Fundamental of Ecology and Forestry

LESSONS1. Introduction to ecologyWhat is ecology. Ecology and environmentalism. Ecological relationships with other scientific disciplines.2. The ecosystem.Ecosystem concept. Structure of ecosystems. Basic concepts on energy. Energy laws. Food chains. Food webs and trophic levels. Primary and secondary production. Consumers, detritivores and decomposers. Trophic structures and ecological pyramids.3. Biogeochemical cycles.Cycles of: water, nitrogen, phosphorus, ozone, carbon. Anthropogenic alteration of biogeochemical cycles, greenhouse effect and global warming.4. Limiting factors.Law of minimum, tolerance ranges, ecotypes. Regulatory factors. Biological indicators and biotic indices.5. Population ecology.Properties of populations. Growth of a population. Mortality curves and survival. Exponential and logistic growth models. Bearing capacity. Selection King K. Mechanisms of regulation of population density. Metapopulations.6. Community ecology.Interactions between populations. Gause's principle. Lotka-Volterra's model. Concepts of habitat and ecological niche. Biodiversity: scales and values.7. Dynamics of ecosystemsEvolution of ecosystems: the ecological succession and the concept of climax. Basic community structure analysis. Ecological restoration.8. Landscape ecology.Landscape scale levels. Landscape elements. Island biogeography and ecological networks.9. Soil Ecology.Chemical and physical composition and biologic populations. The most common soil organisms. Soil evolution. Indicators of the biological quality of the soil.10. Aquatic Ecology.Marine and freshwater ecology. Rivers, lakes and wetlands.11. Territorial planning and ecology.LABORATORY EXERCISES1. The biological quality of the soil, determination of QBs ar on soil samples. The biological quality of running waters, determination of IBE index.2. Ecological networks in urban areas. Evaluation of ecological connectivity in the Milan area.

The forest ecosystem: definition, biotic and abiotic components, gross and net production, energy and matter fluxes. · Relationships between forest ecosystem and the main ecological factors: precipitations, light, wind and fire. · Natural dynamics in forest ecosystems. · The forest structure. · Relationships between forest vegetation and climate; the vegetation zones · The silviculture: definition, objectives, near-to-nature and sustainable silviculture. · Regeneration methods: coppice forest, high forest, coppice with standard. · Clearcut, shelterwood system, uneven aged method. · Thinning methods · Conversion methods: conversion from coppice to high forest. · Man-induced modifications in forest ecosystems: quantitative and qualitative aspects . Outline on the main forest types in the Northern Italy