1 Welcome to BB512

Welcome to the Population and Evolution course. The course is divided into five teaching parts:

  1. Evolution by Natural Selection
  2. Population Growth Models
  3. Population Genetics and Evolution
  4. Interactions Between Species and Community Structure
  5. Animal Behaviour, Altruism and Sexual Selection

The recommended textbook is Neal (2019). Other useful textbooks, that are NOT mandatory, but could be useful are Gotelli (2008) and Stearns & Hoekstra (2005).

  • Neal, D. (2019). Introduction to Population Biology (2nd edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139107976
  • Gotelli, NJ (2008) A Primer of Ecology. Fourth Edition, Sinauer Associates. ISBN: 978-0878933181
  • Stearns, SC & Hoekstra, RF (2005) Evolution: An Introduction. 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0199255634

In addition to this, I will provide a reading list of journal articles that are relevant to the material. These are optional, but highly recommended because they give extra context and background to the course and show you how the theory is used in recent research.

1.1 How to use this book

Most chapters contain the same building blocks, so you can move quickly between concepts and tasks:

  • Background: the core concepts and equations.
  • Learning outcomes: what you should be able to do by the end.
  • Your task: the practical exercise or analysis.
  • Takeaways: a short summary of the main ideas.

Some chapters also have a worked example that walks through the method before you try it yourself. Answers to the questions are in the Solutions part, so try the questions first and then check.

If you are short on time, read the Learning outcomes and Takeaways first, then do the Your task section.

1.2 Parts overview

The table below shows how each part of this website maps onto the major skills you will build through the course. Parts 6 and 7 hold the solutions and some optional extras.

Part Focus Skills you build
1. Evolution by Natural Selection Selection, adaptation, variation Explain selection in natural contexts; identify selective pressures and outcomes
2. Population Growth Models Exponential and logistic growth, stochasticity Build and interpret population growth models; reason about parameter effects
3. Population Genetics and Evolution Allele frequencies, drift, heritability Analyse genetic change over time; estimate heritability from data
4. Interactions Between Species and Community Structure Competition and predator-prey models Evaluate stability and dynamics of interacting species
5. Animal Behaviour, Altruism and Sexual Selection Game theory and behaviour Interpret behaviour through evolutionary payoffs and strategies
6. Solutions/answers Answer keys and model results Check work and compare interpretations
7. Appendix - extras Extensions and advanced examples Apply methods to additional contexts

1.3 This website and other course materials

This website holds most of the materials you need for the practical exercises you will do during the course. You will also find the Schedule here (on the web-version only).

We may not do ALL of these exercises, but you are welcome to do ones we miss in your own time.

You will find other materials via itsLearning.

For most classes you will need your personal laptops: Please bring them to class (and remember a power supply!).

1.4 Expectations

There are lectures and practical exercise sessions on the course. The practical sessions are designed to help you understand the subject better and I expect students to attend and actively participate in both. There will also be some multiple-choice quizzes (e-tests) during the semester. These are intended to help you figure out whether you know the material, and whether there are areas you need to revisit. They do not contribute to your final grade, but I hope you will attempt them. They will definitely increase your understanding of the material. Note that the final assessment will be a similar format!

I expect students to make every effort to keep up with the core reading (mainly the textbook chapters), and to ask questions where they don’t understand.

1.5 Assessment

The assessment for the course will be an electronic exam held in January with multiple-choice and short answer questions. It is worth noting that exam format will be similar to the quizzes mentioned above. The date for the exam will be finalised in December.

1.6 Instructors

The instructors of the course are:

If you have any problems accessing materials, or have any questions regarding the course, feel free to send me (Owen) an email. You can also make an appointment to see me via Zoom or in my office if necessary. PLEASE REMEMBER to tell me which course you are referring to if you send an email!

Owen Jones, course coordinator - jones@biology.sdu.dk

Office location: V12-410b-2

1.7 Software

We will use Excel and R/RStudio during this course.

1.7.1 Excel

I expect you will already have Excel installed, so there is not much to say here.

Be aware that Excel differs depending on the language it is set up in (for example, Danish vs English). The practicals give formulas in English Excel. In Danish Excel:

  • Function names are translated. The ones used most in this course are:
English Danish
EXP EKSP
SLOPE HÆLDNING
RAND SLUMP
SQRT KVROD
IF HVIS
  • The decimal separator is a comma (0,05 rather than 0.05).
  • Arguments are separated by semicolons rather than commas, e.g. =HÆLDNING(C10:C30;A10:A30) rather than =SLOPE(C10:C30,A10:A30).

