ALRS Graduate Program OALS Home College of Agriculture University of Arizona McLaughlin Home Plant Sciences 508 Arid Lands 644

Dr. Steven P. McLaughlin Professor ARID LANDS RESOURCE SCIENCES 644–BIODIVERSITY AND SUSTAINABILITY Spring 1999 Meets: TBA, Arid Lands 113 SYLLABUS (Course Information Sheet)

Instructor's name, office room number, and telephone number:

Dr. Steven P. McLaughlin
Professor, Arid Lands Resource Sciences
On Campus: Arid Lands 107A1 (1955 E. Sixth) 621-8577
Off Campus: Bioresources Research Facility 100 (250 E. Valencia), 741-1691
E-mail: spmcl@ag.arizona.edu
Home Page: http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/oals/alrsgp/faculty/mclaughlin/mclaughlin.html

Office hours or a statement of an open-door policy:

I expect to be on campus Tuesday-Thursdays all day during Spring 1999, and am available to meet with students at any time. An appointment is not required. However, it is advisable to call, e-mail, or arrange an appointment time before or after class.

On Mondays and Fridays I will usually be at the laboratory at the Bioresources Research Facility adjacent to the Tucson International Airport. I have an open-door policy while at the lab, but, again, it is advisable to check beforehand to make sure I will be in.

Grade and absence policies:

Students are expected to attend all regularly scheduled class meetings, and are responsible for the material (including homework and reading assignments) presented in class. If you know in advance that you will not be able to attend a class, please advise me and ask about assignments.

Grades will be based on exams (40%), term paper and presentation (40%), and written assignments (20%).

List of required texts:

There is no required textbook for the course. Students will be assigned readings from current literature.

Number of required examinations and papers:

There will be a midterm and a final exam. The midterm will be the week before Spring Break. The date for the final will be determined at the first class meeting. The final exam may be given as a take-home exam.

There is a required term-paper for this course; final copies of the term-paper are due on the last day of class.

Required extra-curricular activities, if any:

Students are required to write a brief (2-3 pages maximum) review of each reading assignment. The purpose of these reviews is to enhance your understanding of the material. These are to be typed (i.e., word-processed) double-spaced with 1-inch margins (10 or 12 point font). Each review should provide a synopsis of the content and conclusions of the paper. In addition, students are encouraged to provide comments on the paper (e.g., its relevance to other topics discussed in class, critiques, unresolved problems, etc.). In other words, these reviews should resemble book reviews in (1) making it clear what the paper is about, and (2) putting the paper in context.

Special materials required for the class, if any:

There are no special materials required.

In accordance with University policy, information contained in the Course Information Sheet, other than the grade and absence policy, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.

Course description and overview

Scope and Expections

This course will address several related topics and issues:

• What is meant by the terms "biodiversity" and "sustainability"?
• The major patterns in biodiversity at global, regional, and local scales.
• The processes that generate and maintain biodiversity.
• Rates and causes of species extinction.
• Ecosystem function.
• Ecosystem services.
• The relationship between ecosystem function, ecosystem services, and species diversity.

These issues will be addressed through lectures, discussions, and reading assignments.

Students are expected to understand (1) the basic patterns and processes controlling the distribution of species across a range of spatiall scales; (2) the range and value of ecosystem services on which humans depend for their existence; (3) the current status of our knowledge on the relationship between species diversity and the flow of ecosystem services; and, perhaps most importantly, (4) major unresolved problems in evaluating the functional role of biodiversity.

Term Paper

Students are required to write a term paper, and to give an oral presentation of their paper at the end of the semester. In preparing your paper please follow the guidelines for manuscript preparation used by The Journal of Biogeography. Papers will be graded for both content and style.

The subject matter for this course is rather broad. Your paper could cover some aspect of either the science or policy of biodiversity. Please discuss potential topics with the instructor.

Readings

The following papers will be assigned for reading and review. It is likely that some additions (and possible substitutions) in this list will be made during the course of the semester. You can read these papers from their original sources in the Science Library, or check-out a photocopy from Olivia Mendoza (Arid Lands 205D). The sequence in which these papers will be read is the sequence in which they are listed. Dates for reading papers will be given in class.

• Redford, K. H., and S. E. Sanderson. 1992. The brief, barren marriage of biodiversity and sustainability. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 73: 36-39.
  Review due Tuesday January 26
• Mares, M. A. 1992. Neotropical mammals and the myth of Amazonian biodiversity. Science 255:976- 979.
  Review due Tuesday January 26
• Reid, W. V. 1998. Biodiversity hotspots. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 13: 275-280.
  Review due Tuesday February 2
• Mann, C. C. 1991. Extinction: are ecologists crying wolf? Science 253: 736-738.
• Wilcove, D. W., D. Rothstein, J. Dubow, A. Philips, and E. Losos. 1998. Quantifying threats to imperiled species in the United States. Bioscience 48: 607-615.
  Provide a single review for the previous two papers, due Tuesday, February 9
• Johnson, H. B., and H. S. Mayeux. 1992. Viewpoint: a view on species additions and deletions and the balance of nature. Journal of Range Management 45: 322-333.
  Review due Tuesday, February 9.
• Chapin, F. S., III, B. H. Walker, R. J. Hobbs, D. U. Hooper, J. H. Lawton, O. E. Sala, and D. Tilman. 1997. Biotic control over the functioning of ecosystems. Science 277: 500-503.
• Díaz, S., and M. Cabido. 1997. Plant functional types and ecosystem function. Journal of Vegetation Science 8: 463-474.
• Solbrig, O. T. 1993. Plant traits and adaptive strategies: their role in ecosystem function. Pp. 97-116 in E.-D. Schulze and H. A. Mooney (eds.), Biodiversity and ecosystem function. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
• Costanza, R., R. d'Arge, R. de Groot, S. Farber, M Grasso, B. Hannon, K. Limburg, S. Naeem, R. V. O'Neill, J. Paruelo, R. G. Raskin, P. Sutton, and M. van den Belt. 1998. The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital. Ecological Economics 25: 3-15.
• Walker, B. H. 1992. Biodiversity and ecological redundancy. Conservation Biology 6: 18-23.
• Gitay, H., J. B. Wilson, and W. G. Lee. 1996. Species redundancy: a redundant concept? Journal of Ecology 84: 121-124.
• Naeem, S., L. J. Thompson, S. P. Lawler, J. H. Lawton and R. M. Woodfin. 1995. Empirical evidence that declining species diversity may alter the performance of terrestrial ecosystems. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 347: 249-262.
• Tilman, D., D. Wedin, and J. Knops. 1996. Productivity and sustainability influenced by biodiversity in grassland ecosystems. Nature 379: 718-720.
• Aarssen, L. W. 1997. High productivity in grassland ecosystems: effected by species diversity or productive species? Oikos 80: 183-184.
• Grime, J. P. 1997. Biodiversity and ecosystem function: the debate deepens. Science 277: 1260-1261.
• Tilman, D., J. Knops, D. Wedin, P. Reich, M. Ritchie, and E. Siemann. 1997. The influence of functional diversity and composition on ecosystem processes. Science 277: 1300-1302.
• Naeem, S., Z. Kawabata, and M. Loreau. 1998. Transcending boundaries in biodiversity research. Trends in Ecology and Systematics 13: 134-135.

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URL: http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/oals/alrsgp/faculty/mclaughlin/aridlands664.html