Good afternoon,

The Department of Geography is excited to announce a new ecology, graduate-level course offered this spring by Dr. Jennifer Williams and we invite students from across campus to register.  We hope you can help us in spreading the word.  Thanks.

Population dynamics in time and space: models, data and application
Tuesdays, 9:30 – 12:30, in Spring 2020 (2019 W2)

Offered as GEOB 507A Section 202: Topics in Geographical Sciences 

Course Description: Underlying much of population ecology are models using different approaches to describe how population dynamics change through time and space. Goals of this course are to 1) assess the role of modeling in answering fundamental questions in population ecology; 2) articulate the strengths and weaknesses of the quantitative approaches presented for modeling population dynamics in time and space; 3) successfully implement mathematical models (in R) to describe population dynamics and spatial spread, and provide a clear interpretation of the results. Course will be a mix of lecture, discussion, hands-on labs in R, and an independent project to analyze your own or someone else’s data. Complementary to Biology 548M (Fundamentals of Population Ecology).

Evaluated on:

–      Participation: 20%
–      4 assignments (build on weekly in-class activities): 30%
–      Project (analysis of your own or someone else’s data) – proposal + small steps showing progress + presentation + short paper: 50%

Weekly readings from: Morris & Doak 2002 (Quantitative Conservation Biology), Ellner, Childs & Rees 2016 (Data-driven Modelling of Structured Populations: A Practical Guide to the Integral Projection Model), Vandermeer & Goldberg 2002 (Population Ecology), Gotelli (Population Ecology) and relevant papers drawn from the literature

For any questions or to see a tentative schedule, email: jennifer.williams@geog.ubc.ca