To investigate how species, communities, and habitats change over the rural-urban (or pristine to human-dominated) gradient students conduct a series of biological inventories, field measurements, taxonomic keying out, natural history classifications, landscape classifications, statistical analyses, and a literature review. Each laboratory session will be geared towards one or several of these...
Understanding the complexity of ecosystems at all scales, macro to micro, is challenging for students (and scientists!) to unravel. Sklar and colleagues present the engaging problem of the restoration of the Florida Everglades [attached], including history, biology, hydrology, modeling, and regulatory morasses. Students need to learn how to derive and interconnect biological concepts from the...
Ecological succession is driven by disturbance, both natural and human-induced, and change occurs at multiple
scales, both temporal and spatial. Understanding the mechanisms involved in succession requires the integration of many ideas, some of which may contradict students’ belief that succession is only a unidirectional and linear model. The notion of ecosystems as static, or as eventuall...
As invasive plant species spread across landscapes, costs of their economic and environmental impacts have sparked interest in regulating their sale and transport. Laws now prohibit the sale and movement of some species. State and local governments are drafting regulations that will affect horticulture, plant nurseries, and options for landscape design. Awareness of invasive plant species is...
This resource is a syllabus for a Field Botany course at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, PA. The course is offered during the summer of even-numbered years. The syllabus has been annotated to show how it addresses the four dimensions of the 4DEE framework.