ENV 326 - Environmental Ecology: Synthesis and Applications

Course Information

Syllabus Fall 2007

Lab Manual

Lab Schedule

Weekly Assignments

Weekly Blog Assignment

Twice Weekly Discussion Questions Assignment on Assigned Readings

Research Paper Assignments

2. Individual Paper (Draft 1: Due 16 October 2007 for colleague review)

1. Ecosystem Paper (Due 25 September 2007)

Homework Assignments

3. Population Modeling Refresher (Due 20 September 2007)

2. Join an Environmental NGO "Take Action" Email Mailing List (Due 06 September 2007)

1. Discussion of Environmental Issues at Three Scales - Local, Regional, and Global (Due 04 September 2007). You will have the option of (a) selecting one of these environmental issues or (b) identifying an environmental issue based on your research from your ecosystem paper to use for your individual term paper topic.

Laboratory

Lab 4 Lava River Cave IUCN World Heritage Site Evalation Lab

Lab 3 Ponderosa Pine Snag Bat Roost Lab

Lab 2

Lab 1

Lectures

Lecture 24 (29 November 2007) Climate Change

Lecture 23 (27 November 2007) Invasive Species

Lecture 22 (20 November 2007) Conservation Biology

Lecture 21 (15 November 2007) Extinction

Lecture 20 (13 November 2007) Marine Ecology

Lecture 19 (08 November 2007) Endangered Species Act and National Enviornmental Policy Act

Lecture 18 (05 November 2007) Habitat and Habitat Selection

Lecture 17 (30 October 2007) Landscape Ecology

Lecture 16 (18 October 2007) Island biogeography

Lecture 15 (16 October 2007) Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Sustainability

Lecture 14 (11 October 2007) Ecosystems Development and Productivity

Lecture 13 (09 October 2007) Food Webs

Lecture 12 (04 October 2007) Ecological Communities II: Characterizing Communities, Diversity and Stability

Lecture 11 (02 October 2007) Ecological Communities I: Species Richness and Species Assemblages

Lecture 10 (27 September 2007) Bats and Bat Monitoring Techniques

Lecture 9 (13 September 2007) Exploitative Interactions and Coevolution

Lecture 8 (20 September 2007) Lotka-Voltera Revisited and Other Theories Limiting Population Growth (Competition Part II)

Lecture 7 (18 September 2007) Competition Part I

Lecture 6 (13 September 2007) Population Regulation and Logistic Growth

Lecture 5 (11 September 2007) Demography and Exponential Growth

Lecture 4 (06 September 2007) Evolution and Population Genetics, Part 2

Lecture 3 (04 September 2007) Evolution and Population Genetics, Part 1

Lecture 2 (30 August 2007) Environmental Tolerances and Adaptations

Lecture 1 (28 August 2007) Course Overview

Required Readings

Estes, J. A. et al. (1998), Killer whale predation on sea otters linking oceanic and nearshore ecosystems Science 282: 473 - 476

Pew Oceans Commission (2003), America’s living oceans: Charting a course for sea change. Pew Oceans Commission, Arlington, VA. 144 pp. (summary; 13 November 2007)

Johnson, D.H. (1980),The comparison of usage and availability measurements for evaluating resource preference, Ecology 61: 65-71 (06 November 2007)

Diamond, J.M. (1975), The Island Dilemma: Lessons of Modern Biogeographic Studies for the Design of Natural Reserves, Biological Conservation 7: 129-146.

Laurance, W.F., S.G. Laurance, L.V. Ferreira, J.M. Rankin-de Merona, C. Gascon, and T.E. Lovejoy (1997), Biomass collapse in Amazonian forest fragment, Science 278: 117-118.

MacArthur, R.H. and E.O. Wilson (1963), An Equilibrium Theory of Insular Zoogeography, Evolution: 17: 373-387.

Mills, L.S., M.E. Soule and D.F. Doak. (1993), The keystone-species concept in ecology and conservation, BioScience 43: 219-224 (16 October 2007).

Naeem, S. L. J. Thompson, S.P. Lawler, J.H. Lawton & R.M. Woodfin (1994), Declining biodiversity can alter the performance of ecosystems, Nature 368: 734-737 (16 October 2007).

Odum, E.P. (1969), The strategy of ecosystem development, Science 164: 262-270 (11 October 2007).

Gruner, D. S. (2004), Attenuation of top-down and bottom-up forces in a complex terrestrial community, Ecology 85: 3010-3022 (09 October 2007).

Ehrlich, P.R. (1988), The Loss of Diversity: Causes and Consequences, In Biodiversity (E.O. Wilson, ed.), National Academy Press, Washington D.C., pps. 21-27 (02 October 2007).

Ehrlich, P.R. (2000), Chapters 1 and 3, Human Natures: Genes, Culture and Human Prospect, Island Press, Washington D.C. (06 September 2007).

References used in Lecture

Levins, R. (1966), The strategy of model building in population biology, American Scientist 54: 421-431 (Lecture 5: 11 September 2007).

Darwin, C. and A. Wallace (1858) On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection, Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Zoology 3: 45-62 (Lecture 3: 04 September 2007).

Spotila, J.R. et al. (1972), the Biophysical Ecology of the Alligator: Heat Energy Budgets and Climate 53: 1094-1102 (Lecture 2: 30 August 2007).

Janzen, D.H. (1967), Why Mountain Passes are Higher in the Tropics, American Naturalist 101: 233-249 (Lecture 2: 30 August 2007).

Hoekstra et al. (2005), Confronting a biome crisis: global disparities of habitat loss and protection, Ecology Letters 8: 23–29 (Lecture 1: 28 August 2007).

Extra Credit Readings

MacArthur, R.H. (1962), Some generalized theorems about natural selection, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 48: 1893-1897.

Naeem, S. F.S. Chapin III, R. Costanza, P.R. Ehrlich, F.B. Golley, D.U. Hooper, J.H. Lawton, R. V. O'Neill, H.A. Mooney, O.E. Sala, A.J. Symstad, and D. Tilman (1999) Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: Maintaining Natural Life Support Processes, Issues in Ecology 4, Ecological Society of America, Washington, D.C. (16 October 2007).

Daily, G.C., S. Alexander, P.R. Ehrlich, L. Goulder, J. Lubchenco, P.A. Matson, H.A. Mooney, S. Postel, S.H. Schneider, D. Tilman, G.M. Woodwell (1997), Ecosystem Services: Benefits Supplied to Human Societies by Natural Ecosystems, Issues in Ecology 2, Ecological Society of America, Washington, D.C. (16 October 2007).

Tilman, D. (1996), Biodiversity: Population vs. ecosystem stability, Ecology 77: 350-363 (04 October 2007).

Ecology and Conservation in the News

Gorillas head race to extinction, BBC News (12 September 2007)

Upcoming Meetings and Other Interesting Links

The Ninth Biennial Conference of Research on the Colorado Plateau, 29 October - 01 November 2007, NAU, Flagstaff, AZ)