This teaching unit (UE) aims at the acquisition of theoretical knowledge concerning the functioning of ecosystems and will combine lectures and field work as practical course. The UE should provide the basic ground for students of 1st year master degree in Ecology (BEEB, EEG, urban ecology, environmental genomics). The UE will focus on is ecosystem processes (pathways for energy transfer as well macroscale picture provided by biogeochemical cycles) and their relationships with biodiversity.
Lectures (CM) will allow to develop the following points:
● Biodiversity - Ecosystem functioning relationships:
○ B-EF studies and theories,
○ Functional diversity (incl. ecosystem engineers), effect and response traits,
○ Trophic ecology: food-web, trophic cascades, top-down/bottom-up controls, (omnivory, IGP); trophic specialisation (niche size), Isotope ecology (trophic structure, trophic level), Subsidies (temporal and spatial), Holobiont concept, functional groups
● Biogeochemical cycles (across and within ecosystem types) C, N, P by including lectures on ecosystem processes involved into (e.g., methanogenesis, leaf breakdown, nitrification)
○ Linkages between these biogeochemical cycles according to scale
○ Processes at ecotones, terrestrial vs aquatic exchange of organisms (pathway for energy transfer)
○ Stochiometry
● Role of disturbances and/or climate change on B-EF relationships:
○ Interferences and resource acquisition interactions
○ Effects of invasive species on processes (e.g. grazing or else) and responses to invasive species
Practical tutorial (TD)
● Ecosystem services: for opening students to the importance of biodiversity preservation for ecosystem functioning and thus, the providing of ecosystem services for human well-being.
