• Timetable: Wednesday from 13.30 (sharp) to 17.00, room 1.1 (210 minutes with 2 breaks of 15 minutes each = 4 academic hours). See the detailed course agenda below.
• Office hours: In case of any need, students can find the instructor in room V2.20 (Valleggio) just before the class (from 12.30 to 13.30). However, it is required to ask for an apointment via e-mail no later than three days before the required date.

The course is broadly divided into four parts:

1. Basics of extinction
   • Allee effect;
   • Genetic diversity and inbreeding;
   • Environmental and demographic stochasticity.
2. Populations in space
   • Diffusion and dispersal processes in single-species populations;
   • Habitat fragmentation and metapopulation dynamics.
3. Interspecific competition
   • Interference and resource use;
   • Ecological niches and the limit to coexistence.
4. Ecosystem management and sustainability of the biosphere
   • Management of yield for renewable resources;
   • Principle of bioeconomics.

The topics will be covered in succession and will be accompanied by tutorial classes as appropriate.

1. The final exam can be in written or oral form depending upon the number of attending students, consists in a series of exercises and/or questions that cover the entire program of the course. No midterm examinations are scheduled.
2. Scores are graduated from 18 punti (equivalent to a C) to 32 punti (A+, i.e. 30 e lode). During classes the instructor can assign an additional amount of punti (at most 2 per person) to those students who make particularly relevant comments or remarks that crucially improve the lecture quality. In order to obtain one of these ``strawberries'', the student must send an e-mail to the instructor through this link only within two working days after the class. Please add your data to the proposed e-mail subject and summarize in the body of your message the comment you made.
3. It is mandatory to fill in due time the Poliself form in order to participate to any exam. The instructor does not authorize the participation to exams to students who don't follow the standard procedure.
4. Please be sure that the phone number you provided to the Politecnico is correct and functioning. In case of any need, the instructor will use that contact only.

• Books: No books have yet been written by the instructor for this specific course, but a suitable amount of material will be provided at most the day before each class. Some comprehensive books that can be used in addition to the slides and the course notes (see below) are the following:
  1. Ricklefs, R. E., and G. Miller, Ecology (4-th edition). W. H. Freeman, New York, 1999. ISBN: 0-7167-2829-X
  2. Begon, M., Harper, J. L. and C. R. Townsend, Ecology: individuals, populations and communities, Blackwell Scientific, Oxford, UK, 1996. ISBN: 978-1-4051-1117-1
  3. Lande, R., Engen, S. and B-E. Saether, Stochastic Population Dynamics in Ecology and Conservation Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 2003. ISBN: 978-0-19-852525-7
  4. Gotelli, N. J. A primer of Ecology (4-th Edition). Sinauer, New York, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-87893-318-1
  5. Clark, C. W. Mathematical Bioeconomics, Wiley, 1990. ISBN: 978-0-471-75152-6
• Software
  • Populus (version 5.3, needs java) is quite a complete package
  • SCA (A Stochastic Cellular Automaton for metapopulation dynamics) is a homemade tool for simulating logistic Interacting Particle Systems

The calendar of exams for the current academic year is as follows:

• First appello: XXth June 2011 at 2.00 PM sharp
• Second appello: YYth July 2011 at 10.30 AM sharp (together with Ecologia 1)
• Third appello: ZZth September 2011 at 11.30 AM sharp
• Fourth appello: WWth September 2011 at 11.30 AM sharp
• Last appello: KKth February 2012 at 11.30 AM sharp