Integrative Biology

Introduction to field and laboratory study of ecological patterns and processes in nature. Course begins with a series of group field exercises conducted in local terrestrial, aquatic, and marine habitats. These exercises emphasize sampling methodology, experimental design, and statistical interpretation of results. Latter half of course devoted to independent research projects. A written report and class presentation of project results are required.

This course is a detailed survey of the physiological approaches used in understanding the relationships between plants and their environment from the functional perspective. Lectures explore physiological adaptation; limiting factors; resources acquisition and allocation; photosynthesis, carbon, and energy balance; water use and water relations; nutrient relations; linking physiology; stable isotope applications in ecophysiology; stress physiology; life history and physiology; the evolution of physiological performance; and physiology at the population, community, and ecosystem levels.

This course explores the interactions of organisms with physical, chemical, and geological processes in the ocean. Overviews of basic physical, chemical, and geological principles and the major functional groups of marine organisms are followed by interdisciplinary discussions of open-ocean pelagic systems, the deep sea, coastal oceans, estuaries, and intertidal environments.

The biological implications of marine physics and chemistry. History and properties of seawater. Geophysical fluids. Currents and circulations. Deep sea. Waves, tides, and bottom boundary layers. The coastal ocean; estuaries. Air/sea interaction. Mixing. Formation of water masses. Modeling biological and geochemical processes. Ocean and climate change.

The relationship of the main plant groups and the plant communities of California to climate, soils, vegetation, geological and recent history, and conservation.

The geology, physics, chemistry, and biology of the world oceans. The application of oceanographic sciences to human problems will be explored through special topics such as energy from the sea, marine pollution, food from the sea, and climate change.

A survey of marine mammal evolution, biology, behavior, ecology, and politics with a concentration on those species found in the North Pacific. Coverage would include: origin and evolution of cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians, and sea otters; basic biology and anatomy of marine mammal groups, and North Pacific species in particular; ecological interactions and role in nearshore and pelagic marine communities; and interactions between humans and marine mammals.