Convite aos alunos de pós-graduação de Ecologia e Psicobiologia animal a participarem da DISCIPLINA ESPECIAL - BEHAVIOURAL ECOLOGY: THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT

Data: de 10 a 16/05/2011

Período de Inscrição online (SIGAA - PPG Ecologia): 4, 5 e 6 de maio.

Horário: 13:30 às 17:30

Local: DOL

A disciplina será ministrada pela Dr. Jennifer Mather, Professora do  Department of Psychology/ University of Lethbridge, Canadá

A professora é especialista em comportamento de animais aquáticos, em especial os cefalópodes, e estará durante o mês de maio na UFRN como professora visitante/CNPq.

Maiores informações pelo e-mail: leite_ts@yahoo.com.br (procurar Tatiana Leite/DOL)

Segue resumo da disciplina:

As humans are land-based, we tend to take the air around us for granted and to see it as the normal context for our behaviour.   But when we turn to the marine environment, the medium is different and that both imposes constraints and generates opportunities for animals' physiology, ecology and behaviour.  For one week we will examine this environment and evaluate the restrictions and opportunities it generates for animals and how different species have responded.  We will look at sensory functioning, which sense are enhanced (tactile and chemical) and which are blocked, paying some attention to the complete lack of light in the ocean's depth and the evolutions that animals have made to cope and even take advantage of this lack.  We will look at movement output; given the higher density of water, movement is more difficult than on land (see gait in crabs and octopuses), but equally gravity does not have as strong a pull and animals have evolved devices to keep themselves floating.  Finally we will look at interesting solutions to longer term and more complex situations in the marine environment, such as daily vertical and long-term horizontal migration (salmon and turtles are examples), the necessity to limit time in the deep (seals) or even in the ocean (birds) for air-breathing vertebrates. 

The information for this course segment will be provided in part by Bradbury and Vehrencamp (1998) Principles of Animal Communication for sensory processing and Alexander (2003) Principles of Animal Locomotion for control of movement.  Papers that emphasize the different solutions to the limitations and advantages of water will be provided, but students will find more.  As the class will be small, discussion-based learning will form the major part of the class time (see Mather, 1993).  The assignment for the week's classes for each student will be to design the perfect marine animal--something they will be given at the beginning of the week so that they can assemble their ideas as the week progresses.  At the week's end, students will give a short presentation describing the animal they have designed and its functioning.

References

Alexander, R Mc (2003).  Principles of animal locomotion.  Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press.

Bradbury, J. W. & Vehrencamp, S. L. (1998) Principles of animal communication.  Sunderland, MA, Sinauer.

Mather, J.A. (1993).  Learning by discussion.  Presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Winnipeg, Canada, June.