Course Content (Syllabus)
Ecology is rapidly developing towards a variety of new directions. In this course the students would follow the major research fields of Ecology as they are described by the articles, reviews and editorials of the main stream Ecology journals in the past five years. Emphasis would be given to fields like biodiversity patterns in space and time and the strategy of its conservation, population metapopulation and community dynamics, landscape ecology, macroecology, microbial and soil ecology.
Syllabus
Introduction: current trends in Ecological research
Spatial biodiversity patterns
Microbial Ecology
Soil Ecology: soil quality, soil services and the structure of soil food webs
Systematic biodiversity protection plans
Plant diversity conservation and protection of plant genetic resources in Greece
Landscape genomics
Genomics and current tools for the protection of biodiversity. Management and protection of genetic resources
Economic assessment of natural resources in coastal areas
Distribution behavior and population dynamics of sea turtles
Acoustic Ecology
Description
Student performance assessment
The assessment is primarily based on a course-related project that is supervised by one or two teachers and which the students carry out independently from each other, present orally in public, and answer to questions. The coordinator of the course and the teachers-project supervisors make the evaluation committee who decides on the marks to be given in a closed session. The student performance over the whole duration of the course is also taken into consideration: the degree to which the student pursues goals with commitment, shows enthusiasm and puts effort for quality work, becomes proficient with new tasks, responds to directions, takes initiatives, and respects the working environment and the deadlines are supplementary performance criteria. The final course mark should not differ by more than 15% from the project assessment mark.