Name of the course:

Quantitative Ecology

Name of the lecturer (and teaching assistant) Academic year

Ido Izhaki, Edwin Lebrija, Yoni Sharaby 2021 - 2022

Department/Program responsible

Biology & Environment

Yearly hours/Credit points ECTS Credits

2 yearly hour=4 credit points 2 yearly hour=4 credit points

Compulsory/Optional Course specification Course classification

Optional Lesson Workshop/experiential

Semester

Day Hours

Monday 9:45-8:15

Day Hours

Monday 11:30-10:00

Language of instruction Passing Grade ECTS Passing Grade

Hebrew 56 Click to enter a text

Lecturer/s email

izhakido@gmail.com

Office hours

Monday 11:30- 12:00

Attendance regulation

Attendance of at least 80% of lessons

Click to enter a text

Prerequisites

prerequisites
Ecology, Biostatistics

Course summary

Planning a study (asking good questions), the basics of sampling design, sampling
from a population, how many samples to take? measuring biotic and abiotic
factors, measures of central tendency and dispersion, normality, fit data to
distributions, basic regression, comparing means (parametric and non-parametric
analyses, t-tests, Mann-Whitney U-Test, Sign Test, one-way ANOVA, two-Way
ANOVA, Kruskall-Wallis ANOVA, Repeated Measures ANOVA, Friedman Test),
Goodness of fit, multiple regression, power analyses, ordinations, cluster analysis,
estimate population size, spatial distribution, scaling from counts to abundance,
richness, dominance, diversity, species area curves.

Course objectives

To provide the student with a skill in planning experiments in life sciences in

general and ecology in particular, methods for sampling and collecting quantitative
data in the field and in the laboratory, processing and presenting them and drawing
conclusions.

Learning outcomes

Click to enter a text

Topics covered in the course and session outlines - Semester A

Session Topic Task

Week 1: 10-15/10/21 Normal Distribution, mean, SD, Ex. 1

SPSS
Week 2 : 17-22/10/21 Research questions, Short field Ex.2
study on sampling
Week 3: 24-29/10/21 Sampling, sampling units, Ex. 3
pseudoreplication, sampling size
and number
Week 4 Alternative learning 31/10- Statistical tests, Hypotheses, Ex. 4
05/11/21 normality, data transformation,
parametric versus non parametric
tests.
Week 5: 7-12/11/21 Type I and II errors, Pearson and Ex. 5
Spearman coefficients, simple
regression
Week 6: 14-19/11/21 Multiple Regression Ex. 6

Week 7: 21-26/11/21 One & Two Factor ANOVA

Week 8 Alternative Learning: 28/11- One & Two Factor ANOVA- continue Ex. 7
3/12/21
Week 9: 5-10/12/21 Chai Square and Goodness of Fit Ex. 8

Week 10: 12-17/12/21 Field Study in the Botanic Garden Ex. 9

Week 11 Alternative Learning 19- Spatial Distribution, Density Ex. 10

24/12/21
Week 12: 26-31/12/21 Field Study: Presentation of the
results & discussion
Week 13: 2-7/1/22 Similarity indices, Cluster Analysis, Ex. 11
Community structure, Ordination,
species richness and diversity,
coverage,
Week 14: 9-14/1/22 Summary
The memory of water
Student obligations and assessment requirements in the course (percentages)

Ex. = 40%, Final Exam – 60%

Reading list - Compulsory reading (Hebrew and English)

Grafen, A. and Hails, R. 2002. Modern Statistics for the Life Sciences. Oxford
Field, A. 2005. Discovering Statistics Using SPSS. Sage. London.
Sokal, R.R. and Rohlf, F.J. 1995. Biometry. 3rd Edition. Freeman
Southwood, R. 2000. Ecological Methods. Blackwell Science, Oxford. 3rd
Edition.
Sutherland, W.J. 1996. Ecological Census, Techniques. Cambridge University
Press.
Underwood, A.J. 1997. Experiments in Ecology. Cambridge University Press.

Reading list - Additional reading (Hebrew and English)

Click to enter a text