Course Requirements:

Problem Sets - Plant Physiological Ecology is a quantitative science and we will have series of short problem sets designed to further elucidate the subjects covered in lecture.

Paper Presentations - Each Thursday we will ALL read and discuss a recent paper from the literature. A different student will be responsible for leading a class discussion of this paper (depending on the number of students you may have to lead two discussions during the semester or we may have to team up). You will have 15 minutes at the end of class (although shorter presentations and longer discussions are encouraged. The paper presented will relate to that weeks lecture topic (see list of papers & schedule). In addition, EVERY student will turn in a one page summary of the paper. This summary should contain the following six sections:

  I. Hypothesis Tested

  II. Three Main Results

 III. Three Main Conclusion

 IV. Was the Hypothesis Supported Or Rejected?

 V. Three Questions You Have About The Paper

 VI. Brief Editiorial.

The discussion leader should turn in a computer file to be added to the web page, answering these questions in slightly more detail.

Field Experiment - Plant Physiological Ecology is a field science and I think we can only appreciate it if we get our feet wet (figuratively I hope). As a group we will design and execute an experiment at Black Rock Forest. This should be fun. The idea will be to come up with a question that each of you can collect some data to contribute to answering the question. The results of this experiment will be written up as a scientific paper. The paper is due the last day of class. Short presentations of experimental results will be given in the last week of class.

Review Paper - The field trip and experimental work is technically optional (although I hope you all choose to participate). If for any reason you can not or do not attend the field trip, a review paper can substitute. Due on the last day of class, this paper should be a solid review of one of the lecture subjects that interest you. The style should be scientific and can resemble something found in "Trends in Ecology and Evolution". Shoot for something of "publishable" quality, roughly 10 pages in length.

Midterm and Final Exams - There will be two in-class exams. The final will be comprehensive.

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I trust I don't have to say this, but academic honesty is not only expected but absolutely required