Concepts: Causal inference requires experimentation, but experiments in ecology may involve large
spatial or temporal scales and be therefore de facto impossible. We will here get to know how to
perform experimental community ecology in the lab using model organisms, such as freshwater
protists. We will test classical predictions from community ecology, such as Gause’s competitive
exclusion principle and confront ecological experiments with corresponding, simple mathematical
models.
Methods: Students will be introduced to experimental community ecology using standard
microbiology laboratory techniques. Time series of abundances will be analysed using mathematical
models (ordinary differential equations, ODEs; Lotka-Volterra competition models). We will use
Bayesian approaches to fit these dynamical models to experimental time series data.
Competences:
- Microbial ecology lab techniques
- Building simple mathematical models using ODEs
- Fitting of ODEs to experimental data using Stan.
- Teacher: Fronhofer Emanuel