trhorton@esf.edu

Office: 350 Illick Hall

Office Hours Fall 2009: Wed. 9:30-10:30, Tues. 1:00-2:00

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Last updated: December 30, 2009

Click to download the instructions for the EOL lab

Click for Lecture schedule

Click for Lecture Notes

Go to Ecology Lab page to find section times and room numbers, lab schedule, write-up due dates, etc.

Grading

Lecture = 45.3%of total grade (265 points total: Quiz One = 13 pts, Quiz Two = 12 pts, Exam one = 60 pts, Exam Two = 60 pts, Exam Three = 120 pts)

Lab = 54.7% of total grade (320 points total, see lab web page for breakdown of points)

Textbook:

Required:The Economy of Nature, by Robert E. Ricklefs. Go to The Economy of Nature webpage

Alternate: Ecology, 4th Edition by Ricklefs & Miller. This hard bound book offers a more comprehensive treatment of everything we will cover in class.

I highly recommend you learn/review basic statistical approaches to data analyses. Many examples in lecture and lab will rely on your being able to interpret summary data analyses as presented in graphs, charts, and tables.
Also, I highly recommend you use Excel or a similar spreadsheet to analyze your data for lab.
Finally, for your lab reports...SPELL CHECK!

Required: EFB 320, General Ecology Lab Manual, Fall 2009 -- available at the Copy Center in the basement of Bray Hall. Pay for the manual at the Cashier's on the first floor of Bray Hall, and then take your receipt down to the copy center to pick up your manual.

Reserve readings:

During the semester I will assign several papers for you to read. They can be accessed via the Moon Library Internet Journals service. Click here to see the citations, with links that may not always function if a website has been altered (in that case use the citation to find the article). They should be read by the date shown on the Syllabus schedule and concepts within these papers will be included in the indicated lecture and on the following test.

Tentative Syllabus, Fall 2009

Week	Date	Lecture Topic	Reading (Mostly from Economy of Nature)
One	Tuesday 9/1	Ecology -- A still developing science	Ch. 1, pp. 10-14 (5th ed.) or pp. 11-13 (6th ed.); Biodiversity Reading
	Thursday 9/3	Experimental design, sampling, and hypothesis testing	Ch. 1, pp.14-18 (5th ed.) or pp.13-17 (6th ed.), Lab Manual, NOTES
Two	Tuesday 9/8	Case Study: Planting trees may not reduce atmospheric CO2,	Ecuador reading
	Thursday 9/10	The Physical Environment	Ch. 2 & Ch. 3 (both editions)
Three	Tuesday 9/15	QUIZ ONE - STATS and Ch.1 (15 pts) Study material = Lecture 1 and Ch. 1 (pp. given under Reading)
	Thursday 9/17	Variations in the Environment	Ch. 4, both editions
Four	Tuesday 9/22	Writing a lab report
	Thursday 9/24	QUIZ TWO (15 pts) Study material = Lab write-up Lecture and Chs. 2,3 (pp. given under Reading) (Followed by lecture on Ecosystems: Energy)	Ch. 6 (5th ed.) or Ch. 22 (6th ed.)
Five	Tuesday 9/29	Ecosystems: Elements	Ch. 7 (5th ed.) or Ch. 23 (6th ed.)
	Thursday 10/1	Ecosystems: Nutrient Regeneration	Ch. 8 (5th ed.) or Ch. 24 (6th ed.)
Six	Tuesday 10/6	Exam I: Physical Environment and Ecosystems (60 pts) PDF of lecture figures/slides 5th ed. Chs. 4, 6, 7, 8 or 6th ed. Chs. 4, 22, 23, 24
	Thursday 10/8	Nature Commentary: NEW IMPROVED Earth's Boundaries? (Scroll down to bottom of first page) Special Lecture: Fire Ecology	Fire Ecology Readings; Lecture PDF
Seven	Tuesday 10/13	PopEcol: Life Histories and Fitness	5th ed. ch. 10; 6th ed. ch. 7
	Thursday 10/15	PopEcol: Structures Structures Lecture pdf	5th ed. ch. 13; 6th ed. ch. 10
Eight	Tuesday 10/20
	Thursday 10/22	PopEcol: Growth and Regulation	5th ed. ch. 14; 6th ed. ch. 11
Nine	Tuesday 10/27	PopEcol: Temporal and Spatial Dynamics	5th ed. ch. 15; 6th ed. ch. 12
	Thursday 10/29
Ten	Tuesday 11/3	Exam II: Population Ecology (60 pts) 5th ed. chs. 10, 13, 14, 15 6th ed. chs. 7, 10, 11, 12 Plus Fire lecture and readings from10/8 BRING A PENCIL (or 2!) Population growth lecture (PDF) Life history lecture (PDF)
	Thursday 11/5	Special Lecture: Molecular Ecology and Systematics
Eleven	Tuesday 11/10	Species Interactions: Predator-Prey	5th ed. ch. 18, 6th ed. ch. 15
	Thursday 11/12	Species Interactions: Competition	5th ed. ch. 19, 6th ed. ch.16
Twelve	Tuesday 11/17	Species Interactions: Parasitism and Herbivory/CWD	5th ed. ch. 17, 6th ed. ch. 14 Shoot this deer (Supplemental reading)
	Thursday 11/19	Evolution of Species Interactions/Mutualisms	5th ed. ch. 20, 6th ed. ch. 17
Thirteen	Tuesday 11/24	Special Topic: Mycorrhizal Ecology
	Thursday 11/26	Thanksgiving break no class
Fourteen	Tuesday 12/1	Communities: Structure	5th ed. Ch. 21, 6th ed. ch. 18
	Thursday 12/3	Communities: Succession and Development	5th ed. Ch. 22, 6th ed. ch. 19
Fifteen	Tuesday 12/8	Special Topic: Invasive Species	Reading TBA
	Thursday 12/10	Special Topic: Restoration Ecology	Restoration Ecology
Sixteen	Tuesday 12/14	Review for Final (120 points)

Books highlighted in lecture

Statistics and Report Writing

Sokal RR, Rohlf FJ (1995) Biometry 3rd ed. Freeman and Company, New York. A general text.

Cox GW (2002) General Ecology: Laboratory Manual, 8th ed. McGraw-Hill Boston. The first 7 chapters provide a great overview of statistics, experimental design, sampling, and report writing.

Knisely, K (2002) A Student Handbook for Writing in Biology. Sinauer Associates, Massachusetts.

History of Ecology

Real LA, Brown JH, editors (1991) Foundations of Ecology: Classic Papers with Commentaries. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Contains reproductions of the fundamental papers that have shaped the field, including the origins of ideas on: plant succession, niche theory, trophic interactions, and much more.

Roughgarden J, May RM, Simon LA, editors (1989) Perspectives in Ecological Theory. Princeton University Press, Princeton. Provides overviews of essential theory in ecology by some of the 'big names'.

Lecture Readings

Biodiversity

More than meets the eye. Sean Nee. Nature 429: 804-805.

On the Terminination of Species Wayt Gibbs, Scientific American, Nov. 2001, Vol 285, Issue 5, p40, 10p

Combating global warming?

Chapela IH, Osher LJ, Horton TR, Henn MR (2001) Ectomycorrhizal fungi introduced with exotic pine plantations induce soil carbon depletion. Soils Biology and Biochemistry 33: 1733-1740.