INTEGRATED COURSE OF ECOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- MICHELE MISTRI
- Credits
- 12
- Curriculum
- BIOTECNOLOGIE PER L'AMBIENTE E L'AGRO-INDUSTRIA
- Didactic period
- Secondo Semestre
Training objectives
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Modulo: 58899 - ECOLOGIA
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Teaching of Ecology aims at providing and improving the basic knowledge on the main topics of modern ecology, along with its evolution in the last century. Students are expected to achieve the skill to analyze ecosystem structure and process and to tackle the main ecological issues of sustainable environmental management, natural resources exploitation and nature conservation. With the study of the “home life” of living organisms, students will be able to understand the distribution and abundance of organisms, where they occur, how many they are and what they do. The course deals with three levels of concern: the individual organism, the population and the community. At the first level, answers will be given on how individuals are affected by (and how they affect) their biotic and abiotic environment. At the second level, on the presence or absence of particular species, with their abundance or rarity. At the ultimate level, on the composition and structure of communities, and on the pathways followed by energy, nutrients and other chemicals as they pass through them (the functioning of communities).
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
The student:
- knows the proper biological terminology;
- has knowledge of biological subjects as general biology, zoology, botany;
- has knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry
ABILITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
The student is able to:
- use the proper biological terminology
- evaluate the ecological status of a natural system, both aquatic and terrestrial
- assess the main threats to the integrity of natural systems
- interpret experimental data regarding structural and functional characteristics of natural systems
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Modulo: 58900 - ZOOLOGIA
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ECOLOGY
Fundamentals of ecology
The module Ecology aims at providing and improving the basic knowledge on the main topics of modern ecology, along with its evolution in the last century. Students are expected to achieve the skill to analyze ecosystem structure and process and to tackle the main ecological issues of sustainable environmental management, natural resources exploitation and nature conservation. With the study of the “home life” of living organisms, students will be able to understand the distribution and abundance of organisms, where they occur, how many they are and what they do. The course deals with three levels of concern: the individual organism, the population and the community. At the first level, answers will be given on how individuals are affected by (and how they affect) their biotic and abiotic environment. At the second level, on the presence or absence of particular species, with their abundance or rarity. At the ultimate level, on the composition and structure of communities, and on the pathways followed by energy, nutrients and other chemicals as they pass through them (the functioning of communities).
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
The student:
- knows the proper biological terminology;
- has knowledge of biological subjects as general biology, zoology, botany;
- has knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry
ABILITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
The studenti is able to:
- use the proper biological terminology
ZOOLOGY
The main objective of the course is to provide students with information basic to the understanding of complex biological systems; their interconnections in the maintenance of vital functions and the interaction between the internal and external environment of the organism.
Main knowledge gained:
- the animal body plans;
- sexual and asexual reproduction;
- developmental mechanisms;
- main vital functions;
- diversity of the nervous system;
- evolutionary biology;
- systematics and phylogenesis;
- main animal phyla.
Main skills (the ability to apply knowledge acquired):
- capacity to search for and understand novel information on zoology;
- ability to integrate the functions of the organ acquired knowledge in other disciplines;
- application of zoological knowledge in the context of biotechnology;
- to identify the main taxonomic characters of each phylum. Prerequisites
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Modulo: 58899 - ECOLOGIA
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No formal propedeuticity is required, however the student must have basic knowledge of biology, with properties of language and scientific mastery
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Modulo: 58900 - ZOOLOGIA
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No formal propedeuticity is required, however the student must have basic knowledge of biology, with properties of language and scientific mastery. Course programme
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Modulo: 58899 - ECOLOGIA
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the course consists of frontal lectures. The first part of the course is on Biodiversity of life (24 h): what is ecology, diversity, ecology and evolution, niches, organisms and their environment, biomes, Concept of ecosystem and abiotic components of the ecosystem; cycle of matter in the ecosystem, structure and composition of communities, ecological successions, global change, predation.
The second part of the course is on Demography (24 h): age and survival, population growth, life history, biological interactions, competition (intra-inter), dynamics of predators
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Modulo: 58900 - ZOOLOGIA
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- Animal body architecture: body plans, symmetry, coelom (2 h).
- Sexual and asexual reproduction, hermaphroditism, parthenogenesis, reproductive behaviour, life cycles (8 h).
- Development: fertilisation, segmentation, gastrulation, organogenesis (6 h).
- Locomotion, protection, and support: muscles, skeleton and tegument, swimming behaviour, flying behaviour, terrestrial locomotion (4 h).
- Respiratory and circulatory systems: gas exchange, heart, diversity in invertebrates and vertebrates (6 h).
- Nervous system: nervous and chemical communication, brain and interspecific variation, sensory systems, ethology (4 h).
- Evolution: natural section and adaptation, domestication (4 h).
- Taxonomy and systematic: species concept, linnean system and modern theories (2 h).
- Diversity and characteristics of main vertebrate and invertebrate taxa (12 h). Didactic methods
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Modulo: 58899 - ECOLOGIA
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The course consists of theory lessons for a total of 48 hours of teaching (6 credits). Lessons are held weekly in the classroom and the exposure is done through the use of power-point slides
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Modulo: 58900 - ZOOLOGIA
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The course consists of 48 hours (6 credits) of teaching. Lectures are held weekly in the classroom and via recordings. Teaching exploits slides and videos. The last hours of the course may be devoted to the revision of the main topics of the program. Learning assessment procedures
- ECOLOGY
The goal of the final test is to verify the level of knowledge of the student. The evaluation is expressed as usual (/30), the minimum grade is 18. The exam is written with 5 questions (6 points each), or oral.
ZOOLOGY
The aim of the examination is to test the level of comprehension and knowledge of the course arguments, as well as the capacity to reason in zoological context. The evaluation is expressed in thirtieths (minimum grade 18, maximum grade 30 cum laude).
Examination is written and consists of a questionnaire with multiple choices (31 questions). To pass, the student has to answer correctly to minimum 18 questions. To obtain the maximum score (30/30) the student has to answer 30 questions, to obtain 30 cum laude/30 the student has to answer all the questions correctly. Students will have a maximum of 60 minutes to answer to all questions. Reference texts
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Modulo: 58899 - ECOLOGIA
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Pusceddu et al. Ecologia UTET
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Modulo: 58900 - ZOOLOGIA
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Material (slides ppt) furnished during the lectures.
Suggested read: Hickman et al., Zoology
