Instructor: Donald Strong, Department of Evolution and Ecology, College of Biological Sciences
Description: The earth has changed incessantly through its 4.5 billion years of existence. With the early advent of life, powerful biological agents were added to the non living extraterrestrial and geological forces driving change. Photosynthesis alone has caused billions of years of oceanographic and geological evolution that culminated in an oxygen-rich atmosphere which fostered the evolution of macroscopic organisms. Humans, among the youngest species on earth, have joined this process only recently. Nonetheless, we have had unusually great influences upon life on earth and environments for tens of thousands of years. Modern industrial humans are having huge effects upon air, water, and geological surfaces of the earth. The result could soon be substantial erosion of the ecosystem services upon which we and much of the rest of life depend. In a combination of discussion and lecture formats, we will explore aspects of human influences in global change from scientific and other perspectives.
The first meeting will begin with an informal round table discussion of student backgrounds and their reasons for taking the course. Then the instructor will present a brief overview of pertinent topics in human ecology and global change, from science to policy and even religion. The rest of the course meetings in the first four or five weeks of the course (depending upon enrollment) will begin with the instructor presenting material from a selected subset of topics of global change, to which the students will have access on Smartsite. We then will have four or five 10-minute student presentations and discussion on minitopics selected from a list made available by the instructor. The final weeks of the seminar will shift to half hour student Power Point presentations, with class discussions, of term paper research on the subject of human effects on global change. We will read “Field Notes from a Catastrophe” by Elizabeth Colbert (used copies are on Amazon and other web booksellers for less than $10. The UCD Bookstore has a few new copies). Various other readings relating to presentations by students and instructor will be on the class Smart Site.Format: The two-unit graded seminar will meet for two hours each week for the 9 Mondays of the Fall Quarter, 2007 (Monday, Nov 12 is a holiday). The time will be divided between lecture presentations by the instructor and students and discussion of material presented. Power Point is preferred for presentations, and we will have a computer and projector available in the seminar room for the presentations. Reading material will be available on the class Smart Site. Each student will be expected to be able to prepare and present to the group an approximately 10-minute talk on their chosen minitopic during the first half of the course and a ca half hour seminar on the subject of their term paper during the last half of the course. Successful presentations and seminars will involve conducting discussion with the class about issues raised by their talk. The single term paper will be ca 8 double spaced pages of text plus up to 3 pages of figures concerning a topic about human influence in global change. Topics will be proposed by students and agreed upon in discussion with the instructor. The students will be taught the use of software for integrating graphics with text in a term paper. Grading: Attendance is required, and absences will be excused only in exceptional circumstances. The instructor will assign a letter grade based on class attendance, preparation, participation, and interaction (30%), quality of presentations (40%), and the term paper (30%). The term paper will be assessed on the basis of grammar and style (including text, tables and graphics, and literature cited) and quality of content.
About the Instructor: Professor Donald R. Strong is an ecologist who came to UCD Davis in 1991 after 18 years as a professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee. He has an appointment split between the Bodega Marine Laboratory and the Dept. of Evolution and Ecology on campus. His research interests lie in invasive species, food webs of predators, herbivores, and plants, and the ecology of global change. He has research projects in salt marshes of the Pacific, especially San Francisco Bay, and at Bodega Bay. Dr. Strong is Editor-in-Chief of the journals Ecology and Ecological Monographs.