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Applied Insect Ecology (AD HOC)
Provider: Faculty of Science

Activity no.: 5700-22-09-31
Enrollment deadline: 09/12/2022
PlaceDepartment of Plant and Environmental Sciences
Date and time30.11.2022, at: 00:00 - 30.03.2023, at: 00:00
Regular seats3
ECTS credits8.00
Contact personLene Sigsgaard    E-mail address: les@plen.ku.dk
Enrolment Handling/Course OrganiserLene Sigsgaard    E-mail address: les@plen.ku.dk
Written languageEnglish
Teaching languageEnglish
Semester/BlockBlock 2 Block 3
Block note10 weeks. November to March, Colloquia and project work based on textbooks, articles and own data
Scheme groupNot included in the scheme group
Scheme group noteThe course will introduce students to an array of ecological main aspect with focus on insects. This will be followed up at more advanced level and in more detail within selected ecological issues as related to agricultural insect pest and their natural enemies, and the assessment of their importance and management as related to over-all environmental changes or changes in agricultural practice. The latter part will bridge recent results from literature with the students own projects, to develop their capability to analyzing problems, raising questions and suggesting research approaches.
Exam formWritten assignment
Exam detailsWith due respect to the students’ research topic each student shall select a research question, develop a hypothesis and briefly describe an experimental plan for how to answer the question. The product of the students will be presented and discussed in a final journal club setting. The last 2 weeks of the course, each student will complete a report on their selected research question. This written assignment will be used for assessment
Course workload
Course workload categoryHours
Colloquia45.00
Preparation100.00
Assignments75.00
Sum220.00
Content
The course will consist of a text book oriented part including areas as: “Insects and climate”, Insect herbivory”, “Life histories and population ecology”, “Conceptual aspects of population dynamics”, “Reproductive strategies”, “The niche concept”, “Intra- and interspecific competition”, “Insect behavior”, “Community ecology”, “Predator-prey and parasitoid host interactions” “Diversity, functional biodiversity and stability” and “(Agro)Ecosystem structure and function”.
These topics will involve self- reading, student presentation of concluding summaries and some colloquia.

The second part of the course will devote further effort on “Life histories and population ecology”, “Intrainterspecific competition”, Insect behavior”, “Community ecology”, “Predator-prey and parasitoid host interactions”, “Diversity, functional biodiversity and stability” and “(Agro)Ecosystem structure and function”. These topics will be covered based on journal articles to be presented by students in a journal club setting.

Aim and content
The course will introduce students to an array of ecological main aspect with focus on insects. This will be followed up at more advanced level and in more detail within selected ecological issues as related to
agricultural insect pest and their natural enemies, and the assessment of their importance and management as related to over-all environmental changes or changes in agricultural practice. The latter part will bridge recent results from literature with the students own projects, to develop their capability to analyzing problems, raising questions and suggesting research approaches.

Formel requirements
Contact course responsible by e-mail

Learning outcome
The first course part will bring the students to an advanced understanding of major elements of applied insect ecology, which will provide a platform for further studies at more detailed level. Students will be able tocommunicate an overview of ecological insight related to insects and be able to describe major theories and trends.

The second course part will establish an advanced level of analyzing hypotheses, methodologies and results of scientific investigations within entomological ecology and explain the importance within an applied context. After that part the students will have knowledge of entomological terms and skills in an array of methodologies relevant to entomological ecology. Further they will have an advanced understanding of functionality of biological systems. They will also understand, how ecological investigations can support the applications of entomology e.g. in evaluation of pest status and management of crop pests.

As a final outcome the students will be able to analyze an ecologically oriented entomological problem, produce a set of hypotheses and suggesting approaches to scientifically investigate the problem

Literature
Selected chapters from:
T.D. Schowalter 2022. Insect ecology. An ecosystem approach. 5th ed. Elsevier Academic Press, London, ISBN 978-0-323-85673-7
P. W. Price, R. F. Denno, M. D. Eubanks, D. L. Finke, I. Kaplan. Insect Ecology: Behavior, Populations and Communities 2011.

An array of topic-specific journal articles, primarily from the last 10 years.

Teaching and learning methods
First part: text book based literature studies with some colloquia as the summarizing and concluding activities.
Second part: reading and analyzing scientific articles and presenting and discussing results and derived questions.
Third part: selecting a research question, developing a hypothesis and a research plan with focus on identifying
challenges.

Remarks
The course is based on colloquia and supervised work, no further costs. Individual written assignment (report) to be produced within two weeks.
Please contact course responsible Lene Sigsgaard if you want to apply for enrolment on the course “

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