Course content

This course integrates core principles of population dynamics with evolutionary and ecological genetics to equip students with a comprehensive understanding of how ecological and evolutionary processes interact to affect the response of populations and species to environmental changes. Students will explore deterministic and stochastic models of population fluctuations, alongside the mechanisms that drive adaptive and non-adaptive evolutionary changes and population resilience. Through case studies and data analysis, students will learn to apply these concepts to answer key questions in ecology and evolution, often focusing on real-world applications such as climate change impacts, habitat fragmentation, and sustainable harvesting.

Learning outcome

Knowledge: Students will gain an understanding of:

1. Core principles of population dynamics, including deterministic and stochastic factors that affect population viability.
2. Fundamental concepts in evolutionary biology and population genetics, particularly how genetic mechanisms and phenotypic selection relate to adaptive and non-adaptive evolutionary processes in natural populations. This includes principles of quantitative genetics, plasticity and genomics of adaptation.
3. The impact of environmental changes (e.g., climate change, habitat destruction) on ecological and evolutionary processes.
4. Interactions between ecological and evolutionary processes.

Skills: Students will be able to:

1. Analyze population ecological data using models to assess extinction risk and the effects of environmental changes.
2. Use genetic data to estimate population genetic parameters and determine relatedness and individual fitness.
3. Estimate strength and direction of phenotypic selection, evolutionary potential, and rates of evolutionary change across generations.
4. Analyze molecular genetic data to determine the genetic basis for adaptation to the environment and ecologically important phenotypic traits.
5. Interpret and graphically represent data on population dynamics and genetic variation.
6. Critically evaluate empirical studies at the intersection of ecology, evolution and genetics.
7. Design and plan how to carry out studies of ecological and evolutionary processes, and how these two types of processes interact.

General Competence: Students will be able to:

1. Communicate scientific reasoning and findings in both written and oral formats.
2. Critically assess theories and methodologies in ecology and evolutionary biology.
3. Independently formulate research questions and solutions based on combined knowledge of population ecology, evolutionary biology and genetics.

Learning methods and activities

• Lectures (Ca. 40 hours): Core content on population dynamics, genetics and evolutionary dynamics, and the interactions between these.
• Data labs, exercises and case studies (Ca. 40 hours): Hands-on exercises and data-labs involving analyses of data from empirical studies.
• Seminars (Ca. 10 hours): Group discussions on current research topics in evolutionary biology, genetics and population dynamics.
• Compulsory assignments: Approved data-lab reports and/or presentations.

PhD-candidates who take the course BI8106 will need to present one or more topics as a lecture or seminar.

Compulsory assignments

• reports and/or presentations.

Specific conditions

Recommended previous knowledge

• Background in population ecology and evolutionary biology (e.g. BI2017 and BI2033).
• Some knowledge of basic statistical modeling and data analysis (e.g. BI3051).

Course materials

The main course material consists of lecture notes, compendia, and various scientific publications. In addition, students will read one or more chapters in:

• Conner, J. K. & Hartl, D. L. 2004. A Primer of Ecological Genetics. Oxford University Press (ISBN: 9780878932023).
• Stearns, S. C. 1992. The Evolution of Life-Histories. Oxford University Press (ISBN: 0198577419).
• Salguero-Gomez, R. & Gamelon, M. (eds.) 2021. Demographic Methods across the Tree of Life. Oxford University Press (ISBN: 978-0-19-883861-6).
• Hendry, A. P. 2017. Eco-evolutionary Dynamics. Princeton University Press (ISBN: 978-0-691-14543-3).

Credit reductions