Plant-Animal Interactions
Biology 269 – Fall 2015
MWF 9:40-10:30am
Room: 107 MLS
Instructor:
Office:
Phone:
E-mail:
Office hours:
Dr. Alison K. Brody
205A Marsh Life Sciences
656-0449
akbrody@uvm.edu
MW 1:30 - 2:30, or by appointment.
Textbooks: There is no text book for this course. Instead, I will place a set of
assigned readings on the course Blackboard site. There are two types of
readings: 1) those you should read for background and supplementary material
to enrich your knowledge of the concepts presented in class, and 2) those you
should read for Friday discussions. You are responsible for the material in the
readings as well as the lectures, although emphasis on the exams will be on
lecture material.
Readings for Fridays: I will assign readings from the primary literature
throughout the course that we will discuss in class on Fridays. You are
responsible for the material from these in class discussions as well as on exams.
The readings will be posted as downloadable pdf files on Blackboard, or I will
email them to you as pdf files.
Exams/Grading:
3 midterm exams1
Poster presentation2
Poster Critique3
Paper Critique4
Participation5
Seminar attendance6
Points
300
100
50
50
100
50
-----650
1Dates
for midterms and written assignments:
Midterm I: Friday, September 25th, in class
Midterm II: Friday, November 6th, in class
Midterm III: Friday, December 11th, 1:30 in class
Poster Presentations:
October 23rd and October 30th
Critiques due on October 9th, Nov 20th & Oct 26th or Nov 2nd
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2Poster
Presentation. The presentation of scientific results is often done through
posters. Poster presentations require one to synthesize information in a clear
and concise format. I will set aside two Fridays for poster presentations during
which half of the class will present a poster and the other half will critique the
posters. More information will be provided later in the course.
3Poster
Critiques. You will be expected to write a formal critique of two posters
during the poster session in which you are not presenting.
4Paper
Critiques. On Fridays, we will be discussing the primary literature. To
encourage you to read critically, and develop your skills in critiquing papers, you
will be required to write a formal critique of one or more papers that I will assign.
If you are satisfied with the grade you receive on the first critique, you are not
required to complete two. However, if you are unsatisfied with the grade you
receive on the first, you will be given the opportunity to repeat the assignment
and improve your grade.
5Participation:
We will discuss one or more papers from the primary literature
each week. Two or three students will be assigned to lead the discussion for that
week. Question sets that cover the reading and can be used to focus the
discussion will be posted on the course website or distributed by electronic mail.
These need not be highly detailed, but they do need to be thoughtful and answer
the questions posed as accurately as possible. If the effort is clearly minimal,
points will be deducted. They are due the day of the discussion (normally
Fridays, but this may vary) and must be finished before class. Each student is
expected to participate in the class discussion and will be graded
according to attendance and participation. If you only “show up” and
never speak, you will be given half the number of points allotted for
“Discussion”.
Please do NOT send me assignments via email. A hard copy, handed to me
in class, is required.
Note: the material covered in the readings will be “fair game” for exam
questions and I will expect you to use the information found in the readings
to answer exam questions.
6Seminar
attendance. Two are optional for undergraduates, and four are
required for graduate students. Throughout the semester, there are seminars
across campus that provide interesting information, pertinent to the course. If
you attend a seminar and write a short summary, you will receive 25 points.
Your final grade will be calculated based on the total number of points possible,
including the number of seminars you attended. Thus, if you chose to attend one
seminar, your grade will be calculated from a total of 625 points. If you did not
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attend any outside seminars, your final grade will be calculated from a total of
600 points. All graduate students in the course are required to attend four
seminars and hand in summaries.
Email etiquette: Communicating by electronic mail has become commonplace,
and is the most reliable way to get in contact with me. I will make every effort to
answer your emails promptly. Please return the courtesy by responding. Also,
please address your queries appropriately. “Hey” does not fall in this category
and any such messages will be ignored. Perhaps the best litmus test is to ask the
following: “if you were looking for a job, would your salutation be appropriate?”
Cell phones: turn them off. If your phone rings (audibly), please leave the room
and don’t come back until the next class period. Otherwise, you’ve doubled the
disruption – leaving, and coming back in.
Learning Goals and outcomes.
Plant-Animal Interactions is a diverse field studied from ecological, evolutionary,
biochemical and genetic perspectives. Numerous concepts will be covered using
examples from the primary literature. I expect students to master the concepts
and examples provided in class as well as others from the scientific literature and
seminars. Mastery will be assessed by three, one-hour, in-class exams.
By the end of the course, I expect students to be able to read and think critically
about concepts, ideas, and data presented in the scientific, peer-reviewed
literature and be able to discuss the ideas and analyses presented. The ability to
do so will be assessed through participation in class discussions and critiques of
the scientific literature and of scientific posters presented to the class by peers.
I also expect students to be able synthesize the literature on a particular topic,
develop an hypothesis and design an experiment that would further our
understanding of that particular topic. The ability to do so will be assessed
through a poster presentation on a topic chosen by each student.
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Course Outline
Evolution, Natural Selection, Species Interactions
Antagonism in Plant-Animal Interactions
Plant Defense and Animal Offense
or, “Why is the earth green, and what makes a successful herbivore”?
Plant Defense
Types of Defensive Compounds
Induced vs. Constitutive Defense
Third-party defense
Herbivore Offense
Mechanisms to overcome defense
Coevolution
Diet breadth of herbivores
Evolution and Ecology of Mutualisms
Pollination
Syndromes and lack thereof
Evolution of plant traits, mating systems
The effects of multiple species on the evolution of floral traits
Cheating “mutualists”
nectar robbers
pollinating seed predators - Yuccas and Yucca moths
post-dispersal “predators” - or mutualistic dispersers?
Seed Dispersal
Pre-dispersal
Post-dispersal
Ant/Plant Interactions
Applied plant-animal interactions
Genetic engineering and effects on plant-animal interactions
Global changes and their effects on interactions
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