Introduction to Zoogeography

tropical Biology

Zoology/Plant Biology/Entomology 485

Fall 2013

Lecture: T & Th 10:20-11:40 pm

Location: 114 Berkey Hall

3 credits

Instructor: Dr. Catherine Lindell, Associate Professor, Zoology/Center for Global Change and Earth Observations; Dr. Nate Swenson, Assistant Professor, Plant Biology

Office: Dr. Lindell--203 Natural Science, 884-1241, . Dr. Swenson--262 Plant Biology, 355-3368, . If you have questions that require short answers, feel free to use email. However, if you have a detailed question, please talk with us, either in person or on the phone. We are happy to make appointments to talk with you if you are not available after lecture or during office hours…Dr. Lindell--Thursdays 12-1 pm, Dr. Swenson--Mondays 1-2 pm.

Teaching Assistant: Kristen Nolting, . Kristen will hold office hours from Tuesdays from 12-2 pm, or by appointment. Location for office hours pending.

Courseweb address: http://www.msu.edu/course/zol/485/

We will try to put lecture outlines in this folder about a day before each lecture. We can't promise this will always happen but it should most of the time. Please do not skip class because the lecture outlines are on the web. The outlines include major points but not all the details we go over in lecture. The best strategy is to print the outlines and come to class with them. In addition, discussions of the readings are a major part of this class and your participation influences your grade.

Required texts: Tropical Ecology by J. Kricher and Breakfast of Biodiversity by J. Vandermeer and I. Perfecto will be required texts. The books are available at the MSU bookstore.

Course Description: We will investigate major themes in tropical biology and contrast tropical and temperate ecosystems. We will also explore some of the social, economic, and political influences on tropical ecosystems.

Course Objectives:

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

1. define “the tropics” in a geographical sense;

2. identify climatic and biological characteristics of tropical ecosystems;

3. identify several major tropical ecosystem types;

4. contrast and compare tropical and temperate ecosystems;

5. identify several of the major drivers of latitudinal patterns of species richness;

6. describe a number of the important interspecific interactions in tropical ecosystems;

7. describe several of the ways in which tropical biologists try to answer scientific questions, and develop methods for trying to answer particular questions;

8. explain how social, political, and economic factors influence land-cover change and, thus ecosystems in the tropics;

9. read and evaluate a scientific research paper;

10. make meaningful contributions to discussions of scientific papers;

11.find references through electronic databases available through the MSU library web site;

12.make an oral presentation and write a paper on a focused question in the field of tropical biology;

13. write a book review;

14. write an op-ed piece about an environmental topic.

Computation of Grades

Midterm Exam / 50
Final Exam / 100
Oral presentation based on Research Paper / 50
Research Paper (5 pages plus references) / 100
Book review (1000 words) / 50
Op-Ed (500 words) / 50
Homework assignments, 4-each worth 15 points / 60
Class participation and attendance / 80
Blog responses to Op-Eds, 3-each worth 4 points / 12
Tropical thanksgiving poster / 20
Species richness lab / 10
Total / 582

Grading scale

90% and up 4.0

85-89%--3.5

80-84%--3.0

75-79%--2.5

70-74%--2.0

65-69%--1.5

60-64%--1.0

Exams

Exam dates are indicated in the course schedule. Exams will have short answer and essay questions. The exams will cover material presented in lecture and material from the readings. The final exam will include material from the entire course. Your grade will be assigned based on your point total for the whole course and the distribution of grades of the whole class.

Make-up exams will be allowed only in the case of medical necessity (doctor’s note required) or other emergency to be discussed with the instructor in advance if possible.

Late Assignments will automatically lose 25% of the points available for that assignment and must be turned in the next class. For example, a book review that is worth 50 points would only be worth a maximum of 38.5 points if the assignment is turned in one day late. Assignments not completed by one class after the deadline will not be accepted and you will receive no points.

assignments are marked in the syllabus. Detailed instructions for each assignment are on the course website. You must send Kristen a copy of the homework, book review, op-ed, and tropical Thanksgiving poster before 10 am on the day of class. Please send the oral presentations and papers to either Dr. Swenson or Dr. Lindell, whoever has overseen your paper. The subject of emails with attached assignments should be “ZOL485_your last name_assignment name (like homework assignment 1)”. After the first assignment, points will be deducted if you do not use this subject heading.

Homework assignments will receive 15, 14, 12, 10, 8, 5, or 1 point. See sheet in course folder. Please also bring a copy of the homework (or notes) and paper to class to help you discuss the assigned papers.

Attendance will be taken every day.

Discussions

A significant portion of the course is discussion of scientific papers. To be prepared for these discussions you should have completed the homework and brought a copy of it to class.

Special Circumstances

If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with us, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with Dr. Lindell or Dr. Swenson as soon as possible.

RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS

If there is a conflict between your observance of a religious holiday and a class requirement, please let us know at least one week ahead of time.

Academic Integrity Policy

Please see the following website for MSU regulations, ordinances, and policies regarding academic honesty and integrity: https://www.msu.edu/unit/ombud/RegsOrdsPolicies.html. If we discover that any work you produce for this class violates the policies on this website you will receive no points for that component of the course.

Classroom Behavior

Please be considerate of other students and the professor during class. Please do not eat, read the newspaper, check email, make phone calls, or carry on conversations unrelated to class. Also, please do not start to pack up your materials before we have dismissed the class.

