P l a n t   E c o l o g y   L a b o r a t o r y

Biology 5465
Fall 2007



Lab Meeting Schedule
Fridays 1:00-5:00pm
location: SB 140

Lab Personnel
Jim Ehleringer
Seth Arens (TA)
Greg Maurer (TA)

Web Page Problems or Questions? Contact Heather Rasmussen




Prerequisite: Instructor's consent and current enrollment in Biology 5460. Preference is given to undergraduate students needing laboratory credits for graduation. Because of limited space availability, students will require instructor's consent before enrollment.
A 2-unit undergraduate class with a 3-hr laboratory session on Friday afternoons (except on weekends when there are field trips). Three mandatory field trips are part of the class.
A laboratory focusing on dominant Utah ecosystems through field trip experiences and lab excercises. Each field trip will have associated laboratory excercises related to describing or quantifying vegetation and its ecophysiological characteristics.
Note that one of the field trips is a 3-day trip to the University's Entrada Field Station and will occur at the end of the Fall break (October 11-13). Students will work in teams on field projects.


Aug 24 How to quantify the abundance and distribution of plants in the field
Aug 31 Field trip - Red Butte Canyon; leave campus Friday at 1pm and return by 5pm
Sept 7 Analyses of plant spatial data
Sept 13 Report Due
Sept 14 Models for predicting the spatial distributions of plants
Sept 22 Field trip - Wasatch Mountains; leave campus Saturday at 8am and return by 3pm
Sept 28 Models for predicting the spatial distributions of plants based on water balance
Oct 4 Report Due
Oct 5 Photosynthetic pathways and plant distribution
Oct 11 Field trip - the Entrada Ranch and Dolores River; leave Thursday October 11 at 7am and return Saturday October 13 at about 4pm
Oct 19 Assessing terrestrial data from the Entrada Ranch field trip
Oct 26 Stable isotope ratio analyses of vegetation samples
Nov 2 Report Due
Biology 5465 - Plant Ecology Lab (Fall 2007)