This course presents the principles of evolution and ecology for citizens and students interested in studying biology and environmental sciences. It discusses major ideas and results. Recent advances have energised these fields with evidence that has implications beyond their boundaries: ideas, mechanisms, and processes that should form part of the toolkit of all biologists and educated citizens.
Major topics covered by the course include fundamental principles of ecology, how organisms interact with each other and their environment, evolutionary processes, population dynamics, communities, energy flow and ecosystems, human influences on ecosystems, and the integration and scaling of ecological processes through systems ecology.
This course will also review major ecological concepts, identify the techniques used by ecologists, provide an overview of local and global environmental issues, and examine individual, group and governmental activities important for protecting natural ecosystems. The course has been designed to provide information, to direct the student toward pertinent literature, to identify problems and issues, to utilise research methodology for the study of ecology and evolution, and to consider appropriate solutions and analytical techniques.
Needed Learner Background: general biology and a good understanding of English.
This course has the following expectations and results:
1) covers the theoretical and practical issues involved in ecology and evolution,
2) conducting surveys and inventories in ecology,
3) analyzing the information gathered,
4) and applying their analysis to ecological and conservation problems.
From the lesson
Module 4. Population Ecology and Evolution
In this final module, we will explore the possibility of a new ecology by exploring the concept of sustainability, evaluating the human impacts on ecosystems and providing some solutions for nature conservation. Finally, we will see how to organise a citizen science event, called Bio-blitz, which can improve the scientific knowledge of our planet and, at the same time, rise the ecological awareness of citizens.
Ph.D., Associate Professor in Ecology and Biodiversity Biological Diversity and Ecology Laboratory, Bio-Clim-Land Centre of Excellence, Biological Institute
[MUSIC]
Hi learners.
Welcome to the 80th lecture of my course, Ecology from Cells to Gaia.
Today we will talk about human impacts on ecosystems.
People physically degrade or
chemically polluting natural ecosystem when generating power or
developing land for agricultural, urban, or industrial purposes.
Human beings are not unique among species in degrading their environment and when
our population density was low, and prior to our harnessing of non-food energy.
Humans probably had no greater impact than many other species.
But now the scale of human effects is proportional to our huge numbers and
advanced technologies.
Habitat degradation has costs in terms of human health and loss of ecosystem
services, including provisioning services such as wild food or drinking water,
cultural services including education or recreational opportunities.
Regulating services,
such as the ecosystem's ability to break down pollutants or regulate climate, and
supporting services including primary production and soil formation.
The intensive production of livestock in factory farming is seriously polluting,
and the agricultural law we made need to be thinly dispersed over extensive
farmland to deal with it to a level that natural decomposers can deal with it.
Intensive agriculture is associated with an increase in the nitrate and
phosphate deliverance into rivers, lakes, and oceans.
The consequent eutrophication may be counteracted by matching fertilizer supply
to crop demand, restoring natural wetlands, or constructing artificial ones.
To take up some of the excess nutrient before they enter rivers and
the lakes by manipulating,
biomanipulating the level [INAUDIBLE] phytoplankton to increase water clarity.
Many manufactured pesticides have become important environmental pollutants.
Problems arise when pesticides are toxic to many more species than just the target,
and particularly when they drift beyond the target areas and
persist in the environment.
The organochlorines insecticides have been particularly problematic
because they are progressively biomodified in animals farther up the food chain.
Top predators in aquatic and terrestrial food chains which were never intended
as targets can then accumulate very high doses.
Cultivation can also physically degrade the landscape through the loss
of habitat diversity, while heavy irrigation depletes water in rivers and
changes the pattern of flow with adverse consequences for river inhabitants.
The polluting effects of burning coal and
oil include acid rain which can affect lakes in forests in neighboring countries.
And a dramatic increase in the atmospheric carbon dioxide which is responsible for
climate change on a global level.
Recent emphasis has been placed on developing alternative energy sources that
do not release carbon dioxide.
The cleanest and
safest technologies are expected to derive from hydropower schemes.
Already at the chrononological advanced state in many part of the globe,
together with wind farms, rapidly developing but
with potential adverse consequences for migrating birds, and solar and wave power.
Nuclear power, whose popularity has declined because of
concern over security and radioactive waste disposal,
is receiving renewed consideration because it doesn't release greenhouse gases.
But there is the fundamental problem of where and
how to store the radioactive wastes.
Our feces and urine create large disposal problems in towns and
cities because density is so high.
At the simplest primary sewage treatment simply removes most of the solid
Roberto Cazzolla GattiPh.D., Associate Professor in Ecology and Biodiversity
