Species Assemblages from the Local to the Global Level

Students in the University’s general bachelor’s degree program take various introductory courses in ecology during their first two years of study. By their third year (L3), they explore several fundamental concepts related to how individuals adapt to their environment and to interactions between species (Concepts in Evolutionary Ecology HLBE503). In particular, they explore r/K evolutionary strategies, linking the adaptation of life cycles to disturbance regimes in natural environments. I propose to integrate the study of communities as a natural extension of these foundational concepts, in order to illustrate the role of species’ evolutionary strategies in community formation. This course will be based on a instructional sequence consisting of lectures, tutorials, and practical work carried out in the form of field projects.

The lectures will present the fundamentals of community ecology through three sections. The first will focus on the definition of a community and will explore the historical development of the discipline through the perspectives of Gleason (1926) and Clements (1916). The second section will introduce the elements used to describe communities, including the concepts of diversity (alpha, beta, gamma) and their various indices. Finally, the third section will guide students in reflecting on the rules governing community composition, through the role of r/K evolutionary strategies in succession, as well as the concepts of environmental filtering and functional similarity constraints.

These courses will run in parallel with a series of tutorials organized according to a “data collection–analysis–interpretation” framework. Initially, the use ofserious games will enable students to collect data based on simplified ecological mechanisms. To this end, several serious games designed to simulate communities are currently under development. Students will collect this data to prepare for their analysis. The analysis will take the form of a computer-based workshop to help students become familiar with calculating diversity indices. Finally, time will be set aside to review the literature to determine whether the patterns identified throughout the sequence have a biological basis and whether they have been observed in nature (independent work and report).

Once the tutorial session is over, students will begin setting up in situ community ecology experiments through an introduction to field ecology, in the form of independent projects. As part of this lab, a workshop will be held to test Grime’s (1988) competitive (C), stress-tolerant (S), and ruderal (R) strategies through the analysis of plant functional traits. Simple methods have recently been published that allow individuals (and, a fortiori, communities) to be placed on Grime’s triangle (Pierce et al., 2017). The sequence will begin with a field trip on campus: students will select two contrasting habitats (lawns, ruderal areas, woods, old walls) where they will conduct a floristic inventory. Following this, they will collect several individuals of each species, which they will bring back to the lab to measure various functional traits. Once the measurements are complete, they will be able to calculate the various indices related to the CSR strategy. The module will conclude with the writing of a report and an oral presentation. Other workshops are currently being developed.

- Design of experimental protocols in ecology (follow-up to HLBE304 & 405)

- general knowledge of functional ecology (material cycle)

- concepts in population biology (r/K strategies)

- Basics of using R (importing data – creating simple graphs)

- Proper use of Excel (data entry and sorting)

Assessment Method: 100% continuous assessment

1/4: Tutorial Report

1/4: Oral presentation (individual grade)

1/4: Experience Report (Team Report)

1/4: Terminal inspection

Knowledge

Definition of a community (history of the discipline’s development; 2 approaches: Gleason and Clements)

Description of a Community (Concepts of Diversity, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Indices)

Ecological Functioning of a Community (area-species relationship; the concept of succession; r/K evolutionary strategies and community dynamics; Grime's CSR model; limited similarity within communities)

Interpersonal Skills    

Battery Life     

Adaptation to on-site conditions (responsiveness)    

Group Work

Expertise  

Fieldwork: conducting a study protocol; identifying the plants and animals under study

Laboratory: Measurement of Key Functional Traits in Plants and Animals

Data management: data entry; sorting using Excel spreadsheets; importing data into R

Visualization: Creating Charts in Excel; Introduction to Charts in R

Analyses: Calculating Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Diversity Indices Using R

Assignment: report and scientific bibliography; oral presentation