Bios 490:  Life During Environmental Change

 

Syllabus

 

Instructors:                                    Dr. Miquel Gonzalez-Meler       mmeler@uic.edu.      Office: 3338 SES

                                                        Dr. Mosheh Wolf                        mhwolf@uic.edu.       Office: 3350 SES

Guest Instructor:                           Dr. Andrew Wyatt (Anthropology)                                arwyatt@yahoo.com

 

Lectures:                                       Tuesdays, Thursdays at 2:00 - 03:50 PM

 

Place:                                            Lincoln Hall, Room 312

 

Office Hours:                                 Drs. Gonzalez-Meler and Wolf will be available by appointment (contact via email).

 

Goals and Objectives:                 A course focused on human and ecological interactions with climate and the use of land will present students with a background in the principles by which life and climate interact. 

                                                        This course covers the basic evolutionary ecology of organisms in the context of the theme “climate change”.  It focuses on how organisms evolve and ecological communities respond to changes in their external environments at different time scales.  

 

Suggested Texts:                         Will be posted on the Bios 490 Blackboard website.

 

Attendance:                                  Attendance is expected at all scheduled lectures and will be an important component of the grade; papers will be discussed in class.   .

 

Supplementary materials:          Will be put on the Bios 490 Blackboard website.

 

Examinations:                              None

 

Grading:                                        Each student's final grade will be computed from total points obtained from attendance and participation (20%), paper commentaries (20%) and 2 student presentations (60%).  Student presentations, in teams of two, will be based on a pre-assigned topic, and will consist of a one page summary, a 20-25 minute power point presentation, a list of literature used for the paper, and leading a 30 minute discussion. Students need to properly register for a class in order to earn academic credit. Retroactive enrollments will not be processed.

 

 

Week   Date    Topic

 

1           1/16     Gonzalez-Meler/Wolf:  Introduction, Climate and life, geological epochs

             1/18     Wolf:  Community ecology: structure and stability, vulnerability, disturbance

 

2           1/23     Wolf:  Community ecology: structure and stability, vulnerability, disturbance   1/25    Wolf:  Evolutionary ecology: evolution versus selection. Selection agents

 

3           1/30     Wolf:  Evolutionary ecology: evolution versus selection. Behavioral                                          components

             2/1       Open Discussion:  Specialist/generalist species

 

4           2/6       Gonzalez-Meler:  How do we measure time?

             2/8       Gonzalez-Meler:  Isotopes in studying climate changes and life

 

5           2/13     Gonzalez-Meler:  Isotopes in studying climate changes and life

             2/15     Open Discussion:  18O thermometers

 

6           2/20     Gonzalez-Meler:  Oxygenic photosynthesis: a climate changing event

             2/22     Student presentation: conquering of land by plants and animals:  first plants and animals to make it and effects on biogeochemical cycling and community structure

 

7                        Mass extinction week

             2/27     Student presentation: Permian-Triassic extinction

             3/1       Student presentation: K-T boundary, meteorite impact, dinosaur extinction, Post K/T border dinosaurs, and amphibian survival.

 

8           3/6       Wolf:  “A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king” (Homer): mammals replace dinosaurs.

             3/8       Gonzalez-Meler: the warmest time on Earth?  Methane hydrates during angiosperm and mammal dispersion

 

9           3/13     Student presentation: Evolution of C4 plants, CO2 levels, expansion of C4 photosynthesis, and herbivore extinction out of the horse’s mouth; (Wolf: predators – prey arms race)

             3/15     Student presentation: Formation of ice caps; effects on climate and ecological communities (Gonzalez-Meler: snowball earth)

 

10         3/20     Wyatt:  Hominid evolution I, fossil record, biped evolution

             3/22     Wyatt:  Hominid evolution II, diversity and dispersal; why only Homo makes it?

 

11         3/27     Spring Break           

             3/29     Spring Break

 

 

12         4/3       Student Presentation: Human learns the use of fire: effects on community structure and land use           (Wyatt, how Homo leaves Africa and gets everywhere)

             4/5       Student Presentation: H. sapiens, Neanderthal extinction, bottleneck

 

13         4/10     Wolf:  Holocene large mammal extinctions

             4/12     Gonzalez-Meler: Agriculture – land use change couple with biogeochemical cycling

 

14         4/17     Wyatt:  Raise and collapse of pre-Columbian civilizations in Latin America. Effects of Europeans and trade.

             4/19     Student Presentation:  Feeding 6 billion people. Food supply, diseases, solutions and Genetically Modified Organisms; effects on land-use and biogeochemistry.

 

15         4/24     Student presentation: Water availability for consumption – the biggest threat in current climate change?

             4/26     Student Presentation: Is increasing levels in atmospheric CO2 the (only) cause for the current warming trend?

 

16         5/1       Open discussion:  Selection agents in modern times – extinctions precede climate change

             5/3       Open discussion:  Social, evolutionary and economical aspects of current global change; how do we explain all these to non-specialized people?

 

17         5/8       Finals week

             5/10     Finals week