1. Introduce myself (degrees, experience, research, interests)/ office location(016) / office hours Monday and Thursday afternoons 1-2, or by appointment).

2. Course structure: 30 meetings, 3 exams, 1 final, 4 projects, Book - Reflections in Bullough's Pond. 5 linkages per chapter.

3. 3 x 5 cards

name

classification

local address

phone number

email address

major

previous biology or botany courses

particular interests in ecology

special interests

special needs

career goals

questions you have

4. Textbook - Aber and Melillo; Terrestrial Ecosystems. How does the study of ecosystems differ from ecology? Focus is on systems, quantifying the flows of energy and materials. What will help? Chemistry, physics, physical sciences. Thinking like a scientist.

5. Energy - what is it?

6. Global environmental change - the problem of the scale of time and space.

7. First day quiz - ungraded true/false. After all have answered, compare with your neighbor, and decide which answer is correct. We will tally, and then I'll tell you the answers.

1. Oxygen makes up the majority of the earth's atmosphere (F)

2. The biosphere is fueled by an inefficient process; it captures less than 1% of the total available sunlight as NPP (T)

3. Most of the global NPP is delivered to the soil where it is decomposed by decomposer organisms.(T)

4. For each place on the earth, there exists a "climax community" toward which the vegetation is progressing through a process called succession. Once the community reaches the climax, no more changes in community structure can occur. (F)

5. Plants are distributed randomly in the landscape (F)

6. Total biomass is linearly related to the amount of rainfall (T)

7. Deserts tend to occur at about 30 degrees of latitude on the west side of continents in the northern hemisphere (T)

8. There have already been measurable changes in the earth's climate due to increasing carbon dioxide concentrations.(T)

9. Diverse ecosystems are more stable than less diverse systems ("Diversity begets stability").(F)

10. Without plants, the atmosphere would be >98% CO2.(T)