Aquatic Ecology 362-405 Fall 2004

Aquatic Ecology 362-405 – Fall 2004

Lecture: TR 1 p.m. MAC 223 Lab: Tuesdays or Thursday 2:00-5:00 p.m. (+ one weekend field trip) LS 214

Instructor: Tara Reed Office – LS 415 Phone 465-2284 Email – [email protected]

Required texts: Dodson, S. 2005. Introduction to Limnology

Hilsenhoff, W. L. 1995. Aquatic Insects of Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin- Madison Extension Publication G3648.

Also required: All-weather ”Rite in Rain” field notebook (available at the bookstore).

Highly recommended:

An Introductory Statistics book.

An Excel handbook (or handbook for whatever spreadsheet software you use).

Voshell, J. R. Jr. 2002. A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America. McDonald and Woodward.

Expectations: This course should serve both as an introduction to freshwater systems and as a place to apply the ecology you’ve learned in other courses. We’ll spend many of the labs outside – even into November, so be prepared for the weather. For every outdoor lab you’ll need either waders (preferred) or waterproof boots and warm clothes. Aquatic Ecologists are a hearty bunch so – if a field trip is planned, assume we’re going out. There’s also one required weekend field trip September 11-12.

Grading: Points Mid-terms…………. 30 Final …………….. 20 4 lab reports ………..36 Lab practical …………5 Final lab poster………5 Lab attendance………4 100 Exams: There will be three exams (2 mid-terms and a final). For all exams you will be responsible for the assigned reading as well as the lecture material. 2

Reports: For the lab you'll work in groups of 4-5. The lab work consists of four different experiments and comparative analyses using field data. You will be graded on 4 short directed lab write-ups, due in class Friday of the week after the experiment/comparison is finished. While you will collect the data as a group, each member of the group will be responsible for their own individual write-up and data analysis of the lab – if your work looks collaborative (i.e. all the graphs within a particular group are identical) I will split the points you earned on that report between the collaborators. Directions for lab write-ups are in your lab manual.

Practical: We will have one short practical exam near the end of lab to test your taxonomic skills.

Posters: Groups will collarobate on a poster that presents data from one of our experiments. These posters will be modeled after those presented at scientific meetings. We’ll have a poster session during one of the final classes. During this session you’ll be asked to explain your results to others using your poster as a visual aid. Posters will be graded on scientific merit, oral presentation and aesthetics.

Problem sets: I will periodically give you problem sets and post the answers outside my door. The problem sets are examples of the kinds of mathematical problems you will encounter on the tests and are designed to give you a chance to practice. In general the test will include some of these kinds of problems along with short answer questions and an essay or two testing your knowledge of reading and lecture material. In lecture we will only be able to cover some of the material but you are responsible for all the readings.

Date Subject Readings 9/2 What is Aquatic Ecology 9/7 History and current practice Chapter 1 9/9 Stratification Chapter 2 9/14 Light 9/16 Currents 9/21 Single celled organisms Chapter 3 9/23 Plankton Chapter 4 9/28 Macroinvertebrates 9/30 Fish Chapter 5 10/5 More fish 10/7 Test 1 10/12 Population dynamics Chapter 6 10/14 Life history 10/18 Community interactions Chapter 7 3

Date Subject Readings 10/21 Community structure 10/26 Community dynamics Chapter 8 10/28 Trophic cascades Carpenter et al. 1995 11/2 Alternate stable states 11/4 Test 2 11/9 Primary production Chapter 9 11/11 Macrophytes 11/16 Physiological Ecology 11/18 Chemical cycling Chapter 10 11/23 Stoiciometry/ toxins 11/30 Streams –currents Chapter 11 12/2 Streams – benthos 12/7 Stream/Lake order 12/9 Lake restoration / Adaptive Chapter 12 management 12/14 Poster session Final – 12/16 10:30 am

Lab syllabus - dates in bold indicate labs where there will be some field component (dress accordingly). For each lab two dates are given, one for Tuesday and the other for Thursday. Date Exercise 9/7-9 Practice on lakes (Trout 9/11-12) 9/14-16 Green Bay 9/21-23 Sample processing 9/28-30 Sample processing – data analysis Colonization drop off begins for Tuesday lab on Thursday 9/26 Thursday lab on Saturday 9/28 Week of 10/5-7 Pick up colonization substrates, and start sample processing 10/12-14 Sample processing and data analysis 10/18–21 Zebra mussel lab 10/26-28 Sample processing and data analysis 11/2-4 Stream sampling 11/9-11 Stream sampling 11/16-18 Sample processing 11/30-12/2 Sample processing 12/7-9 Sample processing and data analysis