These unique seminars provide cutting edge ecology topics which are changed and updated each semester.

Please note: Be sure to register for the correct number of credits listed next to the course descriptions.

Spring 2024

ECOL 592-006
CRN: 831849404
Credits: 1
Grading: Pass/Fail
Enrollment Limit: 20
Start Date: 03/19/2024

Tuesday 2-3:50pm


Academia For Ecologists

Instructors: Matt Sturchio, Siwook Hwang, Dr. Meena Balgopal, and Dr. Steven Fonte

 

Course description:

Thinking about an academic career path but not sure what that would actually entail? In this discussion-based seminar course, we will explore every non-science aspect of an academic’s professional life. We will learn about the university systems that we all live within, how it operates, who is involved, and how it came to be. We will learn about the economics of being an academic, whether it is about running one’s own lab, managing grants, or negotiating salaries. This class will serve as an avenue for early career academics to critically evaluate the industry they are about to enter and ponder a better future within it.

ECOL 592-001
CRN: 18824
Credits: 2
Grading: Traditional
Enrollment Limit: 20
Start Date: 01/16/2024

Tuesday 1-1:50pm


Big Data for Ecology: Progresses and Pitfalls

Instructor: Dr. Anping Chen

Course description:

“Big Data for Ecology” is an advanced graduate-level course that dives into the cutting-edge applications of big data in the field of ecology. This course is designed for students who want to explore how the vast and diverse datasets generated in the era of modern technology can revolutionize ecological research.With the course, students are expected to understand how big data analytics, machine learning, and computational modeling can be harnessed to advance ecological studies. They will also be offered the opportunity to explore real-world case studies and gain hands-on experience in working with large ecological datasets, learning data preprocessing, analysis, and interpretation techniques. Throughout the course, students will critically evaluate the advantages and challenges of using big data in ecological research and develop the skills needed to navigate this rapidly evolving field.Students are asked to finish a practical project relevant to their field of research using big data. Performance will be graded based on attendance and project quality.

ECOL 592-002
CRN: 10126
Credits: 1
Grading: Pass/Fail
Enrollment Limit: 20
Start Date: 01/16/2024

Tuesday 2-3:50pm 

ONLY THE FIRST 8 WEEKS OF THE SEMESTER


Peer Reviewing for Early Career Researchers

Instructors: Dr. Meena Balgopal and Josie Otto

Course description:

Although graduate students have many opportunities to critically read scientific literature, not all students have participated in peer-reviewing manuscripts. In this course, students will learn how to find preprints and write a peer review report of a preprint using a structure adapted for first-time reviewers. Students will have the option to publish their peer review reports. Preprints are free, online, non-peer-reviewed manuscripts shared by authors to a preprint server before (or while) submitting to a peer-reviewed journal. Instructors will assess student performance on their participation in and completion of peer review reports.

 

Students may choose to apply this course to fulfillment of their ECOL693 requirement if they choose; please complete a “course petition” form to initiate that request

ECOL 592-003
CRN: 22875
Credits: 1
Grading: Traditional
Enrollment Limit: 20
Start Date: 01/17/2024

Wednesday 11-11:50am 


Understanding ‘Ecological Resilience’ in a Rapidly Changing World

Instructor: Dr. LeRoy Poff

Course description:

Ecological resilience is defined as the capacity of an ecosystem to persist in its current state in response to perturbations or disturbances. Disturbances of exceptional intensity or duration (e.g., extreme drought, flooding, wildfire) may force an ecosystem to a threshold beyond its stability limits into a different state, often with a concomitant change in prevailing ecosystem goods and services. Unsustainable resource consumption and climate change are seen as pressing ecosystems toward thresholds of change. Accordingly, ecologists are increasingly challenged to better understand the properties and dynamics of ecological resilience, in order to effectively inform sustainable management of ecosystems.

In this seminar, we will explore the foundational theory and concepts underlying “ecological resilience,” including various definitions of resilience and constituent properties (e.g., stability, thresholds, equilibrium), and approaches to identify and quantify indicators of ecological resilience. The seminar will consist of student-led discussions of readings from the primary literature covering various ecosystem types, from terrestrial to aquatic. A goal of the seminar is to identify general principles governing ecological resilience across ecosystem types, as well as system-specific elements of resilience for ecosystem types of interest to seminar participants.

Students will be evaluated based on attendance, participation in discussions, and leading student-selected paper discussions.

ECOL 592-004
CRN: 10127
Credits: 1
Grading: Traditional
Enrollment Limit: 20
Start Date: 01/25/2024

Thursday 3-3:50pm 


Ecological adaptations: Connecting genome to phenome

Instructors: Dr. Geoff Morris, Rubi Raymundo, Carl VanGessel

Course description:

In recent years, our mechanistic understanding of ecological adaptations has improved dramatically. From morphological defense structures in wild fish to metabolites underlying climate resilience in crop plants, we can now obtain detailed mechanistic knowledge of ecological adaptations, integrated across multiple biological scales – genetic, molecular, developmental, physiological, and ecological. Despite these advances (or maybe because of them) it remains difficult to summarize, evaluate, and describe all the complex mechanisms and relationships that underlie ecological adaptation.In this class, students will learn how to use the concept of a “genome-phenome map” to understand, analyze, and communicate hypotheses on traits that underlie ecological adaptation. The class will meet weekly for a student-led discussion of a paper that tests hypotheses about the biological mechanism of a particular ecological adaptation.Course objectives – after taking this course the student will be able to:– Present their ideas on mechanisms of ecological adaptations to a broad scientific audience– Describe how theory and/or hypotheses about traits that underlie ecological adaptation can be summarized in conceptual diagrams of the genome-phenome relationship– Identify and summarize mechanistic hypotheses on ecological adaptations from the primary research literature– Draw genome-phenome maps to summarize hypotheses on ecological adaptation– Develop arguments on what evidence would be required to test mechanistic hypotheses on ecological adaptationsStudent performance will be evaluated based on:– Quality of their participation in class discussion– Effort to identify an appropriate paper for class discussion– Quality of presentation they prepare for the class discussion

ECOL 592-005
CRN: 10129
Credits: 1
Grading: Pass/Fail
Enrollment Limit: 20
Start Date: 01/19/2024

Friday 1:30-2:30pm

THIS CLASS ONLY MEETS UNTIL 3/22 


Genetic Rescue: A Conservation Tool to Prevent Species Extinction

Instructor: Dr. Enakshi Ghosh

Course description:

The destruction of natural habitats by human activities, climate change, and pathogen outbreaks stand as primary drivers of global biodiversity loss. In fragmented landscapes, populations often endure as small, isolated subunits, facing an elevated risk of extinction due to the combined influences of environmental, demographic, and genetic factors. The potent effects of genetic drift in these small populations lead to a depletion of genetic diversity, resulting in associated fitness loss, inbreeding depression, and a diminished ability to adapt to environmental changes. Genetic rescue emerges as a promising solution to counteract these challenges by enhancing the genetic diversity and fitness of small, isolated populations through the introduction of genetic variation. Over the past decade, numerous studies have demonstrated the remarkable capability of genetic rescue to significantly improve population fitness. However, successfully implementing genetic rescue necessitates a profound understanding of the evolutionary history and genetic distinctiveness inherent in population at risk. This course seeks to consolidate the existing research evidence, providing a comprehensive exploration of the potential benefits of genetic rescue and the challenges inherent to this approach, including the critical role of disease ecology in the context of genetic rescue research.In this class, we will read foundational literature on genetic rescue as well as case studies. Students will be graded on coming to class prepared having completed the readings, active participation in class discussions, and choosing relevant contributions to read.