Current Utah Vegetation Project Groups
We request that you work in groups to collect and analyze information associated with this project. Once you have a group formed and a topic decided upon, please send an e-mail to Jim Ehleringer with both group and topic information. We will list these topics and groups on the course home page.
The objective is to write a paper that describes a particular vegetation type that occurs in Utah or in the Intermountain West. We are looking for a synthesis or distillation of the literature available. Technical details of what is expected in that paper are described elsewhere. The focus of the paper must be some aspect or aspects of the ecology of a specific vegetation or a the dominant species in that vegetation. We have provided some hints that will help you get started on this project.
Possible vegetation types include alpine, forest (deciduous or evergreen) desert, shrub and woodland, and grassland. You may to focus on particular woodland communities, such as pinyon-juniper or oak-maple woodlands. You can even consider comparing and contrasting different vegetation types, such as comparing desert vegetation in the western Utah deserts with that found in southeastern Utah. The choice is yours.
Possible topics include all aspects of plant ecology. To name a few possible topics, you may want to describe the adaptive physiology of the dominant species, life history of the major species, geographical distribution of the vegetation type and distribution constraints, biodiversity patterns, fire ecology, edaphic constraints, nutrient cycling in that vegetation type, or even plant-animal interactions. Feel free to include one or more aspects of these possble topics and to discuss your possibilities with either Jim or one of the TAs.
We encourage all members of each group to work together in defining the topic, finding the information, discussing the information, producing graphs and tables, and considering ideas to include in the paper. Working together in a coordinated manner will make the task easier and quicker.
However, when it comes to writing the paper, each student must do this on their own (no team papers!). You should produce the figures and tables together as a group, but the writing effort must be your own.
If there are any questions, please feel free to contact Jim or one of the TAs (e-mail or in person).
Please remember that all papers must be submitted as PDF files.