Ecology investigates and defines the relationships between the organisms and their environment, and then examines their higher levels of organization: population level (including parameters such as fecundity, birth and mortality, growth, as well as intraspecific competition), biocenosis or community level (group of species living in interaction, including interspecific competition, predation, parasitism, etc.) and ecosystem level (the highest level of organization, including biogeochemical processes). A special emphasis is also given to the impacts of man on the environment. The last chapter provides some basic knowledge in conservation biology.
Oral examination for which two questions are randomly chosen by the candidate. After a preparation time (about 30 to 45 min), the student is orally examined, and precisions are usually requested by the professor. A precise but integrative knowledge of the course is requested. Reports of practical works are also included in the global evaluation as well as the presentation of a personal work including a plant catalogue, an arthropod collection and an integrated description of an ecological case.