Freshwater Ecology

Winter Quarter 2003

Use the program website to stay up-to-date as changes are made to the schedule and readings. Download assignments and lecture notes here, too, including readings and handouts for the vertebrate anatomy lab (under "vertebrate lab").

• limnology (lake ecology, with emphasis on the chemistry of nutrients; nutrient cycling, and lake dynamics);
• vertebrate biology (We will spend several weeks dissecting aquatic vertebrates, including lampreys, sharks, and salamanders, in the lab; there will also be several lectures on fish and amphibian biology and life histories);
• population ecology (during computer labs we will be learning mathematical population ecology; during lectures and workshops we will approach population ecology from an evolutionary framework); and
• biodiversity, as it relates to issues of policy and management.
• Independent projects undertaken by students on some topic in freshwater ecology.

Some of the questions central to this program include:

• How are freshwater ecosystems best understood—by controlling for as many variables as possible, or by trying to understand them in all their complexity?
• As scientists engaged in the study of these systems, how do we assess the various sources of knowledge: the data that was gathered before us, existing ecological theory, our own interpretation and generation of data and theory?
• How do the physical environment, chemical composition, and biological diversity, structure, and history of a given freshwater ecosystem combine to form a functional unit?
• What is a healthy freshwater ecosystem? How do we know?
• What is sustainable practice with regard to these systems?