Short Course Description
Structure: lectures in class + field trips (in nature, mostly). The course is given in English.
Prerequisites: previous classes in ecology, evolution, statistics and zoology
Number of students: up to 40
Grade: final exam (83%) and TA and lecturer evaluation of active participation in the classes and field trips (17%).
Credits: 5. Two hours in class per week in the first semester, seven trip days (and 4 nights, partially funded by the faculty and partially by the students) in the 2nd semester, tours to the Ramat-Gan/Tel Aviv zoo and the faculty?s zoological research garden (1st semester, on Fridays). The course is designated a yearly course.
Students are allowed to miss one day from the field trips overall. Missing more will result mean a fail. Trips to the Safari park and Zoological research garden count as half a day for this purpose
The course will present ideas and concepts in general and Israeli biogeography. We will loosely follow the textbook and relate to classical and recent papers in the field. Most examples will involve land vertebrates.
Topics:
? Biogeographic regions and the relationship between the origin of species (evolution) and biogeography
? A short introduction to physical geography
? Geographic ranges, range maps, and how they lie
? Species richness and patterns in it: history, climate and their effects
? Theories of Island Biogeography: counting species
? Theories of Island Biogeography: radiation, community assembly, evolution and radiation
? Biogeographic rules and macroecology
? Biogeography through time: historical biogeography, Phylogeny and Phylogeography, plate tectonics, biogeography of the Pleistocene ice ages, vicarism and dispersal
? Biogeography of Israel: physical geography, the evolution of Israeli faunas, biogeographic regions in Israel and its surroundings, bird migration and avian biogeographic categories, endemism and origins of the Israeli faunas
? Textbook: Lomolino, M. V., Riddle, B. R. and Whittaker, R. J. 2016. Biogeography. 5th edition. Sinauer Associates, inc., Sunderland, MA.
See also:
Yom-Tov, Y. 2013. Biology of Israeli land vertebrates. Book 1: introduction. The Open University, Raanana.
Quammen, D. 1997. The song of the dodo: Island biogeography in an age of extinctions. Touchstone Books, New-York.
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Full Syllabus
