Course description:

1.   Ecology (historical review, its relations to other scientific disciplines, environmental awareness).

2.   The contemporary ecological-environmental crisis, its roots and approaches for its alleviation.

3.   Functional relations of organisms to their biotic and abiotic environment.  Adaptive strategies of organisms.

4.   Organisms in space, climographs, geographical range of species, island biogeography.

5.   Introduction to population dynamics. Models in continuous and discrete time, with/without density effects.

6.   The biocommunity and ecosystem concepts. Structure and function. Flow of energy, nutrient cycles, trophic pyramids and webs, productivity. Ecological succession and natural selection.  Major biomes of the earth.

7.   Natural and semi-natural ecosystems (e.g. agro-ecosystems). Current trends towards ecological agriculture.

8.   Major types of environmental pollution and their role in degrading and destabilising the ecosystems.

Teaching Books and aids:

"Population Ecology - Population Dynamics" by C.J. Saitanis & M.G. Karandinos

"Ecology" by D. Veresoglou

"Fundamentals of Ecology" by M.G. Karandinos

Laboratory notes by M.G. Karandinos, A.N. Riga-Karandinou and A. Fantinou

Examination: Written