Faculty Profile
Neil Ringler
Emeritus Associate Provost
Teaching Experience
EFB 132 Orientation Seminar: Environmental and Forest Biology (1 credit hour): One hour of lecture, discussion and/or exercises. Introduction to campus resources available to ensure academic success. Introduction to EFB as a field of inquiry. Fall.
EFB 385 Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy (4 credit hours): Three hours of lecture and three hours of laboratory. Analysis of vertebrate structure, with emphasis on comparative study of organ systems. Includes evolution of form and function, major adaptive patterns and phylogenetic relationships in vertebrates. Spring.
EFB 388 Ecology of Adirondack Fishes (3 credit hours): An integrated field and laboratory course in the identification of fish and recognition of ecological characteristics of major fish sp ecies and communities of Adirondack waters. Satisfies a component of the field study elective requirement in Environmental and Forest Biology. Two hours of lecture, and eight hours of field work and discussion each day for two weeks. Summer, Cranberry Lake Biological Station.
EFB 554 Aquatic Entomology (3 credit hours): An introduction to the identification, life histories and ecology of aquatic insects, with emphasis on genera found in the Northeastern U.S. Includes consideration of the functional role of insects in aquatic sysstems, and current avenues of research. Intended for senior and graduate students pursuing interests in entomology, fisheries and wildlife, forestry, limnology and general ecology. Fall.
EFB 796 Topics in Environmental and Forest Biology: Animal Flight (2 credit hours). Spring.
Current Graduate Advisees
Carrick Palmer
ctpalmer@syr.edu
- Degree Sought: MS
- Graduate Advisor(s): Ringler and Schulz
- Area of Study: EFB Ecology
Graduate Research Topic
I'm interested in examining the effects of the invasive macroalga Nitellopsis obtusa (starry stonewort) on the epiphytic community of New York lakes. This aquatic invasive species has recently been spreading in New York and across the Great Lakes Region in the US and Canada. It often forms dense monocultures by outcompeting and displacing native macrophyte species. Previous research has primarily focused on the distribution of starry stonewort, but little has explored its potential ecological impacts.