Principles of Ecosystem Ecology
Biol 455/536 Fall, 2001
Instructor: Weixing Zhu
Phone: 777-3218, e-mail: wxzhu@binghamton.edu
Class hours: Tu, Th 1:15-2:40, Wed: 2:20-3:20
Class location:
Office hours: Tu, Th: 12:00-1:00 at Science III, Rm. 391 or by appointment
Required text books:
1. Principles of Ecosystem Ecology (draft book by Chapin, Matson, and Mooney),
available free at http://www.lter.alaska.edu/~fschapin/Ecos.Ecology.html
2. Biogeochemistry: an analysis of global change. 2nd edition, by W.H. Schlesinger.
1997, Academic Press
Readings: additional discussion readings (required) and the titles of recommended
readings will be provided in class. You must do required readings (including papers for
discussion) BEFORE coming to the class!
Week Dates
1
Aug.28
Aug.30
Aug.29
Topics
Text Readings
Introduction and Ecosystem Concepts
CMM 1, S 1
History of ecosystem ecology
Use of web and library source (Bartle Library Instruction Lab/Roe)
2
Sept.4
Sept.6
Sept.5
Climate and Ocean circulation
CMM 2, S3,9
Global and regional ecosystems and human alteration
Field trip, natural preserve
3
Sept.11
Sept.13
Sept.12
Geology and soils
Human alteration of soils
no class, self study
4
Sept.18, 19
Sept.20
Rosh Hashanah recess, self study
Gross and Net primary production
5
Sept.25
Sept. 26,27
Decomposition
Yom Kipper recess, self study
6
Oct. 2, 4
Oct. 3
Nutrient cycling in soils
CMM8, S6
Issue in ecology: Human alteration of global nitrogen cycle (I)
7
Oct. 9
Oct. 11
Oct. 10
Nutrient cycling in vegetation
CMM7, S6
Nutrient use efficiency and nutrient resorption
Issue in ecology: Human alteration of global nitrogen cycle (II)
8
Oct. 16
Oct. 18
Ecosystem water and energy balance
Mid-term exam
CMM 3, S 4
CMM 4,5, S 5
CMM6, S5
CMM9
Oct. 17
no class, self study
9
Oct. 23, 25
Oct. 24
Trophic Dynamics
CMM10
Issue in ecology: Biodiversity and ecosystem function (I)
10
Oct. 30, N1
Oct. 31
Species effect on ecosystem process
CMM 11
Issue in ecology, Biodiversity and ecosystem function (II)
11
Nov. 6
Nov. 8
Nov. 7
Temporal Dynamics
Spatial Dynamics
In class discussion and presentation
CMM 12
CMM 13
12
Nov. 13
Nov. 15
Nov. 14
Ecosystem comparisons: I. forest and grassland
EC II. Wetlands, lakes, and streams
In class discussion and presentation
CMM 14
S 5, 6, 7
13
Nov. 20
Nov. 21
Nov. 22
EC III. Oceans and Estuaries
self study
no class, Happy Thanksgiving!
S 8, 9
14
Nov. 27, 29
Nov. 28
Urban Ecological System
TBA
15
Dec. 4,6
Dec. 5
Global cycles and human caused changes
Presentation of term paper
CMM 14, S11
15
Dec. 11
Dec. 13
Dec. 12
Ecosystem sustainability
Ecosystem management
Presentation of term paper
CMM 15
Grading:
Class participation (including discussion participation)
5%
In class presentation
10%
Issue in Ecology
10%
Term paper
20%
(under: 5 page topic review, graduates: 10 or 15 page proposal)
Mid term exam
25%
Final exam
30%
Class Structure: The course is run through organized lecture, PLUS intensive reading and
discussion of textbooks and selected journal articles in ecosystem ecology. In two lecture
classes each week I will generally lecture 2/3 of the time to outline the framework,
current status, and the history of a specific ecosystem ecology topic. The class will then
be divided for pre-selected journal article discussion. More journal article discussions
will be held in Wednesday session. In addition, we will organize three case studies (each
will take two Wednesday sessions), using our learned ecosystem ecology knowledge, to
actively debate and give our own conclusions to three current “hot”
ecological/environmental issues. There will be two exams and one term paper for this
class. You should thoroughly review one ecosystem ecology topic interested you the
most and present it in your term paper (with reference list attached).
Student Lead Discussion: Each discussion is lead by one student (everybody must lead at
least one time, so come select your topics ASAP). The leader should provide before the
class summarizing materials of the paper (Why the paper is important? What is the
current development in this field? What kinds of method were used? What are the major
conclusions and whether the conclusions are valid?). The whole class will then be divided
into small working groups and go through the article with the questions outlined in
minds. Each working group will report their conclusions at the end of the class. Not all
paper discussion and presentation will be held on Wednesday discussion class,
frequently, they will be held at the last 30 minutes of the lecture sections (see class
schedule and discussion list for detail).
