PCB 5328C - Landscape Ecology – Spring 2005
Instructor:John F. Weishampel, Associate Professor; E-mail:jweisham@mail.ucf.edu
Office:Room 102B Biological Sciences; (407) 823-6634 (has voice mail).
Teaching Assistant: Mandy Cooper, Conservation Biology Ph.D. student; E-mail: acooper@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
Office:Room 101 Biological Sciences; (407) 823-0125
Class Meeting Times:Wednesdays - 11:30 - 3:30 – (room 415 or 305)
We will meet in 415 when there are short presentations or paper discussions which typically will begin each class. Otherwise or afterwards we will meet in 305 to use the computers or go to a field site. The entire block of time on Wednesday may be used if we go in the field to do some data collection.
Office Hours:E-mail or call me to set a formal appointment. However, I am generally around my office
9:30 AM - 5:30 PM M-F when I am not in meetings (which is way too often) to answer any questions.
Weishampel office hours are M: 4:30-5:30; TW: 3:30-5:30. Cooper office hours are M: 11-1; H: 1:30-3:30.
Class Web Page: http://reach.ucf.edu/~pcb5328a/. This will serve as the primary source of class notes. These have been developed by the students and instructor over the years. Your class will contribute to updating this site.
Course Description:The course uses applied and theoretical approaches to illustrate principles of landscape ecology, the study of how spatial heterogeneity influences ecological processes and how ecological processes influence heterogeneity. Topics touch upon quantitative/computing methods (e.g., Geographic Information Systems-GIS, remote sensing, spatial statistics, and simulation modeling) to characterize landscape pattern and dynamics, and the implications of these on population, community and ecosystem processes. This provides students who wish to pursue or enhance conservation or environmental careers with sufficient background to understand methods of spatial data collection and analyses to address ecological questions. Though certain aspects of landscape ecology have universal application, specific examples are drawn from terrestrial and aquatic (seascape) systems for both plant and animal species/communities concentrating on spatial scales from 1 m - 100 km and time scales from days to centuries. My bias is towards successional processes of terrestrial plant communities.
Cautionary Note:Although this class has been taught four times before, it will always be in a state of flux and somewhat experimental. This time, I am trying to reduce lecture times and make the material on the web. The Wednesday class meetings will be geared towards computer lab/field projects and the discussion of papers. These projects will entail collecting, organizing, and analyzing ecological data of a spatial nature.
Course Prerequisites:The student should have taken minimally the introductory ecology course and possess a basic understanding of statistics. Students should be familiar with and be able to use a computer and resources at the library. Additional courses in biology (e.g., Advanced Ecology, Conservation Biology, Models in Ecology), math, statistics, and computer science are not necessary, but could prove helpful.
Course Objectives:Students will understand the basic concepts and terminology of landscape ecology as well as learn and understand how certain spatial pattern analysis techniques can be used to better understand ecological phenomena. The student will be able to apply some of these analysis techniques to address relevant ecological questions.
Student Responsibilities
Readings – I am presently between textbooks. The ones that I have used in the past are dated and a new one which looks pretty good (Wiens and Moss 2005) won’t be available until April. The two that I would recommend it you feel the need to purchase one (through Amazon or Barnes & Noble) are:
Turner, M.G., R.H. Gardner, and R.V. O’Neill. 2001. Landscape Ecology: In Theory and Practice. Springer, New York.
or
Forman, R.T.T. 1996. Land Mosaics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
These do not follow the order of the lectures, however, they are very good treatments of landscape ecology.
Readings from other books and primary literature will be assigned. They will be made available electronically through the website. Readings will be discussed in class.
Class participationis mandatory. This will take the form of participating in discussions of readings, on-line and in-class, collecting and analyzing field and remotely sensed data, asking questions related to projects and readings. Each student will be responsible for the lead of a paper discussion (20-30 minutes) in the general area of their choosing. I will select the relevant paper.
Specific Topic Research:to ensure that the readings are comprehended, they will be discussed in class. Each student will be responsible for developing an annotated bibliography (reviewing 10-15 papers) on a topic, which will be submitted electronically and hotlinked into the notes section on the class web page.
GIS Datalayer Creation- Small groups of students (3) with a different set of skills will be involved with the generation of a GIS burn zone datalayer for the Seminole County Natural Lands program. Each group will work on one of the six established sites (Econlockhatchee, Chuluota, Geneva, Lake Proctor, Lake Jesup Wilderness Areas and the Spring Hammock Preserve) or one of the two new sites (Black Bear and Black Hammock Wilderness Areas). The burn zone datalayer will conform to a specified classification scheme, projection. Each group will be responsible for description (metadata) of the datalayer, e.g., what it represents, how it was obtained, what do the classes or covertypes mean and basic spatial analysis of the data. The analysis will include change in spatial patterns of habitat through time as one or more burn management plan(s) is (are) applied. Other components may include hotlinks to digital images, an analysis of surrounding areas, etc.
Performance Evaluation-
Class Participation (keeping up with readings, taking part in on-line and class discussions, etc.) - 25%
Annotated Bibliography - Due three weeks after similar material is covered in class or finals
time (which ever comes first) - 30%
Group Project - Seminole County Natural Lands GIS datalayer creation, analysis, and
documentation (written, digital, and oral presentation) – Due by finals - 45%
Grading will most likely follow something akin to the 90-100=A, 80-90=B, 70-80=C, etc. scale.
However, pluses and minuses will be used.
Course Outline* -
Week 1 January 12 - Introduction to Landscape Ecology
Landscape Pattern
Week 2 January 19 – Scale, Patches, Patch Numbers, Patch Shapes
Library Resources -
Week 3 January 26 – Edges, Ecotones, Boundaries - Introduction to GIS
Week 4 February 2 – Corridors, Connectedness, Networks
Introduction to GPS
Week 5 February 9 - Mosaics and Heterogeneity
Introduction to Remote Sensing
Landscape Analyses
Week 6 February 16 – 1-Dimensional Patterns (e.g., Block Variances, Geostatistics, Fractals)
Week 7 February 23 – 2-D & 3-D Patterns (e.g., Block Variances, Point Patterns, Lacunarity, etc.)
Week 8 March 2 – Neutral Models, Percolation, Cellular Automata
Landscape Dynamics and Modeling
Week 9 March 9 – Patch Dynamics, Gap-Phase Processes
Week 10 March 23 – Disturbance (e.g., Fire, Hurricanes)
Week 11 March 30 – Urbanization, Fragmentation
Week 12 April 6 – Animal and Plant Dispersal, Invasion, Spread of Exotics
Week 13 April 13 – Animal Movement, Diffusion, Metapopulation dynamics
Week 14 April 20 – The Future of Landscape Ecology
Final Exam– Wednesday April 27th, 1:00 – 3:50 PM. This will be a forum for each group to present the
findings of their datalayer creation/analysis project. Pizza will be served. Because of the odd times of this class, check your other class finals schedule for conflict.
*This schedule is subject to change and it undoubtedly will.