic plasticity of behavior and learning. Evolution of behavior in relation to ecological conditions. Coevolution of behavioural traits. Why bothering studying behavior? Applications of the study of animal behavior in biological conservation, evolutionary biology and human behavioural studies. Functional analysis of some sexual and social behaviours in humans. Social behavior: variation and among species and among individuals within populations. Costs/benefits analysis of social behavior. Territoriality: forms and functions. Complex forms of sociality. Eusociality.