Plant Biodiversity: complexity at
multiple scales
“Biological diversity is more than species diversity. The study of biodiversity
usually focuses on changes in species numbers in time and space. Life, however,
is diverse at all scales.”
The role of theory in advancing 21st-century biology, NRC Report, 2008. p.
Scope of the project
Students will research, develop and write a review paper that describes a major group of plants
across biological complexity scales (from molecules to ecosystems). The review paper will
undergo formal peer review and revisions, and will be published on the course web page and
accessible as a component of the students’ academic portfolio.
Summary
Teams (3-4 people) will select one group of plants and conduct research and share resources.
Each team will choose one of the five broad plant groups listed on Page 3. information about the
plant group of choice from a variety of sources (including textbooks, primary scientific literature,
electronic resources, etc.), and synthesize such knowledge in a final product that will be initially
formatted as a scientific review article. The article will be submitted to the class for peer review,
and, after revision, will be posted online as a webpage, linked to the course website.
Proposed timeline
- Beginning of the semester: student teams choose the plant group of interest and begin
collecting sources and drafting their papers;
- About two-thirds into the semester: students submit drafts, representing their best effort, to their
classmates for peer review;
- End of the semester: teams revise their articles according to the reviewers’ comments, and
present them to the class as mini-lectures on the plant group of choice (about 15 min).
Elena Bray Speth
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Objectives
As a result of participating in this project, you will:
- describe and synthesize information plant biodiversity across scales of biological organization;
- collect and organize information on plants;
- communicate your findings in the form of a review paper;
- evaluate your peers’ review papers and provide feedback;
- contribute to a long-term, web-based plant biodiversity database (knowledge bank?).
Methods
Literature search
Possible sources: books, textbooks, websites (see “How to use the web for literature search” on
the Course Website), journal articles, newspaper articles.
Writing guidelines
Content
Make sure you explore your group of plants at different levels:
- evolutionary (what do we know about the evolutionary history of this group of plants?)
- molecular and genetic (e.g., what do we know about genome(s) size and organization, genome
sequencing efforts, molecular studies, etc…; are there any model species in this group? why or
why not?);
- organismal: structures (e.g., what are the common morphological/anatomical characteristic of
these plants or groups of plants, etc…) and functions (e.g., how do these plants reproduce, how
do they transport water and nutrients within their bodies, etc…);
- ecological (e.g., distribution, abundance, ecosystem services, etc…)
- economical (e.g., use in agriculture, medicine, basic research, etc…)
Format
“Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment” review articles (inclusive of text, figures, tables,
charts, maps, text boxes, etc…).
Peer review
Rubric for peer review
Oral presentation
Biocore rubric
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Kingdom Plantae – Plants
I.
Division Anthocerotophyta – Hornworts
Subdivision Anthocerotae
Class Anthocerotopsida
Division Bryophyta – Mosses
Subdivision Musci
Class Andreaeopsida – Granite mosses
Class Bryopsida – True mosses
Class Sphagnopsida – Peat mosses
Division Chlorophyta – green algae
Class Chlorophyceae
Division Hepaticophyta – Liverworts
Subdivision Hepaticae
Class Hepaticopsida
Subkingdom Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
II.
Division Equisetophyta – Horsetails
Class Equisetopsida
Division Lycopodiophyta – Lycopods
Class Lycopodiopsida
Division Psilophyta – Whisk-ferns
Class Psilopsida
Division Pteridophyta – Ferns
Class Filicopsida
Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants
III.
Division Coniferophyta – Conifers
Class Pinopsida
Division Cycadophyta – Cycads
Class Cycadopsida
Division Ginkgophyta – Ginkgo
Class Ginkgoopsida
Division Gnetophyta – Mormon tea and other gnetophytes
Class Gnetopsida
Division Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
IV.
Class Liliopsida – Monocotyledons
V.
Class Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
USDA, NRCS. 2008. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 14 August 2008). National Plant
Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
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Elena Bray Speth
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