BIOL 416 Terrestrial Ecosystems 2022 | Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology Lab

Welcome to the Biol 416 Web Page for Winter 2022

The ecosystem approach to ecology treats organisms and the physical aspects of their environment as components of a single integrated system. Terrestrial ecosystem functioning is governed by interactions amongst animals, plants, and soil organisms, as well as exchanges of energy and resources with the atmosphere, soils, rocks, and aquatic environments. This advanced undergraduate level ecology course is focused on plant-soil interactions as being a fundamental determinant of the structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems around the world. As a group, we will attempt to synthesize recent advances arising from the ecosystem approach with established ecological theory to describe and explain ecosystem-level patterns and processes in the terrestrial environment.

The course content for the Winter 2022 iteration will be centered on identifying, critiquing, and applying terrestrial ecosystem ecological concepts to address the following thematic question: What insights can an in-depth understanding of terrestrial ecosystem-level ecology provide to advance the scientific rationales, implementation, and improvement of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #15 (Life on Land)?

Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, the student should be able to:

Explain and evaluate the major concepts underlying terrestrial ecosystem ecology that distinguish it from lower hierarchical levels in biology such as community and population ecology
Describe and contrast the major processes and features that distinguish local terrestrial ecosystems, especially in the context of how soil-plant relationships and land-use practices have influenced the pre- and post-colonial landscape around Kingston
Discuss and critique United Nations Sustainability Development Goal #15 (Life on Land) and explain the scientific rationales underlying each of its nine specific targets.
Formulate clear, original, challenging, and concise thematic questions from study reading material that are likely to lead to focussed and intellectually probing seminar group discussions, student-led seminar topics, and short media presentations
Present a stimulating, informative and creative seminar on the scientific rationale, current progress, and suggested improvements for one of the nine specific targets within United Nations Sustainability Development Goal #15 (Life on Land)
Develop, conduct, and analyse an experimental research study on some aspect of plant-soil relationships that affects local old field meadow grassland ecosystem functioning
Create an original, cohesive, synthesis media presentation to promote some ‘cool’ terrestrial biology insight or idea that is unique to ecosystem-level science.

Professor: Paul Grogan

Lecture times: Tuesdays 08.30-10.00; Fridays 10.00-11.30
Lab/field trip times: Mondays: 10.00-11.30
Location: Kingston Hall Specialized Active Learning room #304

Lab Instructor: Meghan Hamp (E-mail: 19meh1@queensu.ca; Office: Room 2507)
Location: Lab room #3320, Biosciences building

Assessment:

15% Participation in seminar discussions
20% Seminar questions
25% Seminar
15% Participation in research experiment
25% Final synthesis media presentation

Required textbook: Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology. 2011. 2nd edition. Chapin, F.S. III, Matson, P.A. and Vitousek, P. Springer.

Schedule (to be updated throughout the course): Lecture/Seminar sessions are 80 minutes; Labs generally 80 minutes too.