Email Etiquette

If you e-mail Dr. Swenson or Dr. Lindell, please start your e-mail by addressing us as Dr. Lindell or Professor Lindell, for example, rather than launching into your message with no greeting. This is a good policy to follow in any e-mail correspondence with professors or supervisors.

Reading assignments

You should complete the reading by the date indicated below.

Extra hand-outs from lecture will be available from Kristen.

Honors Option—Students interested in an honors option will write an expanded paper. You must meet with us during the first two weeks of class if you are interested in this option.

Course Evaluation

Michigan State University takes seriously the opinion of students in the evaluation of the effectiveness of instruction, and has implemented the SIRS (Student Instructional

Rating System) process to gather student feedback. The Zoology Department utilizes the “online SIRS” system, and you will receive an e-mail sometime during the last two weeks of class asking you to fill out the SIRS web form at your convenience. Please note that the final grade for this course will not be accessible on STUINFO during the week following the submission of grades for the course unless the SIRS online form has been filled out. You also have the option on the

online SIRS form to decline to participate in the evaluation of the course – we hope, however, that you will be willing to give us your frank and constructive feedback so that we may instruct students even better in the future.

lecture schedule, reading and Other assignments --Thisschedule is tentative but WE will let you know of any changes in advance of the date.

Links to the references for the homework assignments are below the lecture schedule. Alternatively, you can go to the MSU library website and find the journal under “Electronic resources” and then find the appropriate volume and page numbers. We do all this because it violates copyright laws if we simply send you pdf files of the papers.

Dates / Topic / Leader / Reading, Assignment
Aug. 29 / What are the tropics? Climate, pre-course quiz / Lindell / Text pp 1-34
Sept. 3 / Historical forces / Lindell / Text pp 38-71
Sept. 5 / Global species diversity patterns with class exercise
Video—Andes: The dragon’s back / Lindell
Sept. 10 / Global species diversity patterns
Discussion of homework paper / Lindell / Poulsen 2002 Homework #1
Sept. 12 / Global species diversity patterns
Discussion of research paper assignment / Lindell / Text pp 71-78
Sept. 17 / Species diversity and ecosystem function
Discussion of homework paper
Discuss plagiarism / Lindell / Erskine et al. 2006 Homework #2
Sept. 19 / Species richness estimation lab / Lindell / Meet in 222 South Kedzie
Sept. 24 / Plant-insect interactions / Nolting and Lindell
Sept. 26 / Agroecosystems, Indigenous groups, Discussion of book / Lindell / Breakfast of Biodiversity, Book review
Oct. 1 / Species interactions and species coexistence / Swenson / Chapter 7
Oct. 3 / Midterm exam
Oct. 8 / Species diversity and ecosystem function / Swenson
Oct. 10 / Tropical plant structure and function / Swenson / Text pp 79-108
Oct. 15 / Old World Tropics, Savannas
Discussion of homework paper / Swenson / Sankaran et al. 2005 Homework #3
Oct. 17 / Human dimensions of tropical biology / Urquhart / Text pp 469-499
Oct 22 / Tropical birds / Lindell / Text pp 132-153
Oct. 24 / Student presentations / Lindell and Swenson
Oct. 29 / Student presentations / Lindell and Swenson
Oct. 31 / Restoration Ecology / Lindell
Nov. 5 / Discussion of homework paper / Lindell and Swenson / Bianconi et al. 2007 Homework #4
Nov. 7 / Student presentations / Swenson
Nov. 12 / Student presentations / Swenson and Lindell
Nov. 14 / Tour of green house
Nov. 19 / Carbon storage and flux in tropical forest ecosystems / Swenson / Op-Ed
Nov. 21 / Forest fragmentation / Swenson / Blog responses to Op-Eds
Nov. 26 / Tropical thanksgiving / Swenson and Lindell / Tropical thanksgiving food and paper
Dec. 3 / Changing tropical environments / Lindell / Text pp 500-529
Dec. 5 / Conservation and the future
Post-course quiz / Lindell / Text pp 530-565
Dec. 12 / Final exam
7:45-9:45 a.m., Room 137 IM Circle

Papers for homework assignments

Homework #1--Poulsen, B. O. 2002. A comparison of bird richness, abundance and trophic organization in forests of Ecuador and Denmark: are high-altitude Andean forests temperate or tropical? Journal of Tropical Ecology 18:615-636.

*Link to article: http://ezproxy.msu.edu:2047/login?url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3068786

Homework #2--Erskine, P.D., D. Lamb, and M. Bristow. 2006. Tree species diversity and ecosystem function: can tropical multi-species plantations generate greater productivity? Forest Ecology and Management 233:205-210.

*Link to article: http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T6X-4K717SD-2&_user=1111158&_coverDate=09%2F15%2F2006&_rdoc=4&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_origin=browse&_zone=rslt_list_item&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%235042%232006%23997669997%23633677%23FLA%23display%23Volume)&_cdi=5042&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=23&_acct=C000051676&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1111158&md5=f2d398847704575554704a23aa2e2309&searchtype=a

Homework #3--Sankaran, M. et al. 2005. Determinants of woody cover in African savannas. Nature 438:846-49.

*Link to article: http://ezproxy.msu.edu:2047/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature04070

Homework #4--Bianconi, G. V., S. B. Mikich, S. D. Teireira, and B. H. L. N. S. Maia. 2007. Attraction of fruit-eating bats with essential oils of fruits: a potential tool for forest restoration. Biotropica 39:136-140.

*Link to article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1744-7429.2006.00236.x/full