Biology 5460
Fall 2011

Student Led Debates
Utah Veg. Project
Utah Veg. Online Manual
Climate Project
Grading and Exams
Course Policies
Objectives & Texts
Past Course Evaluations
WebCT


Class Meeting Schedule

10:45 am - 12:05 pm
Tuesday and Thursday
320 AEB

Mark Blonquist

Instructor
(801) 585-5671
mark.blonquist@utah.edu

Jinny McGavien

Coordinator
(801) 581-6414
jinny.mcgavien@utah.edu

Suzy Khachaturyan

Teaching Assistant
suzy.khachaturyan@gmail.com


Printable Syllabus

Grading Breakdown

 This lecture course is offered to undergraduate students interested in learning more about how climate systems, soils, biotic interactions, and humans impact plant species and plant communities. Like it or not, the world is changing. This course provides the foundation for understanding those changes and how plants will respond. All topics are considered from an evolutionary, functional, and global-change perspectives. Lectures will span from molecules to ecosystems. Students will have downloadable PDFs of all lecture materials available 10-15 days before a lecture.

# Date Lecture (10:45-11:35) # Discussions (11:35-12:05)
I. Biomes and Climates of the World
1 Aug 23 Ecology, biodiversity, adaptation, and the environment 28 Rio Mesa Slide Show
2 Aug 25 Climate constrains plant distributions 29 Library searches
3 Aug 30 Biomes and climate relationships 30 What is expected in your paper
4 Sept 01 Desert and steppe ecosystems 31 Desert vegetation slide show
5 Sept 06 Grassland, savannah, and shrub ecosystems 32 Grassland vegetation slide show
6 Sept 08 Forest ecosystems 33 Forest vegetation slide show
7 Sept 13 Alpine and tundra ecosystems 34 Tundra vegetation slide show
Sept 15 Examination 1 Examination 1 review
II. Environment and Resource Capture
8 Sept 20 Microclimate - the biophysical environment 35 Microclimate and energy computer models
9 Sept 22 Microclimate - the biophysical environment 36 Hanging gardens of Southern Utah slide show
10 Sept 27 Plants exchange energy with their environment 37 El Niño and La Niña patterns
11 Sept 29 Water moves through the plant-soil atomosphere continuum 38 Cheatgrass and the modern fire cycle
12 Oct 04 Plants acquire nutrients via roots and microbes 39* Natural wildfires should not be suppressed.
13 Oct 06 Plants acquire carbon and energy through photosynthesis 40* We should remove the dam at Glen Canyon.
Oct 11 Fall Recess
Oct 13 Fall Recess
14 Oct 18 Photosynthesis adaptations and adjustments to changes in light and temperature 41* Wolves should not be allowed to expand throughout the West.
15 Oct 20 Environmental stresses limit resource capture and use 42* SLC residents should be required to xeriscape.
    III. Resource Utilization  
16 Oct 25 Canopy and scaling processes integrate plant activities    
17 Oct 27 Plant phenology and resource allocation to enhance performance 44* We should constrain human atmospheric and waste inputs into the Great Salt Lake.
18 Nov 01 It's all about timing and provisioning: competition, life history, and offspring. 45* No debate - exam review
  Nov 03 Examination 2   Examination 2 Review
    IV. Plant responses to a changing world  
19 Nov 08 Urban ecosystems and land-use changes 46* Dust emissions from Utah's deserts are related to ecosystem health and drought.
20 Nov 10 Whether you admit it or not, global changes are occurring 47* We should take steps to protect the Wasatch forests from human impacts.
21 Nov 15 Atmospheric changes impact plant performance and evolution 48* The current global warming is natural.
22 Nov 17 What advantage is there to variations in photosynthetic pathways? 49* We should reduce CO2 emissions.
23 Nov 22 Global carbon balance and terrestrial subsidies to anthropogenic emissions 50* Aquatic plant and animal species should have access to stream water before irrigation.
Nov 24 Thanksgiving Holiday
24 Nov 29 What are the characteristics of a serious invasive species? 51* Invasive aquatic species are a management problem in Utah
25 Dec 1 Restoration ecology - how do we put the system back together again? 52*

We should control the spread of invasive weeds on public lands.
OR
We should change grazing policies in Utah. (Student choice)
26 Dec 06 Envision Utah - what the pioneers saw, what we see, and what our children will see    
27 Dec 08 Examination 3 due no later than Dec 9th at 12:30pm "*" indicates a student-led debate
Biology 5460 - Plant Ecology