This unit cannot be completed entirely online. All students must attend some face-to-face classes.

To pass this unit you must

• Attempt all assessments,
• Achieve a total mark equal to or greater than 50%,

Assignment submission

The Powerpoint slides for the oral presentation are to be uploaded to iLearn via the assignment submission box and the Practical Report via the TURNITIN link by 11:55 pm on the due date. TURNITIN is a powerful online tool for the detection of plagiarism. It works by comparing the text of a submitted document (i.e., your assignment) with the work of your current classmates, past students in Ecology and other courses at Macquarie, as well as published material in books, journals and on the web.

Late Assessment Submission Penalty

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark of the task) will be applied for each day a written report or presentation assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a grade of ‘0’ will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. The submission time for all uploaded assessments is 11:55 pm. A 1-hour grace period will be provided to students who experience a technical concern.

For any late submission or missed attendance of time-sensitive tasks, such as scheduled tests/exams, assessments/presentations, and/or scheduled field trips, students need to submit an application for Special Consideration. 

Special Consideration

The Special Consideration Policy aims to support students who have been impacted by short-term circumstances or events that are serious, unavoidable and significantly disruptive, and which may affect their performance in assessment. If you experience circumstances or events that affect your ability to complete the assessments in this unit on time, please inform the convenor and submit a Special Consideration request through https://connect.mq.edu.au.

 

Assessment descriptions

Presentation (15%)

You will prepare a 6 minute presentation on a topic of your choosing, related to the application of ecology to real-world issues. The purpose of this is to demonstrate your understanding of how ecological concepts can be applied to understand and solve real-world problems, and your ability to communicate scientific issues to a lay audience. You can choose a topic from the list provided in ilearn, or come up with your own based on the guidelines provided above the list. You will deliver your presentation in the week 4 and 5 labs (or, if you have enrolled in the infrequent attendance offering, the 16-17 August on-campus session). All students must upload Powerpoint slides to ilearn by 11:55 pm Fri 15 Aug. Late submission of slides without approved Special Consideration will attract a penalty as per the assessment policy. A marking rubric is provided on iLearn. Please consult this when developing your presentation.

Fieldtrip Practical Report (35%)

In a small group, you will design and undertake in the Ecology Reserve near campus an independent field-based project comparing species traits, abundance and/or community structure across an environmental gradient of your choosing. Students will individually write this up in the style of a scientific paper for the journal Austral Ecology. This task is designed to assess your understanding of ecological concepts, limitations associated with fieldwork, how to source and utilise appropriate scientific literature to craft an argument, and scientific communication conventions. The word limit for this report is 1500 words (excluding Abstract, Acknowledgement and References). Any text beyond 1500 words will not be read by the markers; shorter submissions are acceptable. Further details can be found in the Field Trip practical notes (on iLearn). A marking rubric is provided on iLearn, as well as a template for completing your report and examples of previous studies.  Please consult these when preparing your report.

Examination (50%)

The final exam will be held during the Semester 2 Exam Period and will be 2 hr (plus 10 min reading time). This will be an in-person, invigilated exam. Please consult the University Handbook to determine the commencement and finishing dates of the compulsory exam period. You will be permitted to take a non-programmable calculator and/or English language dictionary into the exam. Notes will not be permitted.

The exam questions have been carefully written to test understanding, not rote learning:

• You will NOT be required to regurgitate definitions or the details of case studies we have discussed in class;
• You WILL need to be able to apply ecological principles to solve real-world problems.

Specifically, the exam (out of 70) will be comprised of three sections:

(A) a multiple choice section where you will be asked to interpret figures and tables and synthesise information (20 questions, 1 mark each; to give 20 possible marks);

(B) a short answer section where you will be asked to solve problems by integrating ecological concepts you have learnt during the unit (6 questions, 5 marks each, to give 30 possible marks);

(C) longer response questions where you will use your ecological knowledge to address applied (conservation/health/management) problems (2 questions, 10 marks each, to give 20 possible marks)

Classes

Lectures commence in week 1, and practicals in Week 2.

The unit consists of 2 online lectures per week and a 3 hour practical per week (weeks 2-13) for weekday attendance students

Lectures: Tues 1200 AND Thurs 1300, online

Practicals (compulsory for weekday attendance students): Mon 1400-1700, Tues 0900-1200 or Tues 1400-1700 (weeks 2-13) 14EaR 120/160 Science Labs

Required and recommended texts and/or materials

There is no prescribed text book for this course. Instead, I have compiled a collection of media (papers, videos, websites) that directly complement the lectures. These are available via the iLearn site for this unit. It is expected that you review these materials before coming to each lecture.

If you would also like to consult a textbook (this is not compulsory), I suggest:

Begon M, Howarth RW, Townsend CR (2014) Essentials of Ecology. 4th edition. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Cambridge. The 3rd (2008) edition is also acceptable, if you can come by it second hand.

