Seminar: Foundations of Quantitative Biodiversity Sciences - Details

General information

Course name	Seminar: Foundations of Quantitative Biodiversity Sciences
Semester	SS 2015
Current number of participants	2
Home institute	Praktische Informatik (Bioinformatik)
Courses type	Seminar in category Offizielle Lehrveranstaltungen
First date	Friday, 10.04.2015 12:00 - 16:00
Studiengänge (für)	Computer Science students Biology students Bioinformatics students 1st-3rd semester, elective module, graded, 5/120
SWS	2+2
Miscellanea	Language: English
ECTS points	5

Lecturers

• Prof. Dr. Jonathan Chase (and Prof. Dr. Stan Harpole)

Rooms and times

No room preference

Friday: 12:00 - 16:00, weekly(14x)

Fields of study

• Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät I - Biowissenschaften
• Lectures and Courses in English (International Studies)
• Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät III - Agrarwiss., Geowiss. und Informatik > Informatik > Institut für Informatik
• Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät III - Agrarwiss., Geowiss. und Informatik > Informatik > Institut für Informatik > Fachrichtungen

Comment/Description

Biodiversity science is experiencing a ‘Renaissance’ and is poised to address some of the most critical problems facing humanity in an increasingly human dominated world. Recent advances in biodiversity science lie at the nexus of complexity theory, data collation and pattern analysis at the global scale, and connections to socio-economic systems, epidemiology, and (meta) genomics. Clearly, the next generation of biodiversity scientists will need be adept at a diversity of complex quantitative approaches. However, equally necessary, though often overlooked, is that prudent use of these quantitative tools will require an in depth understanding of the conceptual and theoretical foundations of the discipline.
This course will trace the development of major concepts and approaches in biodiversity science. Readings will include foundational pieces by Darwin, Lotka, Volterra, Elton, Lindeman, Hutchinson and MacArthur, and others, as well as more contemporary studies that represent the ‘state-of-the-art’. The role of theory will be emphasized throughout, building on a set of foundational principles, including evolutionary process, thermodynamics and stoichiometry, birth-death processes, network theory and probability. In addition to reading and discussion, course work will include laboratory ‘practicums’ centered on incorporating these foundational principles into computational models (using the R program for statistical computing) that form the basis for addressing complex biodiversity problems.

Table of content:
• Biodiversity
• Coexistence
• Theory
• History of science
• Data analysis
• Stability
• Speciation
• Extinction
• Theory