Course Description
Ecology
A) The Environment: Physical environment; biotic environment; biotic and abiotic interactions.
B) Habitat and Niche: Concept of habitat and niche; niche width and overlap; fundamental and realized niche; resource partitioning; character displacement.
C) Population Ecology: Characteristics of a population; population growth curves; population regulation; life history strategies (r and K selection); concept of metapopulation – demes and dispersal, interdemic extinctions, age structured
populations.
D) Species Interactions: Types of interactions, interspecific competition, herbivory, carnivory, pollination, symbiosis.
E) Community Ecology: Nature of communities; community structure and attributes; levels of species diversity and its measurement; edges and ecotones.
F) Ecological Succession: Types; mechanisms; changes involved in succession; concept of climax.
G) Ecosystem Ecology: Ecosystem structure; ecosystem function; energy flow and mineral cycling (C,N,P); primary production and decomposition; structure and function of some Indian ecosystems: terrestrial (forest, grassland) and aquatic (fresh water,marine, eustarine).
H) Biogeography: Major terrestrial biomes; theory of island biogeography; biogeographical zones of India.
I) Applied Ecology: Environmental pollution; global environmental change; biodiversity: status, monitoring and documentation; major drivers of biodiversity change; biodiversity management approaches.
J) Conservation Biology: Principles of conservation, major approaches to management, Indian case studies on conservation/management strategy (Project Tiger, Biosphere reserves).
Ethology and Evolution
A. Emergence of evolutionary thoughts: Lamarck; Darwin–concepts of variation, adaptation, struggle, fitness and natural
selection; Mendelism; Spontaneity of mutations; The evolutionary synthesis.
B. Origin of cells and unicellular evolution: Origin of basic biological molecules; Abiotic synthesis of organic monomers and
polymers; Concept of Oparin and Haldane; Experiement of Miller (1953); The first cell; Evolution of prokaryotes; Origin of eukaryotic cells; Evolution of unicellular eukaryotes; Anaerobic metabolism, photosynthesis and aerobic metabolism.
C. Paleontology and Evolutionary History: The evolutionary time scale; Eras, periods and epoch; Major events in the evolutionary time scale; Origins of unicellular and multi cellular organisms; Major groups of plants and animals; Stages in primate evolution including Homo.
D. Molecular Evolution: Concepts of neutral evolution, molecular divergence and molecular clocks; Molecular tools in phylogeny, classification and identification; Protein and nucleotide sequence analysis; origin of new genes and proteins; Gene duplication and divergence.
E. The Mechanisms: Population genetics – Populations, Gene pool, Gene frequency; Hardy-Weinberg Law;
concepts and rate of change in gene frequency through natural selection, migration and random genetic drift; Adaptive radiation; Isolating mechanisms; Speciation; Allopatricity and Sympatricity; Convergent evolution; Sexual selection; Co-evolution.
F. Brain, Behavior and Evolution: Approaches and methods in study of behavior; Proximate and ultimate causation; Altruism and evolution-Group selection, Kin selection, Reciprocal altruism; Neural basis of learning, memory, cognition, sleep and arousal; Biological clocks; Development of behavior; Social communication; Social dominance; Use of space and territoriality; Mating systems, Parental investment and Reproductive success; Parental care; Aggressive behavior; Habitat selection and optimality in foraging; Migration, orientation and navigation; Domestication and behavioral changes.
Who This Course is for
Course covers all important concepts of Ecology, Ethology and Evolution. This course will be helpful for CSIR NET candidate and Students perusing their post graduation who aspire to take on national level competitive tests and exams in Biological sciences to enter Research jobs.
