Course Description:
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. Introduction to aspects of population, community, landscape and ecosystem ecology, including the interactive biophysical attributes and processes of forest ecosystems. Students observe and learn about plant distributions and plant community structure, including principles of plant ecology, ecophysiology, and ecological disturbances, especially wildfire. Energy and materials transfer and feedbacks are used to describe complex interrelationships driving the dynamics of these systems, including both natural and human components as modifiers of systems dynamics. Students learn how data are collected to maximize information used to answer scientific questions. Field trips and field laboratory exercises are complemented with quantitative analysis of student-collected data, including tree demographic analysis, community composition and structural change, and analysis of net primary productivity and forest carbon stocks. Instructor – Dr. Andrew Larson, U of Montana (cfc.umt.edu/personnel/details.php?ID=1710)

Web Address of Course Info:
https://flbs.umt.edu/apps/education