What topics will be covered in BIO 102?
Ecology and evolution
- Understanding evolution as the basic force that drives life
- A basic understanding of ecology is necessary to understand the complex inter-connectedness of all life forms
How did the environment shape humans?
- Understanding the selection pressures that humans and human-ancestors faced
- Realizing that human traits--ranging from our morphological features to our physiological responses to our preferences and behaviors--are influenced by our evolutionary history*
*It might be of interest to those of you pursuing health-care related fields that while covering topics related to this concept, we will discuss human behaviors, human reproduction, and health and disease from an evolutionary perspective
How are human activities affecting the Earth?
- Understanding the effect that human activities have on natural ecosystems
- Understanding the effect that ecosystem degradation has on human well-being
Sustainable living
- Understand what it means to live sustainably from an ecological perspective
- We can learn how historically, sustainable living has always been instrumental in a civilization’s long success
Charles Darwin's "I think" summarizing how he believed speciation worked.
The evolution of large brain size
A dead albatross in the Pacific Great Garbage Patch with plastic in its gut
(Photo: Chris Jordan)
Sustainable and renewable energy sources
(Photo: UN.org)
Here I describe the topics that, in my perspective as an evolutionary ecologist, cover the range of concepts in Human Ecology.
Graph from:
Freeman S and Herron JC. 2007. Evolutionary Analysis. 4th edition. Pearson Education, Inc.