Vinton Introduction to the interactions of organisms and the environment, especially the biology of populations, communities, and ecosystems. Individual adaptations, the nature of the environment, population dynamics, and community organization are stressed. Laboratory exercises include field trips to terrestrial habitats. Platz Lecture series designed to provide students with a modern overview of vertebrate diversity. Lectures encompass ancestry, major adaptive shifts between classes of vertebrates, geographic distribution based on physiological limits, specialized feeding and locomotor modes, courtship patterns, reproductive strategies, and conservation issues.
Field trips are available on a limited basis.
Schalles Introduction to the community structure, biological production, and physical and chemical properties of aquatic ecosystems. The major features of water columns, benthic substrates, and lotic zones will be reviewed and compared. Schalles Introduction to methods for analyzing lake, stream, and wetland habitats. Exercises will examine physical and chemical properties, biological production and food chains, and water quality of freshwater ecosystems. Nickla Required of all undergraduate Teaching Assistants in those semesters in which they are teaching.