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slice of Nosy Mangabe forest All Fall materials can now be found on the Fall page, including handouts and reading assignments and downloadable pdfs. All students remaining in or entering the program Winter quarter are advised to look at the assigned readings for the first two weeks of Winter, which can be found on the new Handouts page. The other change to the organization of the website is that additional readings not from your textbooks are downloadable on a separate Readings page.

This all-level program will give students a solid background in forest ecology, evolutionary biology, and the socio-political forces that have shaped forest ecosystems. Central questions that we will explore include:

  • What is a forest?
  • How do we describe forests?
  • How do forests "work"?
  • How do forests change over time and space?
  • What forces act on forests at a variety of scales: organisms, populations, species, communities, landscapes, ecosystems?

We will investigate forests at several scales, from landscape to organism, studying both abiotic influences (geology, climate) and biotic factors (competition, succession), and considering the evolution of both temperate and tropical forests.

In the Winter, the focus will be on current threats to tropical forests, human use of forests, and the Carbon cycle, including three decomposition labs. We will go on four single-day field trips, and the final two weeks of the quarter will include oral presentations from all of the students on the research that they will have been conducting all quarter.

Required Texts for Winter quarter

  • An Introduction to Tropical Rainforests, 2nd edition. By T. C. Whitmore. 1998, 296 pages. ISBN: 0-19-850147-1
  • The Diversity of Life. By E. O. Wilson. July 1999 (with study edition). Norton & Company. ISBN: 0393-989-801
  • Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology. By F. Stuart Chapin III , Pamela Matson, Harold A. Mooney. 2002. Springer Verlag. ISBN: 0387954430
  • Isle of Fire: The political ecology of landscape burning in Madagascar. By Christian A. Kull. 2004. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 0-226-46141-6
 Eyelash viper on Soropta peninsula, Panama


Faculty Name Phone Email Location
Heather Heying (360) 867-5535 heyingh@evergreen.edu Lab 1, room 3049
Paul Przybylowicz (360) 867-6476 przybylo@evergreen.edu Lab II, room 3271
Misty morning on river in Maroantsetra Website by: Heather Heying
Last modified: January 3, 2005