Disturbance Ecology

REVISED

Spring 2012 quarter

Faculty

Peter Impara geography, landscape studies

Fields of Study

ecology, environmental studies, geography and natural history

Preparatory for studies or careers in

resource management, geography, ecology, environmental studies, broad scale landscape and disturbance studies.

Prerequisites

Basic ecology and/or life sciences course

Description

Most people think of a disturbance as disturbing--upsetting the natural balance, throwing into disorder, or interfering--yet disturbances are a common, regular characteristic of many eco systems. Disturbance is an important ecological process affecting ecosystems at multiple spatial and temporal scales. As disturbance plays such an important role in such processes as vegetation community patterns, successional trajectories, and other ecological patterns, understanding disturbance and its ecological influences is vital to developing a basic understanding of significant controls of ecosystem function and composition. In this program we will investigate the role of disturbance as it relates to existing, and historic, ecological conditions. We will examine how the principles of pattern – process interactions and scale are applied to the study and understanding of disturbance processes. We will also relate disturbance to historic and contemporary human resource and land use issues to study the interactions between humans and disturbance over time.

Important questions for the study of disturbance include: what is the disturbance regime for a given disturbance? At what spatial and temporal scales do disturbances operate? How do disturbances affect ecological patterns and processes ? How do humans respond to, and try to control, disturbances? To address these questions we will explore disturbance by using field, class and lab approaches. We will visit several disturbance sites as well as learn methods to map and analyze disturbance patterns and the variables related to those processes. Lecture and seminars will address recent research and approaches to characterizing and studying disturbance. Students will be expected to carry out a project investigating a disturbance process and its influence on the local ecology as well as human responses to that disturbance type. Students interested in upper division science credit should be aware that upper division science credit will be awarded only for upper division work.

Location

Olympia

Online Learning

Enhanced Online Learning

Books

Greener Store

Upper Division Science Credit

Students interested in upper division science credit should be aware that upper division science credit will be awarded only for upper division work.

Offered During

Day

Program Revisions