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Population & Community Ecology (C1861)

15 credits, Level 5

Spring teaching

Community formation and interactions within populations are fundamental to ecosystem function. They impact how species survive, thrive and go extinct.

This module introduces you to core principles including:

• population dynamics
• predator-prey interactions
• analyses of different levels of diversity (alpha, beta)
• trait analyses
• community assembly rules.

Through lectures, practicals and lab work you will develop the knowledge and skills required to understand community and population ecology, and how to apply them in fieldwork.

Using the data sets generated from monitoring on campus, you will apply analytical methods learnt on the module, including species accumulation curves, rarefaction and trait analyses.

Develop knowledge and skills that underpin employment and advanced study in ecology and conservation, from ecological restoration to the conservation of endangered species.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 31 hours of contact time and about 119 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.