Course Outline

28-Aug Introduction to course and web materials
2-Sept Concepts and natural variations in isotope abundance
4-Sept Analytical approaches to measuring stable isotopes (lab trip)
Evaluating the water cycle and human impacts on water
9-Sept Precipitation (or why is water in Hawaii heavier than in Utah?)
11-Sept Streams, lakes, and groundwater (nature's gradient)
16-Sept Where do plants get their water from?
18-Sept Evaportation processes in plants and animals
Biological aspects of the carbon cycle
23-Sept Photosynthesis and ecophysiological constraints (learning recorder rules)
25-Sept Ecological gradients impact carbon isotope distributions (environment integrators)
30-Sept Carbon dynamics in terrestrial ecosystems (a beautiful natural tracer)
30-Sept Problem Set due September 30th (submitted as PDF via WebCT)
Interpreting the nitrogen cycle and human impacts on nitrogen
2-Oct Plants and microbes (and the impacts of fertilzers on ecosystems)
7-Oct Nitrogen dynamics in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems
9-Oct Examination One (download data to prepare for exam - WebCT)
Diet and trophic level dynamics
21-Oct "You are what you eat": isotopes and animal diet (AKA - "Your mother was right!")
23-Oct Nitrogen isotopes as indicators of trophic feeding levels (AKA - carnivores revealed)
28-Oct Carbonates and enamels as dietary
Assessing landscape to global-scale ecosystem processes
30-Oct Carbon dioxide and the carbon cycle (AKA - an inconvenient truth)
4-Nov Carbon cycles in oceans (where all is revealed)
6-Nov Biosphere-atmosphere fluxes and water stress (how we identify sinks and sources)
Environmental reconstruction and global changes
11-Nov Short term: tree rings as terrestrial recorders (let nature record environmental history)
13-Nov Long term: ice cores and carbonates (climate records for the last 600 million years)
Stable isotopes in keratin record movements of animals
18-Nov Spatial analysis and reconstructing migration in birds (where did they come from?)
20-Nov Spatial analyses of microbes - food, locations, histories
25-Nov Examination Two (download data to prepare for exam - WebCT)
2-Dec Spatial analyses of mammal movements - from whales to elephants
Stable isotopes in human ecology
4-Dec Ancestral and modern human diets and commerce patterns (anthropology lives!)
Now its your turn!!
9-Dec Student PowerPoint Presentations
11-Dec Student PowerPoint Presentations