Landscape Ecology NR 220, Fall 2015 Thursday, 1:15-­‐4:15 PM Aiken 112 Professor: Taylor Ricketts Office: Gund Institute, 201 Johnson House, 617 Main Street Email: taylor.ricketts@uvm.edu Office hours: Mondays 4:00-­‐5:00; Fridays 1:00-­‐2:00 Welcome to Landscape Ecology. This course will consider the critical role that landscape pattern plays in shaping the interactions among species and the dynamics of ecosystems. Landscape Ecology has risen in importance as ecologists have recognized how important spatial processes are to population dynamics, community assembly, and ecosystem functions. Space also matters critically to conservation of species and biodiversity, and to the myriad ways that people interact with nature. We will learn the foundations of Landscape Ecology, what they teach us about how nature works over broad scales, and the ways we can manage landscapes to maintain healthy ecosystems and biodiversity. Learning objectives At the end of this course, students will be able to: -­‐ describe the foundational concepts and theories of landscape ecology -­‐ discuss how this field is advancing through the scientific literature -­‐ apply landscape ecology concepts and tools to conservation and management -­‐ use simple software and field methods to test landscape ecology principles Course design The course will comprise lectures, discussion of peer-­‐reviewed scientific papers, classroom labs based on computer exercises, and field labs on and off campus. In general, each week will cover a different topic within Landscape Ecology. The first half of each class will generally be lectures; the second half will either be a class discussion of related scientific papers or a lab on that week’s topic. Twice during the semester we’ll spend the entire class time in the field. Students will be evaluated based on lab reports, a final exam, and class participation. The course emphasizes important concepts in Landscape Ecology, how they are continually being tested and revised by the research community, and how they inform conservation and management. This is not a GIS-­‐based course; we will focus on concepts and illustrative analyses instead of specific tools like GIS. But we will use mathematical functions, statistics, graphs, and some rather fancy analyses in Excel to illustrate and explore concepts. Pre-­‐requisites -­‐ Senior or graduate standing. -­‐
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An introductory ecology course: NR 103 or BCOR 102. Familiarity with math, functions, statistics, and interpreting data and graphs. Comfort and facility with Excel, including formulas, references, and macros. No GIS knowledge required. Expectations To make the semester go smoothly for all, it’s worth being clear about my expectations of students. Please: -­‐ Attend every class. If you must miss class, tell me ahead of time. -­‐ Participate in class. I will ask lots of questions and ask you to help me explain things. That means you need to do and understand the readings ahead of time, and be ready to contribute in class. -­‐ Turn in assignments on time. I will deduct 10% from the score for each day a lab report or exam is late. -­‐ Silence your phone and put it away. We all need your full attention. Grading -­‐ Lab reports: 40 points -­‐ Final exam: 30 points -­‐ Class participation and prep: 30 points. Graduate and Undergraduate students will complete the same assignments, but each assignment and exam will have an extra question or two that will be required for graduate students. Extra credit: each student can earn extra credit by reading one of the EXTRA readings and writing a 1-­‐page summary answering three questions: What is the main finding of this paper? What general methods did the authors use? What, in your opinion, is the most interesting contribution this study makes to Landscape Ecology? Summaries are due at the beginning of class on the day for which that reading is assigned. Each summary is worth 2 points. Limit 2 per student. Course readings -­‐ Turner, Gardner, O’Neill. 2015. Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice. Springer-­‐Verlag. (individual chapters assigned as PDF’s) -­‐ Assorted papers from the primary literature, posted on Blackboard. -­‐ Video lectures, available online and links posted on Blackboard. Labs Labs will be interactive, challenging ways to understand Landscape Ecology principles and techniques. Half will be computer-­‐based and half will be field-­‐based, either on campus or in nearby landscapes. All labs will be conducted during class time in small teams. We will need to move quickly during lab sessions, so it is crucial that you do the advance reading/videos ahead of time. The more you get done in class, the less homework you’ll have! Lab reports will be due at the beginning of the next class meeting. Each lab