Ecology and Behavioural Ecology

The course is organized in two parts: the first one (Ecology) mainly concerns the basic principles useful for the description and understanding of ecosystems and the second one (Ethology) deals specifically with the functions and evolution of the main animal behaviours. The main objectives of the ecology module are aimed at acquiring the basic tools for knowing how to describe ecosystems in their abiotic and biotic components. These tools should provide the student with the interpretative keys to understand the problems due to anthropic effects and therefore to hypothesize possible solutions. The ethology module will provide the students with the knowledge of the role of animal behaviours under an eco-evolutionary perspective, and the scientific methods necessary to design and execute a behavioural study.

At the end of the ecology part it is expected that students have learned how ecosystems work in nature (energy flow and biogeochemical cycles), as well as simple tools for population monitoring and surveying chemical-physical parameters of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. At the end of the ethology part the student is expected to acquire the knowledge of the adaptive role of animal behaviours, the appropriate scientific terminology of the discipline, as well as the ability to understand and critically discuss the main topics of behavioural ecology reported in the literature.