SYLLABUS
Biology 535 Plant Ecology Spring 2005
Prerequisites: Biol 354 strongly recommended Professor: Janet Franklin
Lecture: TU TH 1230-1345 LS132 Office: PS145
Lab:TH 1400-1640 LS126 (or elsewhere by arrangement) Office Phone: 594 5491
Office Hours*: M 1300-1400; Tu 1400-1500; F 1400-1500 and by apt Email:
janet@sciences.sdsu.edu
(*Except
no office hours 2/8, 3/8, 3/14, 3/15, 4/5, 5/3, 5/13)
CONTACTING ME: See or call me during office hours
or by appointment. Leave messages,
etc., in my Biology department mailbox the main office, north Life Sciences. Email me. Leave me voicemail.
COURSE LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
After
taking this course students should be able to:
The
following topic areas will be addressed in the three parts of the class:
A.
Plants and the physical environment ecophysiology of photosynthesis,
water relations, energy balance and nutrient requirements; ecosystem processes:
the role of plants in biogeochemical cycles
B.
Plant evolutionary and population
ecology the
process and outcome of plant evolution and population structure, growth and
decline; plant life histories
C.
Plant communities interactions of plants with other
plants and with animals: competition, herbivory, disease; community dynamics:
disturbance, succession; communities in landscapes: classifying and comparing
communities
·
REQUIRED
TEXTBOOK Gurevitch, J, Scheiner, SM and Fox, GA, 2002, The Ecology or Plants, Sinauer Associates.
·
Biology
535 Ecobeaker Lab Exercises by Simbiotic Software, available at bookstore
(buying the manual gives you access to use of the software)
·
Other
printed course materials, including this syllabus, lecture outlines, additional
handouts (if any), other lab and field trip exercises, and any additional
reading materials, will be posted on the course Blackboard (Bb) -- http://blackboard.sdsu.edu/ You are responsible for printing your own
copies of these and bringing them to class/lab as needed. Therefore, you will need regular access to a
computer with an internet connection and a printer. If you are not familiar with Bb, please consider taking a
workshop at the library on how to use it. (Adobe Acrobat reader free software (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html
for materials distributed in PDF format)
·
A
notebook (bound or spiral, lined or grids) will be needed for labs, mainly for
note-taking during the field trips. You
will occasionally be asked to turn in your lab notebook. Most lab report will be typed and handed in
separate from the lab notebook, however.
·
A
blank floppy disk or zip disk or flash disk may be useful in the lab (or if you
have Web-based email, you email yourself copies of work you do in lab).
·
There
will be some minor expenses associated with the field trips you will have to
provide your own transportation and so car-pooling and sharing gas costs and
other expenses (some places may have small parking or usage fees) is expected
and encouraged.
GROUND RULES
Attend
class and lab. Ask questions. Be on
time. If you bring food to lecture,
clean up your trash. Absolutely no food or drink in computer lab. No late assignments will be accepted. Missing an exam will only be excused in case
of emergency with appropriate documentation (a note from doctor, etc.). Cheating is rarely an issue in ecology
courses; however, please note that University
regulations concerning plagiarism and cheating (see General Catalog) will be
strictly enforced.
COURSE GRADE
Assignment Per
Cent Points
exam
#1 20% 200
exam
#2 20% 200
exam
#3 25% 250
Quizzes 5% 50
Class
and lab participation (attendance) 3% 30
Lab
presentation 2% 20
12
Lab reports (15-25 pts each) 25% 250
ASSIGNMENTS AND
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES
Lectures: Lectures will emphasize main
concepts from assigned reading, illustrated with examples. Lecture outlines will be posted on Bb. Complete
assigned readings before class.
Quizzes: There will be several unscheduled
(surprise) quizzes given during lecture or lab, covering assigned reading or
material previously covered in lecture.
No make-up quizzes will be given. The lowest score will be dropped.
Exams:
There will be three exams the last one is given during the final exam
period. They will cover the assigned
reading, emphasizing material covered in lecture. Each exam will cover the material assigned
during each third of the course none of the exams are comprehensive. The exams may include short-answer, fill in
the blank, label the diagram, multiple choice, and matching questions. Lecture outlines should be used as a study
guide.
LABORATORY
Laboratory activities will include computer laboratory
exercises and field trips. Field trip
activities will include observation and data collection (sometimes both). Several of the computer-based labs will be
based on the EcoBeaker simulation software (see Schedule) and those lab
exercises are available through the campus bookstore. Other computer-based exercises will involve analysis of
ecological data. All software will be
available in the lab. All other lab
exercises, including descriptions of field trip activities, will be posted on
Bb in folders under Assignments.
Off-Campus
Field trips: There are several half-day field trips that
take place during class/lab time (roughly 12-5 pm) Thursdays. There will also be three Saturday field
trips and you are required to attend at least one of them (see Schedule). These are required and important class
activities. If you are not willing to
sign the waiver form and participate in any of these off campus activities,
alternative assignments will be provided (see below).
Lab
reports: Normally,
lab exercises will be completed during the lab period and brief reports will be
completed outside of class. The format
of each report will be specified in the lab exercise. All lab reports due one week after the
corresponding lab exercise/activity, average value about 15-25 points each
(less for easier, shorter reports, more for detailed longer reports with
calculations). Occasionally you will
also be asked to turn in your lab notebook.
Presentation:
At the end of the semester, small groups of students will give a brief
(10 minute) oral presentation about one of the lab activities (each group must
choose a different lab to discuss).
Alternative Assignments -- Activities Substituting for Off-Campus Field
Trips
These alternative assignments should
be done ONLY if you are not willing to sign any waiver forms OR if you there is
no possible way you can attend any Saturday field trips must be approved in
advance by Professor. Two activities substitute for all day field
trip.
1.
Attend
the talk given at a monthly meeting (3rd Tuesday, 7 pm, Balboa Park)
of the local chapter of California Native Plant Society (http://www.cnpssd.org/ ), or participate in
one of their activities (field trips or volunteer activities).
2.
Attend
an educational talk, workshop, canyoneers hike or other activity at the San
Diego Natural History Museum (http://www.sdnhm.org/
), Zoological Society (http://www.sandiegozoo.org/
), Mission Trails Regional Park (http://www.mtrp.org/
), Quail Botanical Garden (http://www.qbgardens.com/ ), a local California State Park, or
any other local group if it is related to plants, plant ecology, or botany.
3.
Attend
a Ecology and Evolutionary Biology seminar (Mondays, 4-5 pm, LS101; url: http://www.bio.sdsu.edu/eb/eb.html
and click on the link to Seminars), or any other seminar lecture on campus (or
at another university in the region) if it is related to plants, plant
ecology, or botany.
·
Write a
brief (~2 page) but logically-structured activity report describing what, where, when, who. What
was the main point of the talk, or of the activity? What were the results?
What concepts from class were involved?
CONDITIONAL COURSE CALENDAR (Subject to modification)
* required to attend one of the Saturday field trips
and write Report 12 about the trip you attend.