Introduction to Metabolic Scaling Theory - From cells to ecosystems

This is a lecture that I gave at the École normale supérieure as part of the Macroecology & Macroevolution winter school - Paris, France 15-19 December 2014 organized by Dr.. Regis Ferriere (regis.ferriere@ens.fr)

 

Here is a link for the course overview

http://www.ens.fr/IMG/pdf/MacroEcoEvo_ENS-UA_Dec2014_v2-1.pdf

 

The goal of this lecture is to provide an overview of several of the main ideas, recent developments and topics of discussion around Metabolic Scaling Theory and extensions into ecology, ecosystems, and biodiversity studies. 

This advanced undergraduate/graduate course addresses the topic of ecological system diversity and the underlying biological mechanisms: How do species coexist? How are their interactions organized? How do species interactions and environmental factors translate into patterns of diversity? How does diversity evolve?

The goal of the course is to address these broad questions by providing an intensive introduction to ecological scaling, from organisms to ecosystems; ecological networks; and the historical (phylogenetic) context of ecological diversity and function. Key underlying questions are: How is biodiversity distributed and structured across ecosystems and biomes? How do properties of populations, communities and ecosystems emerge from organismal processes? What is the structure of interactions among species? How do patterns of species and trait diversity evolve? Tutorials will aim at introducing and exploring databases such as BIEN (Botanical Information and Ecology Network) and analytical softwares and R packages such as FoodWeb3D, Diversitree, Geiger, Caper.