Unit web page

PowerPoint slides, lecture recordings, unit readings, copies of all unit hand-outs and helpful resources for completion of assessments will be available through iLearn. Consequently, it is strongly recommended that you interact with the BIOL2410/6410 online unit regularly. To access the online unit, go to https://iLearn.mq.edu.au/login/MQ/ and type in your Macquarie OneID Username and password.

New to iLearn? You can find out more at: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/technology/systems/ilearn

Experiencing difficulties? contact the IT Service Desk at help@mq.edu.au.

Methods of Communication

We will communicate with you via your university email and through announcements on iLearn. Queries to convenors can either be placed on the iLearn discussion board or sent to the unit convenor via the contact email on iLearn.

 

Lecture timetable

Part 1. Organisms and their environment

WEEK 1

29th July                        1. What is ecology, and why does it matter?

31st July                        2. Conditions, resources and the niche concept

WEEK 2

5^th August                     3. Distributions

7^th August                     4. Global patterns of productivity    

WEEK 3

12^th August                   5. Ecological strategies and their evolution

14^th August                   6. Population growth and intraspecific competition

Part 2.  Interactions among species

WEEK 4

19^th August                   7. Interspecific competition

21^st August                    8. Predation and herbivory                                               

WEEK 5

26^th August                   9.  Parasitism and disease

28^th August                   10. Facilitation and mutualisms

Part 4. Communities and ecosystems

WEEK 6

2^nd September               11. Community structure

4^th September                12. Community function

WEEK 7                     

9^th September                13. Disturbance and succession  

11^th September              14. Island biogeography                                                         

WEEK 8

16^th September              15. Spatial subsidies

18^th September              16. Land- and sea-scape ecology

MID SEMESTER BREAK

WEEK 9

7^th October                    16. A primer to experimental and sampling design

9^th October                    17. The flux of energy through food webs  

WEEK 10

14^th October                  18. The flux of matter through food webs

5. Applied ecological issues

16^th October                  19. One Health: healthy ecosystems, healthy people

WEEK 11

21^st October                  20. Pest species: invasion biology, biosecurity and management

23^rd October                  21. Future ecosystems: meeting the challenges of climate change and urbansiation                                                 

WEEK 12

28^th October                  22. Ecological impacts and their assessment           

30^th October                  23. Nature repair: restoration, reconciliation and nature based solutions

WEEK 13

4^th November                24. Managed ecosystems: fisheries, aquaculture, forestry, agriculture       

6^th November                25. Exam Q&A and 3000-level units          

 

Practical classes

For all practical sessions (including Oral Presentations in weeks 4 and 5) you must be wearing covered shoes to be allowed entry to the labs and there is strictly no eating or drinking.

Timetable for weekday attendance students (infrequent attendance students will do on 16-17 Aug; 11-12 Oct)

Week 1            28-29 July                               No prac                     

Week 2            4-5 August                              Practical induction/censusing deep sea life

Week 3            11-12 August                          Carbon accounting (fieldwork)

Week 4            18-19 August                          Oral presentations

Week 5            25-26 August                          Oral presentations (as required)

Week 6            1-2 September                         Parasites – With Michelle Powers

Week 7            8-9 September                         Invertebrate communities (fieldwork – on campus)

                                                                        With Caragh Threlfall

Week 8            15-16 September                     Response of vegetation communities to disturbance

                                                                        (fieldwork)                

Week 9            6-7 October                             No prac (public holiday Mon 6^th)

Week 10          13-14 October                         Independent projects Part I (fieldwork)

Week 11          20-21 October                         Independent projects Part II (fieldwork)

Week 12          27-28 October                         Herbivory and enemy release hypothesis (fieldwork)

Week 13          3-4 November                         Ecological impact assessment: seagrass mooring scars

                                                                                                                       

We value student feedback to be able to continually improve the way we offer our units. As such we encourage students to provide constructive feedback via student surveys, to the teaching staff directly, or via the FSE Student Experience & Feedback link in the iLearn page.

Student feedback from the previous offering of this unit was very positive overall, with students pleased with the clarity around assessment requirements and the level of support from teaching staff. To enable students more time to focus on learning, understanding and reflecting on the content of our unit we have revised the assessment structure as follows. There are now only three assessments: the oral presentation, report and final exam. Although no marks are associated with attendance, all activities provide you with key content designed to help you understand content and complete the assessments.

This year the Stanwell Tops fieldtrip has been replaced with extra weekly pracs. The reason for this is that there is a new unit BIOL2400 Biodiversity and Monitoring -- which many of you will do -- which instead will have a fieldtrip in the September mid-semester break. New on-campus pracs have been introduced on parasites, invertebrate communities and ecological impact assessment. Independent projects will be done in the Ecology Reserve.