Very Tentative Lecture Schedule

Biology 423: General Ecology

Instructor: Fred Singer Office: 314 Reed Hall email: [email protected] website: http://www.radford.edu/fsinger/ Office phone: 5115 Home phone: 633-0142 (before 9 PM) Office hours: T 2-4 W 10-12 Th 5-6 Text: Ecology: Concepts and Applications by Manuel C. Molles (5th edition) – there may be an e-book available through the publisher.

Welcome to General Ecology. Our goal is to try to understand how the natural world works. Since most evidence indicates that the world ecosystems are in a state of flux, keeping up with these changes can be pretty challenging. As part of your effort, you will need to keep up on your assignments. I’d recommend that you do the readings before the scheduled lectures, so that you can ask questions on topics that you find difficult or confusing. I emphasize here three points. First, I will hold you responsible for material in the reading that is not covered in class. So if you read something and don’t understand it, you will be doing yourself and your fellow students a service by asking me about it in class. Second, I heap lavish rewards (i.e. high grades) on people who participate in class. This includes asking and answering questions. It is not unusual for me to raise people’s grades by a full letter grade for exceptional class participation. Finally, note that there are two Discussions scheduled during the semester. I will provide you with one or two articles that will be on electronic reserve in the Library, which you must download or photocopy and bring to class. If you don’t bring a photocopy of the paper, you will be excused from the class and sent to the library.

I realize that it is somewhat unusual at RU for professors to test students on material that is not covered in class. You will find this class unusual in a variety of other ways as well. As a rule of thumb, if a topic receives a paragraph or more of treatment in the text, then you are responsible for it on the exams. On the other hand, if it is just mentioned once in passing, you can delete it from your cognition.

I’ve taught ecology several times at RU, and I will try something different. I have been challenged to get through the course material in the past two years (in part because the semester was reduced from 15 to 14 weeks about two years ago), so I’m planning to skip the ecophysiology part of the course, in hopes that will allow us to discuss ecosystem and global ecology in some detail. I will no doubt fill in a few of the resultant gaps in our understanding of ecophysiology when a physiological background is needed in other discussions. I am also skipping the chapter on Evolution, since all of you in this class either have had, or are currently taking, a class that deals explicitly with that topic. We’ll see how that works out.

Very Tentative Lecture Schedule

Dates Topics Readings Jan 18 What is Ecology Molles chapter 1 Jan 20 Life on land Molles chapter 2 Jan 25 Social relations Molles chapter 8 Jan 27 Population Distribution Molles Chapter 9 Feb 1,3 Population Dynamics Molles chapter 10 Feb 8 Computer simulation on estimating populations Handout Feb 10 Exam # 1 Feb 15,17 Population Growth Molles chapter 11 Feb 22 Discussion # 1 Primary literature Feb 24 Life Histories Molles chapter 12 Mar 1,3,15 Competition Molles chapter 13 Mar 17 Discussion # 2 Primary literature Mar 22 Exam # 2 Mar 24,29,31 Exploitation Interactions Molles chapter 14 Apr 5 Mutualism Molles chapter 15 Apr 7 Species abundance and diversity Molles chapter 16 Apr 12 Food Webs Molles chapter 17 Apr 14 Exam # 3 Apr 19 Primary Production and Energy Flow Molles chapter 18 Apr 21 Nutrient cycling Molles chapter 19 Apr 26 Geographic Ecology Molles chapter 22 Apr 28 Global Ecology Molles chapter 23 May 2 (8 AM) Final Exam

Note: Randomness is rife, so expect changes

Even more tentative laboratory schedule

At some point this semester, I expect you to mutter some unpleasant things about having ecology labs outdoors during nasty weather. Alas that I have no control over that, nor can I control the unpredictable behavior of organisms who, for example, may choose to be absent at a time that I think they should be present. So we will need to have some flexibility about what we do, and when we do it. So the sequence below is a possibility of what may happen.

Jan 20 Set up effect of CO2 on plant growth + data analysis Jan 27 Bird behavior 1 Feb 3 Bird behavior 2 Feb 10 Vulture Lab Feb 17 Metapopulations + data analysis Feb 24 Harvest effect of CO2 on plant growth + data analysis Mar 3 Selu tree gaps Mar 17 Creek 1 Mar 24 Creek 2 Mar 31 Selu Lab Apr 7 Independent Project 1 Apr 14 Independent Project 2 Apr 21 Finish Independent Project Apr 28 Project Oral Presentations

Miscellaneous information

There will one or two papers associated with each discussion. There will also be several lab reports or writeups, a research proposal, a review paper on your research (with at least one revision), an oral presentation of your research, and a final formal research report. Later in the semester I will provide a detailed handout on the independent project.

I will allow you to bring a piece of paper into each exam. On the paper, you may write whatever you want. You are allowed to use two pieces of paper for the final exam. The writing must be in your own handwriting (no photocopies). Wise students will create the useful piece of paper as the class goes along, so that they are reviewing as they are reading and writing. Good luck, have fun, and let’s all learn a huge amount.