SCALE AND ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS   - EEB 504



FALL 1997 - Section # 32460 - 1 Credit Hour

Time:  12:40 - 1:55 pm   Thursday

Place:  Dabney 575

Instructors:  Melissa Weaver - 103A Hoskins - 974-0223 - weaver@tiem.utk.edu 

              Lou Gross - 639 Sci & Eng - 974-4295 - gross@tiem.utk.edu

Prerequisites:  Graduate status and some background courses in ecology



Course Objectives:

1. Provide an introduction to the literature on scaling issues in ecology,
with particular emphasis on the relationship between theory and data in
analyzing natural systems.

2. Discuss methods for measuring pattern and variability in ecological systems
and how these are affected by the scale of description.

3. Provide participants with the opportunity to delve in detail into an aspect
fo scale that is particular interest to them and present their thoughts to
others for comments.




This seminar will provide an overview of the issues of scale (resolution and
extent) and the effects of scale on our understanding of ecosystem processes 
(e.g. production) and ecological properties (e.g., population dynamics or 
diversity).



Some Background Questions:



Do you know of an ecosystem process or ecological property that is invariant
to spatial or temporal changes in scale?  If so, then do you think that you 
can convince others?  

If you don't think that you know of any such invariant property, then join us
in our search. 

What are the relative effects of natural (e.g., climate and geomorphology) and
anthropomorphic impacts (e.g., landuse) on biological processes (e.g., growth
and mortality) and properties (e.g., community diversity)?  

Can we predict the variability in ecosystem properties and the associated
ecological properties given the environmental conditions? 

Can we develop biophysical models to evaluate the predictable variability in
indicators of ecosystem condition such as primary productivity and community 
diversity?



Course Organization:



Following an introduction by the instructors, the course will proceed in
seminar format with each participant responsible for leading discussion 
on a particular aspect of scale and ecological systems. We will have some 
guest discussion leaders. Each participant is expected to have read the
papers associated with a particular class period and to be prepared to 
provide comments. The role of the discusion leaderr is to prepare a 
summary of the papers (or sections of papers) for a particular week, 
and be familar in detail with the week's topic. The Instructors will 
be available outside of class period to discuss questions about the 
papers with any class participant. 





Tentative Schedule EEB 504:



Session    Date	Instructor	Topic	Papers



1        August 28         Gross       Measuring scale       Silbernagel, Turner and Gardner



2        Sept. 4              Gross        Measuring scale       Levin, Wiens



3        Sept. 11            Weaver     Hierarchy Theory     O'Neill et al.



4        Sept. 18            Weaver     Hierarchy Theory     O'Neill et al., Allen and Hoekstra



5        Sept. 25            Gross        Fractal approaches   Milne, Sugihara
and May



6        Oct. 2                Drake       Diversity                   Drake
et al., Kolasa et al.



7        Oct.  9               Weaver     Patchiness                Kotliar
and Wiens, Wu and Loucks



8        Oct. 16               Gross       Processes and scale  Jarvis, Steele



9        Oct. 30               Weaver    Non-equilibrium      DeAngelis and
Waterhouse



10      Nov. 6                Weaver    Non-equilibrium      DeAngelis and
Waterhouse



11      Nov. 13              Huston    Biodiversity              Huston,
Tilman



12      Nov. 20             Weaver    Biodiversity              Packet of
papers



13      Dec. 4               Choice of participants



14      Dec. 11            Pizza and choice of participants