COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Abbottabad

Course Plan Spring 2011

Course Code: ENV 281 Course Title: Fundamentals of Ecology Course Teacher: Mustafa Nawaz Shafqat
Total Credit Hours: 3 Lectures Credit Hours: 2 Lab. Credit Hours:1 Lab. Contact Hours:

Total Contact Hours: ___ Pre-requisite: BIO 100

Lecture Contact Hours: ___

Office Hours (Day, time and place): Monday through Friday from 8 am to 6 pm. Room number 348 in life sciences building. Course Description and Objectives: To teach basic concepts that describes the relationship of an organism with the environment and to study the impact of various environmental variables on the organism at small as well as global ecosystem levels. Course Outline and Contents: Week 1 Week 2 Introduction: Ecology defined, Development of ecology Lab: Introduction, lay out, plan of Lab. activities of the semester Ecology: an empirical and experimental science Lab: Designing of Pot study for competition effects among plants Physical Environment: Solar radiation Week 3 (Ist Quiz and Assignment) Lab: Use of statistical methods for presentation of results regarding diversity studies (Lab Assignment) Climate: Regional Macro and micro climates, Lab: Preparatory work for interspecific and intraspecific competition among living organisms Physical Environment: Light Lab: Previous lab continued Plus introduction to measure variation in the sampling data (Standard deviation and variance) Physical Environment: Temperature (First sessional examination) Lab: Variation in the data (Standard error, and influence of sample size on the variation in the data)

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13

Physical Environment: Water, nutrients, and pH Lab: Variation in the data continued: Using confidence interval of the mean to compare two population means and testing of hypothesis of equal means Adaptation: concept plus homeostasis and feedback system Lab: Comparing population means using t-test Plant adaptation to the Environment: Photosynthesis and light environment (2nd Quiz and 2nd Assignment) Lab. Comparing more than two population means(Introduction to ANOVA) Response of net photosynthesis to variation in PAR Lab: Completely randomized design and hypothesis testing Ecosystem Productivity (primary production) (3rd Quiz and 3rd Assignment) Lab: Completely randomized design continued

Student week (NO Classes)

Plant adaptation to Environment II: Temperture Second sessional Lab. Treatment comparison methods (LSD) Plant adaptation to Environment II: Water, flooding, drought and salinity Lab. introduction to correlation and regression analysis between two variables Plant adaptation to Environment II: Nutrients, heavy metals, acidity Lab. computation of slope and intercept in simple linear regression analysis (Final Quiz and Assignment+ lab Assignment) Decomposition: classification, stages, and process of decomposition Lab: Revision Decomposition: Environmental controls, and decomposition in aquatic environment. Lab: Final Lab sessional exam

Week 14

Week 15

Week 16 Week 17

Assessment Plan: (Quizzes, Assignments, Case Studies, Semester Project, Lab Exercises. With starting and submission dates where applicable):

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17

(Ist Quiz and Assignment) Lab. Assignment

First Sessional Exam.

(2nd Quiz and 2nd Assignment) (3rd Quiz and 3rd Assignment)
Students Week, no classes

Second Sessional Exam.

(Final Quiz and Assignment+ lab Assignment)

Text Books: Ecology and Field Biology by Smith and Smith 2001. Reference Books / Literature: