Fundamentals of Ecology (EVSC 3200)
Next taught in Spring 2025
Ecology is the scientific study of the relationships among organisms and their environments. Among the primary goals of ecology are to understand the distribution and dynamics of life in all its complexity, how living organisms relate to one another, and how they interact with the non-living world (atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere). In this course, we cover all of the foundational aspects of ecology, including evolution (e.g., adaptation, life history, ecological genetics), biogeography, population dynamics, community ecology (e.g., species interactions, succession, biodiversity, infectious disease), ecosystem ecology (e.g., energy flow, nutrient cycling, biogeochemistry), and interactions between humans and the biosphere (e.g., anthropogenic impacts, sustainability, conservation, climate change).