Learning objectives. The course aims to provide the fundamental concepts of ecology with examples and case studies from the Italian and global forest environment. Energy balances, biogeochemical cycles, climate-ecosystem interactions and climate change, structure and characteristics of forest ecosystems, biodiversity, ecological successions. The final objective is to provide the necessary tools for the analysis of the forest ecosystem from an ecological point of view, in particular in relation to the cycles of the elements, the interactions between its components and the study of its characteristics and evolution.
Acquisition of fundamental knowledge on the morphology and autoecology of the main wood species (trees, shrubs, lianas), on their geographical distribution (areas), also in relation to the ecological series and altitudinal and climatic zones. Recognition of tree species of forest interest and knowledge of the main methods of propagation and planting.
Starting from the more general concept of biodiversity and its meaning, the course intends to provide, according to a comparative and evolutionary vision, the fundamental concepts to understand: I) the levels of organisation of animals (populations, species, communities, ecosystems); II) the distribution of animal biodiversity in space and time and its dynamics; III) the morphological organisation, biology and ecology of the most successful invertebrate metazoan groups on the planet.