Course Description
Introduction to diversity statistics and how ecological questions are addressed through patterns of genetic diversity. Focus on how genetic data can reflect demographic processes. The goal of this course is an integrative overview of how field and genetic studies complement each other for describing the distribution and abundance of organisms.
Athena Title
Molecular Ecology
Prerequisite
GENE 3000-3000D or ECOL 4500/6500 or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students successfully completing this course will learn how to evaluate coalescent hypotheses, set up basic simulations and analyses, and will understand how genetic data can, and cannot, be used to describe the demographic history of populations. The application of such analyses to conservation, biogeography, and ecology will be discussed. The successful student will also learn to explore multilocus or genomic data sets for outliers from the prevailing demographic history to identify genes that may be adaptive. Students will read papers from the primary scientific literature and be prepared to present the methods and conclusions of those papers orally to the class.
Topical Outline
1. Diversity statistics 2. Variance in reproductive success and effective size 3. Coalescent theory 4. Gene trees 5. Phylogeography 6. Neutrality 7. Conservation and climate change 8. Hypothesis testing Readings: Molecular Ecology, Foundations in Ecology (Real and Brown), Coalescent Theory (Wakeley), current literature This course syllabus is a general plan for the course; deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary.