Universität Wien

300140 UE Community phylogeny of animals (2019S)

5.00 ECTS (3.00 SWS), SPL 30 - Biologie
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 12 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Initial meeting March 5th 2019 11-11:45 am Lecture Hall, Faculty Center for Biodiversity (Rennweg 14)

Course: March 18 to March 29 daily 1 to 5 pm Übungsraum 1, Faculty Center for Biodiversity (Rennweg 14)

  • Tuesday 05.03. 11:00 - 11:45 Hörsaal (Fakultätszentrum für Biodiversität) Rennweg EG
  • Monday 18.03. 13:00 - 17:00 Übungsraum 1 (Fakultätszentrum für Biodiversität) Rennweg 1.OG
  • Tuesday 19.03. 13:00 - 17:00 Übungsraum 1 (Fakultätszentrum für Biodiversität) Rennweg 1.OG
  • Wednesday 20.03. 13:00 - 17:00 Übungsraum 1 (Fakultätszentrum für Biodiversität) Rennweg 1.OG
  • Thursday 21.03. 13:00 - 17:00 Übungsraum 1 (Fakultätszentrum für Biodiversität) Rennweg 1.OG
  • Friday 22.03. 13:00 - 17:00 Übungsraum 1 (Fakultätszentrum für Biodiversität) Rennweg 1.OG
  • Monday 25.03. 13:00 - 17:00 Übungsraum 1 (Fakultätszentrum für Biodiversität) Rennweg 1.OG
  • Tuesday 26.03. 13:00 - 17:00 Übungsraum 1 (Fakultätszentrum für Biodiversität) Rennweg 1.OG
  • Wednesday 27.03. 13:00 - 17:00 Übungsraum 1 (Fakultätszentrum für Biodiversität) Rennweg 1.OG
  • Thursday 28.03. 13:00 - 17:00 Übungsraum 1 (Fakultätszentrum für Biodiversität) Rennweg 1.OG
  • Friday 29.03. 13:00 - 17:00 Übungsraum 1 (Fakultätszentrum für Biodiversität) Rennweg 1.OG

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

In this course students will be introduced to methods and applications of community phylogeny approaches applied to animal communities. Community phylogeny approaches are applied to investigate the composition of animal communities along environmental gradients (elevation, climate, land use, etc.) in an evolutionary and phylogenetic context. The goal of this course is to teach both theoretical as well as practical aspects of using DNA sequence data alongside with biotic community data in order to explore (macro-) ecological and evolutionary patterns. Target organisms will be terrestrial arthropods and vertebrates.

The following aspects will be treated in particular:

1. Students will be introduced to basic concepts of community phylogeny approaches.
2. Strategies and methods for data acquisition from online databases will be discussed and applied
3. Students will be introduced to methods of phylogenetic reconstruction
4. Commonly used measures of phylogenetic diversity will be discussed in theory and applied in practice
5. Results will be discussed and their interpretation and limitations explored.

Students are asked to bring their own computer to the course, there is limited capacity to accommodate students unable to do so. Please approach the instructors at the initial meeting if you are unable to bring your own computer. Systems running Windows, MacOS and Linux are equally suitable for this course.

Assessment and permitted materials

Students will work in teams of two, with each group working on a dataset provided by the instructors.

Students are expected to actively participate in the course, show initiative in problem solving and search for literature relevant to their topic.

Students are expected to show their ability to discern relevant aspects of the results obtained in the course and condense those into a written report where the results are presented and interpreted in relation to the published literature. The report is to be written in English; length approximately 4000 to 6000 words. Further instructions will be provided on the first course day.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The following criteria apply in order to receive a passing grade:

1. Active participation
2. Submission of a written report; initial draft no later than May 31st 2019; final version no later than June 30th 2019
3. Attendance is mandatory on all days including the initial meeting on March 5th. A maximum of two days of absence is permitted.

Contribution to final grade:
30% Active participation
70% Written report

Examination topics

Reading list

Tucker et al. 2017. A guide to phylogenetic metrics for conservation, community ecology and macroecology. Biological Reviews. 92: 698-715. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12252

Association in the course directory

MEC-9, MZO W-2, MZO W-7, M-WZB

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:43