team will submit a single lab report. It will be up to each group to complete the assignment together outside of class and designate someone to submit it to me on time. All group members share the same grade, including any penalty for being late. Each lab report will consist of two files, emailed to me by the deadline: -­‐ a completed Excel or other data file -­‐ a completed Word file, with answers to questions Important: please name your files uniquely by adding “ _GROUPNAME” (whatever your group name is) to the end of the file names of the documents provided. I will deduct points from groups who don’t follow this naming convention. Class discussions of literature Class discussions will give us practice reading and critiquing scientific papers, and a chance to see how science actually advances. Each time, I will assign 2 papers and 2 graduate students to lead discussion (I will provide some guidance on doing this effectively). We will divide the course into two groups to enhance participation, and then reconvene as one group near the end of class. I will also assign a simple set of questions for each set of papers we read together. Please bring short answers to these questions (printed out) to class on reading days. Your participation grade will be based largely on these sessions, specifically bringing these answers to class and participating in the discussion. I won’t grade your written answers but will check to ensure you have understood the readings. Final exam The final exam will cover material from lectures, labs, scientific papers, and textbook chapters. It will tend to emphasize content in that order (i.e., lectures most emphasized, textbook least, but all fair game). It will cover material from the entire semester. Sources of course material This course is built in part from material published or graciously shared by several colleagues. I am grateful to: -­‐ Terri Donovan and Jed Murdoch at UVM -­‐ Sarah Gergel at U. British Columbia -­‐ Dean Urban at Duke University -­‐ Monica Turner at U. Wisconsin Academic Integrity Offenses against the Code of Academic Integrity are deemed serious and insult the integrity of the entire academic community. Any suspected violations of the Code are taken very seriously and will be forwarded to the Center for Student Ethics & Standards for further intervention. To read the Code of Academic Integrity and learn more about the Center for Student Ethics and Standards, visit their website at: http://www.uvm.edu/~cses/?Page=ah.html&SM=menu-­‐programs.html. Schedule Subject to change – the Blackboard version is the updated one. Use that and consult it every week for updates. Date Class Topic Understanding Landscapes 3-­‐Sep COURSE INTRO LECTURE: Landscape Ecology concepts in applications 10-­‐Sep LECTURE: Landscape pattern and change FIELD: finding landscape pattern (campus) Optional: Excel help session: 4-­‐5 PM Gund Institute 14-­‐Sep 17-­‐Sep LECTURE: Measuring landscape pattern LAB: measuring landscape pattern 24-­‐Sep LECTURE: Landscape effects on species DISCUSSION: Landscape effects on species landscapes How shape ecology 1-­‐Oct 8-­‐Oct FIELD: edge effects (Shelburne Farms) Bus leaves from front of Aiken LECTURE: Landscapes and hydrology (Whemple) LECTURE: (Pontius/D'Amato) LECTURE: Patches as islands 15-­‐Oct LAB: meta-­‐populations (or IBG?) Assignments Field report Lab report Field r eport Required readings/prep Chapter 1, Pickett 1995 Chapter 2, Foster 1998, Foley 2005, Dale 2005 Field protocol and questions Donovan Chapters 0 and 1 Chapter 4, McGarigal 2013 (pp. 4-­‐39) Donovan Ch. 30 Chapter 7, Fahrig 2003 Wright 2002. Laurance 2006 TBA Field protocol and questions TBA TBA Powledge 2003, Metapop, IBG simple Videos: Metapopulations 1-­‐4 22-­‐Oct FIELD: movement and dispersal (Shelburne Farms) Bus leaves from front of Aiken LECTURE: Biodiversity in the matrix 29-­‐Oct Lab report TBA Field protocol and questions Field r eport Daily 2001, Mendenhall 2014 Phalan 2011; land sharing DISCUSSION: Biodiversity in the matrix (Balmford) 5-­‐Nov LECTURE: Landscape connectivity DISCUSSION: connectivity and movement LECTURE: Landscapes and ecosystem services (Sonter) 12-­‐Nov LAB: Landscapes and ecosystem services Applying l andscape ecology 19-­‐Nov LECTURE: Landscape conservation DISCUSSION: Landscape conservation 26-­‐Nov Thanksgiving break 3-­‐Dec Extra c redit The Adirondacks at the forefront (Erickson) DISCUSSION: Landscape Ecology in practice 10-­‐Dec Review session (optional -­‐ 90 minutes) ?? Lab report Final exam Crooks 2006, Taylor 2006, Beier and Noss 1998? Tewksbury 2002, Gilbert 1998 Mitchell 2015, Ricketts 2006, Nelson 2009 Shulte 2010, Pe/WI introduction and first exercise Chapter 9. Wiens 2009. Video: rewilding Stapp 2004. Another The Great Experiment excerpts WWF cases, TNC cases, Great Barrier Reef Final e xam