Course Description: Ecosystem ecology addresses the interactions among organisms and
their environment as an integrated system. It analyzes the pools and fluxes of material
and energy through ecological systems, the distribution pattern of these pools and fluxes,
and factors regulating them. It provides basis for understanding and managing
ecosystems from local to global scales, and also provides holistic view of ecological
phenomena. Because ecosystem processes operate on the principles of physics,
chemistry, and biology, students are expected to have a solid background in all natural
sciences. Mathematics is an important tool to organize and conceptualize (modeling, for
example) our understanding of physical world and will be frequently used in the class.
Because today’s earth ecosystems are heavily affected by human activities, we will
actively address the changes of ecosystem structure and processes related to human and
analyze the long term consequence of such changes to the well beings of humanity.
Discussion and required reading list (required, read before coming to the class!)
* These will be distributed one week in advance in Science Library and in S3-204.
Aug. 30 *Likens, G.E., F.H. Bormann, N.M. Johnson, D.W. Fisher, and R.S. Pierce.
1970. Effects of forest cutting and herbicide treatment on nutrient budget in the
Hubbard Brook watershed-ecosystem. Ecological Monographs 40:23-47.
Sept. 4 Vitousek, P. M. 1994. Beyond global warming: ecology and global change.
Ecology 75: 1861-1876.
Sept. 4 *Shukla, J., C. Nobre, and P. Sellers. 1990. Amazon deforestation and climate change.
Science 247:1322-1325.
Sept. 6 *Burke, I. C., W. K. Lauenroth, and W. J. Parton. 1997. Regional and temporal
variability in aboveground net primary production and net N mineralization in grasslands.
Ecology 78:1330-1340.
Sept. 11 Amundson, R., and H. Jenny. 1997. On a state factor model of ecosystems. BioScience
47:536-543.
Sept. 11 *Van Cleve, K., F. S. Chapin, III, C. T. Dryness, and L. A. Viereck. 1991. Element
cycling in taiga forest: State-factor control. BioScience 41:78-88.
Sept. 13 *Burke, I.C., W.K. Laurenroth, R. Riggle, P. Brannen, B. Madigan, and S.
Beard. 1999. Spatial variability of soil properties in the Shortgrass Steppe: the relative
importance of topography, grazing, microsite, and plant species in controling spatial
patterns. Ecosystems 2: 422-438.
Sept. 20
Williams, M., E. B. Rastetter, D. N. Fernandes, M. L. Goulden, G. R. Shaver, and L. C. Johnson.
1997. Predicting gross primary productivity in terrestrial ecosystems. Ecological
Applications 7:882-894
* Clark, D. A., S. Brown, D. W. Kicklighter, J. Q. Chambers, J. R. Thomlinson, and J. Ni. 2001.
Measuring net primary production in forests: concepts and field methods. Ecological
Applications 11:356-370
Sept. 25
Beare, M. H., R. W. Parmelee, P. F. Hendrix, W. Cheng, D. C. Coleman, and D. A.
Crossley, Jr. 1992. Microbial and faunal interactions and effects on litter nitrogen and
decomposition in agroecosystems. Ecological Monographs 62:569-591.
*Carreiro, M.M., R.L. Sinsabaugh, D.A. Repert, and D.F. Parkhurst. 2000. Microbial
enzyme shifts explain litter decay responses to simulated nitrogen deposition.
Ecology 81:2359-2365.
Oct. 2 Vitousek, P.M., J.D. Aber, R.W. Howarth, G.E. Likens, P.A. Matson, D.W.
Schindler, W.H. Schlesinger, and D.G. Tilman. 1997. Human alternation of the global
nitrogen cycle: sources and consequences. Ecological Applications 7: 737-750.
Oct. 2 *Pastor, J., J. D. Aber, C. A. McClaugherty, and J. M. Melillo. 1984.
Aboveground production and N and P cycling along a nitrogen mineralization
gradient on Blackhawk Island, Wisconsin. Ecology 65: 256-268.
Oct. 4 *Aber, J. D., A. Magill, R. Boone, J. M. Melillo, P. Steudler, and R. Bowden.
1993. Plant and soil responses to chronic nitrogen additions at the Harvard Forest,
Massachusetts. Ecological Applications 3: 156-166.
Oct. 9 *Vitousek, P. 1982. Nutrient cycling and nutrient use efficiency. Am. Nat. 119:
553-572.
Oct. 11 *Killingbeck, K. T. 1996. Nutrients in senesced leaves: keys to the search for
potential resorption and resorption proficiency. Ecology 77: 1716-1727.
