10. TEACHING
Back to

The Centre for Ecological Sciences actively participates in the Ph.D. and Integrated Ph.D. programmes of the Indian Institute of Science. Students (with Bachelor's Degree for the Integrated Ph.D. programme and with Master's Degree for the Ph.D. programme) are admitted once a year on the basis of a national test and interview. Interested students should apply to the Registrar of the Indian Institute of Science in response to advertisements published in National Newspapers in the months of February and March every year. Students registered for the Ph.D. and Integrated Ph.D. programme are required to take some courses before embarking on their research work.

Courses for Ph.D /Integrated Ph.D. Programme

EC 201 (AUG) 2:0
INTRODUCTION TO ECOLOGY
R. SUKUMAR and N.H. RAVINDRANATH

Ecology; Ecosystems; Ecological energetics; Energy flow and resource use in ecosystems; Ecological efficiency; Watershed as an ecosystem; Ecosystem as a practical model; Hydrological cycle and nutrient cycling; Ecosystems of the World; Species diversity; Community ecology of plants and animals; Ecological succession; Island biogeography; Conservation of biodiversity

Krebs, C.J. Ecology: The Experimental Analysis of Distribution and Abundance Harper and Row, 1978 Odum, E.P. Basic Ecology, Saunders College Publishing, 1983. Colinvaux, P. Ecology, John Wiley and Sons, 1986.

EC 202 (AUG) 2:1
BEHAVIOUR AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
RAGHAVENDRA GADAGKAR

Development of Ethology; Neural mechanisms: Complex behavioural patters ; Behaviour genetics; Evolution of social behaviour through individual kin and group selection; Reciprocation; Social systems of animals; Evolution of culturally transmitted patterns of behaviour; study of observational techniques of behaviour.

Wilson, E.O., Insect Societies Harvard University Press, 1971.
Gould, J.Ethology, W.W. Norton and Co., 1982
Krebs, J.R. and Davies, N.B. Behavioural Ecology (Third Edition)
Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1990.

EC 203 (AUG) 2:0
POPULATION THEORY
SULOCHANA GADGIL

Elementary population growth, exponential, logistic; continuous and discrete time models; Steady state, oscillations, chaos; Age structured populations; Leslie matrices; Effects of variable environment; Interactive populations, predator-prey models, competition, host-parasite interactions, symbiosis; Natural selection; Fisher's theorem; Malthusian parameter, survivorship fertility rates; Reproductive value; Game theoretic modelling of interactive populations; Evolutionarily stable strategies, hostile co-evolution.

May, R. Theoretical Ecology. Principles and applications, Blackwell scientific Publications, 1981.
Wilson, E.O. and Bossert, W.H. A primer of population Biology, Sinauer Associates Inc. 1971.
Roughgarden, J. Theories of Population Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology: An Introduction. Macmillan, 1979.

EC 204 (JAN) 2:0
EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
V. NANJUNDIAH

History of life on earth; The evidence for evolution; Natural selection; Adaptation; Life History strategies; evolutionary genetics; Rates of evolution; Speciation; Alternatives to natural selection; The evolution of sex; The evolution of behaviour including social behaviour; Human evolution.

Dawkins, R., The Blind Watchmaker, Longman, 1986
Darwin, C., The Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection, Oxford University Press, 1859
Ayala et. al. Evolutionary Biology

EC 205 (SUM) 0:2
FIELD COURSE IN ECOLOGY
R. SUKUMAR

Censusing natural population; Estimation of biomass productivity of cropland, grassland, areca plantations; Estimation of species diversity; survey and mapping of landuse and vegetation; Laboratory analysis of soils; Energy surveys; watershed survey; Plant and animal diversity studies; Methods in quantitative ethology.

Brewer, R. and McCam, M.T., Laboratory and Field Manual in Ecology, Saunders College Publishing, 1982.
Krebs, C.J.,Ecological Methodology, Harper and Row, 1989.
Smith, R.L., Ecology and Field Biology, Harper and Row, 1980.

EC 206 (JAN) 2:0
HUMAN ECOLOGY
MADHAV GADGIL

Origin and evolution of human species; Production of artefacts and expansion of human niche; Historic changes in human modes of resource use; Growth and migration of human populations in relation to resource use technologies; Current trends of change in biosphere.
Alexeev, V.P. The Origin of the Human Race, Progress Publishers, 1986.
Boserup, E. Population and Technology. Basil Blackwell, 1981.
Crosby, A. Ecological Imperialism. The Biological Expansion of Europe. Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Back to