This is a mostly practical course offering an overview on different community ecology and macroecological methods and software. These will include all steps of a research project, from the optimal sampling of communities to process inference from large-scale patterns of taxon, phylogenetic and functional diversity. Specific topics will be: (1) alpha, beta and gamma diversity; (2) estimating diversity from incomplete sampling; (3) partitioning taxonomic beta diversity; (4) community-assembly rules, (5) functional and phylogenetic diversity, (6) null models, (7) rarity and species abundance distribution. Finally, students will be asked to present own data and case studies.