Instructor: Martin Dovciak, Contact Info, Dovciak Lab in Plant Ecology

 

Class Times: Lecture- MW 10:35-11:30 am // Labs- Tu 12:30-3:20 or W 1:50-4:50 pm

 

Course Description: This course builds conceptual knowledge and analytical skills that enable students to understand and analyze how plant communities are structured by multiple ecological processes, how they interact with other ecosystem components (such as herbivores or decomposers), how they influence ecosystem flows (such as nutrient or water cycles), and how their structure and ecosystem functions may be affected by ongoing global environmental change (such as changing climate, land-use, or invasions of non-native plants). We will examine factors that affect plant community assembly across a range of spatial and temporal scales — from ecophysiological processes occurring at the scale of a leaf, to global patterns of primary productivity and biodiversity. The course covers a range of major topics in plant ecology, including basics of plant ecophysiology and autecology, plant population ecology, plant life-history strategies, competition and coexistence in plant communities, models of plant community dynamics, linkages between disturbance regime and plant succession, the role of plants in ecosystem processes, global patterns of plant diversity and biogeography, and global environmental change (including climate change, biodiversity loss, and plant invasions). Course lectures include discussion of high-impact research papers, and are closely linked to laboratory exercises in which students learn how to analyze actual data from primary literature, how to construct their own models of plant population and community dynamics, and how to use important field sampling techniques.

Syllabus (coming soon)

Lectures & Labs on Blackboard (password protected)

EFB 535 Flowering Plants Course Info