INTRODUCTION TO ECOLOGY: historical notes, hierarchical levels of organization, emerging properties, from reductionism to holism. THE ECOSYSTEM CONCEPT: trophic organization, ecosystem diversity, classification of ecosystems, examples of ecosystems, from production to decomposition, micro-, meso- and macrocosms, the ecological footprint, the Gaia hypothesis, ecosystem services. FLOW OF ENERGY IN ECOSYSTEMS: the laws of thermodynamics, the distribution of energy in food networks. BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES: nitrogen, sulfur, hydrogen, water cycle. The eutrophication of water, the carbon cycle and the greenhouse effect, effects of global warming on biodiversity. THE LIMITING AND REGULATING FACTORS: Liebig's law of minimum, Shelford's law of tolerance; stenoecie and euriecian species, the main ecological factors, fire and soil ecology, anthropogenic stress. ECOLOGY OF POPULATION: growth rate, bearing capacity, cyclic populations, dispersion, the Allee principle, home range and territoriality, regulation mechanisms of density-dependent and density-independent populations, the concept of fitness, dynamics of metapopulation, re selection K. COMMUNITY ECOLOGY: interaction between species, coevolution, interspecific competition, habitat and ecological niche concepts, guilds, biodiversity, dominance and diversity indices. ECOSYSTEM DYNAMICS: evening stages, the concept of climax, the ecology of restoration, evolution of the biosphere. GLOBAL ECOLOGY: problems of overall sustainability, regional ecology from ecosystems to local biomes, insights into an ecosystem typology, climate change.
EU ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION: Water Framework Directive, EIA, SEA, Marine Strategy Framework Directive
NATURA 2000: safeguarding biodiversity, habitats directive, birds directive