Oct. 16 *Jackson, R.B., S.P. Carpenter, C.N. Dahm, D.M. McKnight, R.J. Naiman, S.L.
Postel, and S.W. Running. 2001. Water in a changing world. Ecological Applications
11:1027-1045.
Oct. 23 Chapin, F.S. III, O.E. Sala, I.C. Burke, J.P. Grime, D.U. Hopper, W.K.
Lsuenroth, A. Lombard, H.A. Mooney, A.R. Mosier, S. Naeem, S.W. Pacala, J. Roy,
W.L. Steffen, and D. Tilman. 1998. Ecosystem consequences of changing biodiversity:
experimental evidence and a research agenda for the future. BioScience 48: 45-52.
Oct. 23 *Carpenter, S.R., J.J. Cole, J.R. Hodgson, J.E. Michael, M.L. Pace, D. Bade,
K.L. Cottingham, T.E. Essington, J.N. Houser, and D.E. Schindler. 2001. Trophic
cascades, nutrients, and lake productivity: whole-lake experiments. Ecological
Monographs 71:163-186.
Oct. 25 *McGrady-Steed, J., P.M. Harris, and P.J. Morin. 1997. Biodiversity regulates
ecosystem predictability. Nature 390: 162-165.
Oct. 30 *Wedin, D. A., and D. Tilman. 1990. Species effects on nitrogen cycling: a test with
perennial grasses. Oecologia 84:433-441.
Nov. 1 *Hooper, D. U., and P. M. Vitousek. 1998. Effects of plant composition and diversity
on nutrient cycling. Ecological Monographs 68:121-149.
Nov. 7
*Chapin, F. S., III, L. R. Walker, C. L. Fastie, and L. C. Sharman. 1994. Mechanisms of
primary succession following deglaciation at Glacier Bay, Alaska. Ecological
Monographs 64:149-175.
*Chen, J., S.C. Saunders, T.R. Crow, R.J. Naiman, K.D. Brosofske, G.D. Mroz, B.L.
Brookshire, and J.F. Franklin. 1999. Microclimate in forest ecosystem and landscape
ecology. BioScience 49: 288-297.
Nov. 14
* Aber, J., W. McDowell, K. Nadelhoffer, A. Magill, G. Berntson, M. Kamakea, S.
McNulty, W. Currie, L. Rustad, and I. Fernandez. 1998. Nitrogen saturation in
temperate forest ecosystems: Hypotheses revisited. BioScience 48: 921-934.
* Peterjohn, W. T., and D. L. Correll. 1984. Nutrient dynamics in an agricultural
watershed: observations on the role of a riparian forest. Ecology 65: 1466-1475.
Nov. 20 * Boyd, P.W., A.J. Watson, C.S. Law, etc. 2000. A mesoscale phytoplankton
bloom in the polar Southern Ocean stimulated by iron fertilization. Nature 407:695702.
Nov. 27 Grimm, N.B., J.M. Grove, S.T.A. Pickett, and C.L. Redman. 2000. Integrated
approaches to long-term studies of urban ecological systems. BioScience 50: 571584.
Nov. 27 * Rebele, F. 1994. Urban ecology and special features of urban ecosystems.
Global Ecology and Biogeography Letters 4: 173-187.
Nov. 29 * Folke, C., A. Jansson, J. Larsson, and R. Costanza. 1997. Ecosystem
appropriation by cities. Ambio 26: 167-172.
Dec. 4 Falkowski, P., R.J. Scholes, et al. (IGBP). 2000. The global carbon cycle: a test of
our knowledge of earth as a system. Science 290: 291-296.
Dec. 4 * Pacala, S.W., G.C. Hurtt, D. Drake, et al. 2001. Consistent land-and
atmosphere-based U.S. carbon sink estimates. Science 292: 2316-2320.
Dec. 6 * Schlesinger, W.H., and J. Lichter. 2001. Limited carbon storage in soil and litter
of experimental forest plots under increased atmospheric CO2. Nature 411:466-469.
Dec. 11 Christensen, N.L., A.M. Bartuska, J.H. Brown, S. Carpenter, C. D’Antonio, R.
Francis, J.F. Franklin, J.A. MacMahon, R.F. Noss, D.J. Parsons, C.H. Peterson, M.G.
Turner, and R.G. Woodmansee. 1996. The report of the Ecological Society of
America committee on the scientific basis for ecosystem management. Ecological
Applications 6:665-691.
Dec. 13 Costanza, R., R. d'Arge, R. de Groot, S. Farber, M. Grasso, B. Hannon, K.
Limburg, S. Naeem, R.V. O'Neill, J. Paruelo, R.G. Raskin, P. Sutton, and M. van den
Belt. 1997. The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature
387: 253-260.