Skip Navigation

EcoEdDL

Home Browse Resources Submission Instructions About Help Advanced Search

Urban to Rural Gradients – Exploring Trends in Organismal, Community and Ecosystem Ecology

Urban ecology is quickly becoming a major subdiscipline in ecology and being included in the syllabi of most college-level ecology courses. This field and laboratory exercise is designed to be easily modified for use in any area that has a gradient of human density, from urban to rural. In addition, the exercise is designed to 1) cover major organizational levels in ecology, from organisms to communities to ecosystems, 2) have an optimum blend of structure and open-endedness so that both academic content and the scientific process could be taught to students and 3) stimulate students to explore both the natural and human-based features in their geographical region. The exercise is firmly grounded in the ecological literature and emulates a typical scientific study in that first it focuses on a review of the literature and suggest some possible urban-rural patterns and then concentrate on empirical studies that try to test the existence or mechanisms underlying the patterns. Three specific papers that provide especially clear examples of urban-rural studies at the organismal (squirrel behavior), community (plant diversity) and ecosystem (soil organic matter dynamics) levels are used. Students use the literature to design their own projects and do a scientific presentation of their results at the end of the project.
Associated files
Temporal and geographic description Any area with an urban to rural gradient
Format
Primary or BEN resource type
Secondary resource type
Discipline Specific Core Concepts
Life science discipline (subject)
Keywords urban ecology, rural to urban gradients, GUD, urban heat island
Audience
Intended End User Role
Language
Educational Language
Pedagogical Use Category
Pedagogical Use Description This exercise works well toward the latter end of an ecology course since it includes all the major organizational levels from organisms to ecosystems. In addition, it allows the instructor to teach both some academic content on urban ecology as well as the process of designing and carrying out a scientific study. Finally, it motivates students to explore both the natural and human-based features in their geographical region.
Aggregation Level
Structure
Full Name of Primary Author Mary Ann Vinton
Primary Author Controlled Name
Primary Author Affiliation Department of Biology
Creighton University
Omaha, Nebraska
Primary Author email vinton@creighton.edu
Added By Id
  • mvinton
Submitter Name Mary Ann Vinton
Submitter Email vinton@creighton.edu
Rights Mary Ann Vinton
License
Publisher
Review type
Drought and Water Ecosystem Services Collection Off
Conservation Targets Under Global Change Collection Off
Big Data Collection Off
Editors Choice No
Resource Status
Date Of Record Submission 2012-05-15
I Agree to EcoEdDL's Copyright Policy & Terms of Use No
Date Of Record Release 2013-06-20 12:31:12
Last Modified By Id
  • mcmilla
Date Last Modified 2013-06-20 12:31:27
Release Flag Published

Resource Comments

(no comments available yet for this resource)