Homework 4 is due on 19 April at 5PM.  Please put the homework file in the ANGEL dropbox. This homework asks you to read 1 website and 2 papers and answer the associated questions.  The homework file is :

Homework 4

The website and papers are linked below:

http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/disturbance-and-diversity-an-ecological-chicken-and-13256228

Montoya & al 2006

Cardinale, Science 2012

The trophic cascade resulting from the introduction of wolves to Yellowstone is perhaps the most famous, and misunderstood in the popular perception of ecology.

http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/16/this-will-shatter-your-view-of-apex-predators-how-wolves-change-rivers/

And for a rebuttal . . .

Here’s a nice review in Science about how park management has repeatedly interfered with natural predator-prey dynamics in Yellowstone and the fantastic opportunities to learn about ecological dynamics that have resulted.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6228/1302

An enormously geeky ecology blog post about diversity:

Biodiversity and pizza – an extended analogy leading to a call for a more multidimensional treatment of nature

• Predation can produce similar community effects as disturbance — generating gaps that can allow persistence
• Effect of predation on diversity may depend on resource availability
• Specialist predators can permit persistence if the effect is biased towards dominant competitor
• Apparent competition can occur in species that don’t specifically interact, but share a predator
• Keystone Predators are those whose presence or absence can cause a large shift in community composition

If you want to make sure you never, ever forget the idea of “handling time”, I present to you:

http://msuhyenas.blogspot.com/2017/03/python-vs-hyena-battle-to-death.html

Now, imagine what would happen as the number of hyenas increased . . . all those fat pythons would be sitting around digesting and the consumption rate would decline . . . resulting in a Type II functional response.

Following on our class discussion of the rhino hunt, here’s a great new story from the New York Times about hunting big-horn sheep and the role of license sales in conservation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/sports/bighorn-sheep-hunting.html?hp

It takes all types to change the world.  Some are speakers, some are doers.  And rarely, we are given the gift of a person who is both.  On this day, let us reflect on the words and deeds of Dr. King and those of all the many people that still form the movement that he symbolizes.

This article from the NY Times is related to Friday’s lecture:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/science/fish-climate-change-northeast.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

This article raises many questions that we’ll deal with over the next few weeks:

1. What determines a species’ (fish’s) range?
2. Where are they now?
3. Where will they be in 5 years?
4. How many fish are there?
5. How many can we take each year?

And the many non-ecology questions that ecology can help to answer:

1. How to set national and state catch regulations?
2. Who “owns” fish? or fishing rights?
3. How to invest in fishing fleet? tackle?
4. Where to locate purchasing/processing/packing facilities now? in 10 years?

Here are the sample questions for exam 3.  There will also be opportunities on the final for extra credit based on old exam questions.

Exam 3 sample questions