See here for more translations.

1.7.2 R and RStudio

R and RStudio are two separate pieces of software. RStudio is a user-friendly interface to talk to R, it cannot work if you have not got R installed. So, when you install these two programs, install R first, then RStudio.

Already have them installed? I strongly recommend updating to the latest versions of R and RStudio, which you can download at the following sites:

To check which version of R you have, type this in the RStudio console:

R.version.string

Compare the version number with the latest release listed at https://cran.r-project.org. If yours is more than one minor version behind (for example 4.3 when the latest is 4.5), please update before the course starts. Some practicals install add-on packages, and these often need a recent version of R.

This book includes equations.

Equations sometimes do not render correctly on some web browsers.

From experience, Chrome tends to be the most reliable, Safari (Mac only) also works well.

Can you see the following equation?

\(N_{t+1}=N_{t}+r_{m} N_{t}\left(1-\frac{N_{t}}{K}\right)\)

It should look like this:

If it doesn’t look right, then you should try another browser (maybe even your phone browser) or investigate a solution.

1.8 Schedule

This is the schedule for the course. You can check itsLearning for the dates, times and locations. Also check itsLearning for details of other tasks/assignments/reading etc.

Part

Session

Type

Topic

Instructor

Evolution by Natural Selection

1

Lecture

Darwin and his theories (what is evolution)

ORJ

2

Practical

Exercise - The Blind Watchmaker

ORJ

3

Lecture

Understanding Natural Selection

ORJ

4

Practical

Exercise - Bug hunt camouflage (NetLogo)

ORJ

Population Growth Models

5

Lecture

Exponential growth

TBB

6

Practical

Exercises - Geometric growth (in class); Stochastic growth (as homework)

ORJ

7

Lecture

Logistic growth

TBB

8

Practical

Exercises - Basic logistic population growth (in class); Deeper into logistic growth (as homework)

ORJ

9

Lecture

Life tables

ORJ

10

Practical

Exercises - Life tables and survivorship types

ORJ

11

Lecture

Age and Stage Structured Models

ORJ

12

Practical

Exercises - Matrix population modeling

ORJ

13

Lecture

Evolution of Life Histories

ORJ

14

Practical

Exercises - How many eggs should a bird lay?; Trade-offs and the force of selection

ORJ

Population Genetics and Evolution

15

Lecture

The Hardy-Weinberg Principle

ORJ

16

Practical

Exercises - Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium

ORJ

17

Lecture

Mutation and Genetic Variance of Populations

ORJ

18

Practical

Exercises - The gene pool model

ORJ

19

Lecture

Genetic Drift and Effective Population Size

ORJ

20

Practical

Practice Exam 1 (covering material until now)

ORJ

21

Lecture

Inbreeding

ORJ

22

Practical

Feedback on practice exam 1

ORJ

23

Lecture

Migration, Gene Flow and Differentiation of Populations

ORJ

24

Practical

Exercises - Neutral/adaptive in humans

ORJ

25

Lecture

Haploid and Zygotic Selection

ORJ

26

Practical

Practice written answer exam

ORJ

27

Lecture

Polygenic Inheritance and Quantitative Genetics

ORJ

28

Practical

Exercises - Heritability from regression

ORJ

Interactions Between Species and Community Structure

29

Lecture

Competition 1 (Interspecific Competition)

TBB

30

Practical

Exercises on Lotka-Volterra competition

ORJ

31

Lecture

Competition 2 (Interspecific Competition)

TBB

32

Practical

Exercises on Lotka-Volterra competition (continued)

ORJ

33

Lecture

Predation 1

TBB

34

Practical

Exercises on Lotka-Volterra predator-prey dynamics (part 1)

ORJ

35

Lecture

Predation 2

TBB

36

Practical

Exercises on Lotka-Volterra predator-prey dynamics (part 2)

ORJ

37

Lecture

Interactions and community structure

TBB

38

Lecture

Interactions and community structure

TBB

39

Lecture

Coevolution

ORJ

40

Practical

Practice Exam 2 (covering material until now).

ORJ

Animal behaviour, altruism and sexual selection

41

Lecture

Animal Behaviour, Altruism and Limiting Aggression

ORJ

42

Practical

Exercises - Hawks and Doves

ORJ

43

Lecture

Sexual Selection and Mating Systems

ORJ

44

Practical

Feedback on practice exam 2

ORJ

45

Lecture

46

Practical