Week beginning	Day and time	Convenor	Topic	Reading
10 January	Monday, 8.30 - LAB		No Lab
	Tuesday 8.30		Introduction to the course
	Friday, 10.00		Personal Land Acknowledgement; Discussion of video	A Life on Our Planet (Documentary video by David Attenborough)
17 January	Monday, 10.00 - LAB	Meghan	Introduction to Stoke’s Field and associated experiment
	Tuesday 8.30	Paul	The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, especially #15 (Life on Land)
	Friday, 10.00	Paul	The Ecosystem Concept; Discussion of seminar guidelines	Chapin et al, Chapter 1: 1-12,17-22.
24 January	Monday, 10.00 - LAB		No lab
	Tuesday 8.30	Paul	Major ecosystem ecology concepts	Chapter 1: 13-17; Chapter 2: 23-26, 38-41, 50-61.
	Friday, 10.00	Paul	State factors to explain soil development	Chapter 3: 63-69.
31 January	Monday, 10.00 - LAB	Meghan/Paul	Soil texture measurement; Outdoor and vermiculture composting and associated soil biology
	Tuesday 8.30	Paul	Anthropogenic impacts on soils	Foote and Grogan, 2010. Ecosystems 13: 795-812.
	Friday, 10.00	Paul	Soil-types, Transformations, and Physical Properties	Chapter 3: 73-78, 82-85.
7 February	Monday, 10.00 - LAB		No lab
	Tuesday 8.30	Paul	Soil Chemical Properties	Ch. 3: 86-89; Ch. 7: 202-203; Ch. 9: 287-290; 293-296.
	Friday, 10.00	Paul	The Biology of Soils (I), and the Terrestrial Ecosystem Nitrogen cycle	Chapter 7: 183-190; 243-244; Chapter 9: 271-280 (overview)
14 February	Monday, 10.00 - LAB	Meghan/Paul	Measuring soil nutrient availability demonstration (Ion Exchange Membranes); Measuring ecosystem carbon flux components (LICOR demonstration)
	Tuesday 8.30	Paul	The Biology of Soils II,and Species effects on Ecosystem Processes	Chapter 11: 321-324; 330-335.
	Friday, 10.00	Paul	Ecosystem carbon cycling, Decomposition, and Plant-Soil interactions	Chapter 7: 190-202; 203-204; Chapter 8: 229-233, 238-241, 253-256.
21 February	READING WEEK
	READING WEEK
	READING WEEK
28 February	Monday, 10.00 - LAB		Guest lecture by Dr. Mat Vankoughnett: Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology – Applied Research
	Tuesday 8.30		Review and Reflection. In- person (!!!) at Kingston Hall Active Learning room #304.
	Friday, 10.00	Dominique Charland, Hareena Sidhu, and Abigail Long	Invasive species: Are we doing more harm than good by attempting to manage them?	SDG Target 15.8 (preventing and reducing invasive species). Knauf et al, 2021. Nutrient-use strategy and not competition determines native and invasive species response to changes in soil nutrient availability. Restoration Ecology 29(5): e13374.
7 March	Monday, 10.00 - LAB		No lab
	Tuesday 8.30	Sydney Nicholls, Hannah Moran-Macdonald, and Mackenzie Skuce	What aspects of equity should have been incorporated into SDG 15.7 to make anti-poaching and trafficking solutions more effective?	SDG Target 15.7 (stopping poaching and trafficking of protected species). Breuer et al, 2016. The consequences of poaching and anthropogenic change for forest elephants. Conservation Biology 30(5): 1019-1026
	Friday, 10.00	Kayleigh Stok, Keaton Lightfoot, and Preston Chau	Is species richness important and worthy of protection?	SDG Target 15.5 (halting biodiversity loss). Gamfeldt et al, 2013. Higher levels of multiple ecosystem services are found in forests with more tree species. Nature Communications 4:1340
14 March	Monday, 08.30 - LAB	Meghan	Plant growth study data collection – (in-person, Biosciences Lab room 3320)
	Tuesday 8.30		Seminar postponed
	Friday, 10.00	Alyssa Reynolds, Denver Gray, and Abby Milne	Is sustainable forest management possible?	SDG Target 15.2 (end deforestation and restoring degraded forests) Castagneyrol, B. et al. 2020. Associational Resistance to a pest insect fades with time. Journal of Pest Science 93:427-437.
21 March	Monday, 10.00 - LAB	Meghan	Lab postponed
	Tuesday 8.30	Ali Becker, Meghan Adair and Elena Karakas	In what ways should SDG 15.7 have incorporated geography to help improve protection against poached and trafficked species?	SDG Target 15.7 (stopping poaching and trafficking of protected species) Haines, A. et al. 2012. Spatially Explicit Analysis of Poaching Activity as a Conservation Management Tool.Wildlife Society Bulletin 36(4):685-692.
	Friday, 10.00	Laura Yantha, Katie Maunders, and Danika Watson	Temporal versus spatial variability in ecosystems: Is the consideration of time or space more essential to SDG 15 biodiversity conservation?	SDG Target 15.4 (conserving mountain ecosystems). Zu, K. et al. 2021. Upward shift and elevational range contractions of subtropical mountain plants in response to climate change. Science of the Total Environment 783: 146896.
26 March	SATURDAY	Paul	ALL-DAY FIELD TRIP TO LOCAL ECOSYSTEMS
28 March	Monday, 10.00 - LAB	Meghan	Lab postponed
	Tuesday 8.30	Donnan Grekul-Somerville, Brendan Sheppard, and Katie Morrell	Does SDG 15.3 harmfully facilitate disguising economic interests as environmental interests?	SDG Target 15.3 (combatting desertification and restoring degraded land). Zhang et al, 2021. Combating Desertification through the Wine Industry in Hongsibu, Ningxia. Sustainability 13, 5654.
	Friday, 10.00		Final media presentation preparation time
4 April	Monday, 10.00 - LAB	Meghan	Meghan’s closing talk on Stoke’s Field Interpretations and relation to the students' plant growth experiment - (online)
	Tuesday 8.30		Sustaining socio-ecological systems	Chapin et al, Chapter 15, 423-446.
	Friday, 10.00	Paul	Synthesis