Reading Questions for Bush, Ecology of a Changing Planet

Ch 15: Ecological Succession 

Please complete the following questions for lecture on Tuesday, Jan. 23. (Note that some of these questions are similar to questions from last quarter; you might want to review and supplement your answers to these questions from your previous notes.) 

1. What is succession? Describe the successional sequence that you would expect to find at your field site during the next 500 years if there were no disturbances.

1. What is a disturbance? Describe the disturbances that you observed at your site and predict the effect that these disturbances will have on the successional sequence described above.

1. Frederic Clements compared the development of vegetation over time (succession) to the development of an organism. Although Clements probably overstated this parallel, there are many similarities between these two processes. Make a list of the features that succession and development share.

1. Henry Gleason presented an alternate view of the development of vegetation over time. How are Clements’ view and Gleason’s view different?

1. Mark Bush concludes this chapter with two models of “equilibrium” that involve balls rolling in space. Explain how these two models differ in their representation of “equilibrium.” Can you think of an alternative metaphor or model to make this point?

Reading Questions for Bush, Ecology of a Changing Planet

Ch 16: Communities through Time and “Bring Back the Elephants!” 

Please complete the following questions for lecture on Tuesday, Jan. 23. 

1. Summarize Charles Lyell’s view of scientific method in the geological sciences. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach?

1. What is an isotope? Explain how isotope analysis of oxygen can be used as a tool to reconstruct climatic history.

1. Consider the pollen record of Silver Lake, Ohio (Figure 16.5).

1. What would the forest in this area have looked like 12,000 years ago?
2. What would the forest in this area have looked like 6,000 years ago?
3. Consider the events that created this pollen deposit. What factors might make the pollen record of Silver Lake a misleading record of past forests?

1. What are arguments for and against the “Blitzkrieg Hypothesis”? What kind of evidence would definitively demonstrate or refute the “Blitzkrieg Hypothesis”?

1. Should we “bring back the elephants”? Why or why not?