UAF Alaska Geobotany Center - Institute of Arctic Biology

Course Archive

BIOL 475/689: Vegetation Description and Analysis (3 credits)

Fall 2012 - Syllabus: General information & grading - Course schedule - Full Syllabus (PDF, revised Nov. 20)
Lab Handouts & Reading materials (PDFs)

Additional resources: Plant List - Plant Characteristics - Plant Keys

Course schedule and reading assignments

Kent = Kent, M. 2012. Vegetation Description and Data Analysis: A Practical Approach. Wiley-Blackwell. New York.

MD&E = Mueller-Dombois, L.D., Ellenberg, H. 1974. Aims and Methods of Vegetation Ecology. John Wiley and Sons. New York. 547.

McC&G = McCune, B., Grace, J.B., Urban, D.L. 2002. Analysis of Ecological Communities. MJM Software Design. Gleneden Beach, OR. 304. MJM Software Design.

Date	Topics/Activities	Reading assignments	Assignments DUE
	Labs are highlighted in gray.
Wed 5 Sept	Lecture 1 (1 hr): Introductions, Overview of course Lecture 1, Introduction Lab 1a (2 hr): Site selection and species identification in North Campus Lands Wear appropriate clothing for being outside for several hours. Rain gear (jacket and pants), water-proof boots, coat, hat, gloves, small pack, water, snack. Bring hand lens, 8.5 x 10-inch notebook, pencil. Relevé data forms Vegetation Field Descriptions Handout	Course syllabus Kent, Chapter 1, (p. 1-21), "Quantitative plant ecology and vegetation science" Relevé data forms Vegetation Field Descriptions Handout MD&E Chapter 5, (45-66). The Releve Method (optional)
Mon 10 Sept	Lab 1b, Relevé method, Plot 1 Goal is to collect 4 relevés from each position along the toposequence (hill crest or shoulder, side slope, footslope, 12 relevés total). Be sure to carefully mark corners of plots with pin flags and get GPS coordinates so you can return to these sites.	Kent, Chapter 2, (p. 23-48), "Environmental gradients, plant communities and vegetation dynamics".
Wed 12 Sept	Lab 1c: Relevé method, Plot 2	Kent, Chapter 3. Focus on p. 60-65 ("Quadrats") Be familiar with identification of common boreal plants. Review trees, and shrubs at Plant List.	Hand in relevé sheets at end of class for check.
Mon 17 Sept	Lab 1d, Relevé method, Plot 3	Kent, Chapter 3, (p. 65-78) "Measures of species abundance" Appendices for USNVC approach, Appendix 2A (beginning on page 2A-1), "Example Field Forms and Instructions" ***Supplementary material for graduate students: Westhoff, V. and E. van der Maarel. 1978. The Braun-Blanquet approach. Pages 287-399 in R. H. Whittaker, editor. Classification of Plant Communities. W. Junk, Den Haag. To be read during next several lessons	Hand in relevé sheets at end of class for check
Wed 19 Sept	Lab 1e, Relevé method, Plots 4 and 10		Hand in relevé sheets at end of class for check
Mon 24 Sept	Lab 1f, Relevé method, Plots 5 and 11 Relevé data forms Vegetation Field Descriptions Handout	Relevé data forms Vegetation Field Descriptions Handout	Field description 1, due Wed 24 Sep
Wed 26 Sept	Lab 1g, Relevé method, Plots 6 and 12	Review relevé method and compare with Appendix D in USNVC approach (NOTE: this link has been updated to 2008, version 2)	Field description 2, due Mon 1 Oct
Mon 1 Oct	Lab 1h, Relevé method, Plots 7, 8, and 9.		Field description 3, due Fri 5 Oct
Wed 3 Oct.	Lab 1i, Collect soils from all relevés and clean up plot markers	NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service). 2004. Soil survey of the greater Fairbanks area, Alaska Read p. 11-15, skim rest of document
Mon 8 Oct	Lab 2: Forest sampling, plotless sampling, point-centered quarter method Lab 2 handout, including calculation of importance values	MD&E Chapter 7 (p. 93-135) "Count plot method and plotless sampling methods" Lab 2 handout, including calculation of importance values
Wed 10 Oct	Lab 3: Point-intercept sampling approach, Buckner optical sighting device, and tree heights Lab 3 handout. Including sampling protocols for Optical Sighting Device and Sunto clinometer	MD&E. Chapter 6, (p. 84-92), "Point intercept method" Lab 3 handout. Including sampling protocols for Optical Sighting Device and Sunto clinometer
Mon 15 Oct	Lecture 2: Community Concepts Lecture 2: Community Concepts Review revised syllabus and grading criteria 3. Labs 1, 2, & 3 status Mid-term notebook check Discussion of Final Presentation ideas	Review: Kent, Chapter 1 (p. 1-21) "Quantitative plant ecology and vegetation science") Kent, Chapter 2 (p. 23-48), "Environmental gradients, plant communities and vegetation dynamics"	Mid-term notebook check
Wed 17 Oct	Lecture 3: Vegetation sampling. Subjective vs. objective sampling, Relevé sampling, USNVC sampling, minimal area, measuring cover, frequency, density Lecture 3: Vegetation Sampling Lab 4: Data entry of relevé data (Bring your lap tops)	Review: Kent, Chapter 3. Focus on p. 60-65 ("Quadrats") Kent, Chapter 3, (p. 65-78) "Measures of species abundance")	Lab 2 (PCQ method) due Mon 17 Oct Lab 3 (Point sampling and tree heights) due Wed 17 Oct
Mon 22 Oct	Lecture 4: Soils Lecture 4: Soils	Barbour et al. (1987). Chapter 17. Soils, p. 407-433. see also: Web soil survey (select large green button at top, "Start WSS")
Wed 24 Oct	Lab 4: Herbarium: plant identification Museum Herbarium. Lab 4 Handout (Herbarium Lab)	Lab 4 Handout (Herbarium Lab) Flora of Alaska boreal forests and tundra, plant identification keys Be familiar with identification of common boreal plants at Plant List	Replace temporary species names with confirmed species names on relevé forms. Submit for checking. Proposals for final papers (25 points)
Mon 29 Oct	Lecture 5: Ordination 1: Direct gradient analysis, weighted averaging Lecture 5, Ordination 1	Kent, Chapter 6 "Ordination methods" through "the continuum index and weighted averages ordination" (p. 171-178) McC&G, Chapter 5 "Species on environmental gradients" (p. 35-43)
Wed 31 Oct	Lab 5: Soils analyses: pH, grain size, soil color (Soils Lab, 335 O'Neil Bldg). Lab 5 handout (Soils)	Barbour et al. (1987). Chapter 17. Soils, p. 407-433 Lab 5 handout (Soils)	Preliminary outlines final papers and oral presentations (25 points) Turn in soils data for checking (Volunteers needed for keypunching)
Mon 5 Nov	Lecture 6: Ordination 2: Indirect ordination: Bray and Curtis ordination (polar ordination, PO). Lecture 6, Ordination 2	Kent Chapter 6, "Ordination methods" through "Bray and Curtis (polar) ordination" (pp. 178-194).
Wed. 7 Nov	Lab 6: Species and environmental data matrices, relevé data entry and preparation for ordination with PC-Ord (computer lab, 301 Bunnell Bldg.).	Kent Chapter 4 "Nature and properties of vegetation data", pp. 101-120	Submit Lab #6 Final species and environmental data matrices at end of lab for check.
Mon 12 Nov	Lecture 7: Ordination 3: Principal components analysis (PCA), Correspondence analysis (CA), