2024 Schedule

Case Studies in Ecology and Evolution

D. Stratton

There are questions for you to answer within each of these chapters. Those questions are simply to help you learn the material. I won't collect them or grade them, and you can find the answers at the end of the chapter. But I don't think you can learn this very well by simply reading. You need to actually work with the equations. So take the time to actually WRITE DOWN each answer in the blanks provided, even if the questions are pretty simple. It will pay off in how well you retain the information.

These draft chapters are works in progress. I may make occasional updates or minor revisions during the semester. So if you spot any typos please let me know!

  1. Exponential Growth: The return of the whooping crane.
  2. Density dependence: Wildebeest in the Serengetti
  3. Applied population dynamics: managing Pacific salmon
  4. Age structure: Population growth of black footed ferrets (you can skip the optional section 4.6)
  5. Size structure: How to control Koster's curse
  6. Metapopulations Metapopulations of butterflies (skip this year)
  7. Competition among prairie grasshoppers (incomplete draft).
  8. Predators and Prey (skip this year)
  9. Species diversity (TBA)
  10. Population ecology of Disease
  11. Allele freqencies and Hardy Weinberg Equilibirum: the case of pacific salmon
  12. Natural selection 1: Cryptic coloration in walking sticks
  13. Natural selection 2: Managing resistance evolution
  14. Mutation selection balance notes: cystic fibrosis (incomplete draft)
  15. Phenotypic evolution 1: The beak of the finch
  16. Phenotypic evolution 2: Can red squirrels adapt to climate change?
  17. Genetics of Small Populations: the case of the Laysan Finch
  18. Non-random mating
  19. Inbreeding and Population Structure
  20. Optimal Foraging (brief notes only)
  21. Kin selection and inclusive fitness
  22. Phylogeny Phylogenetic history: the evolution of marine mammals (skip this year)
  23. Genomics and Sequence evolution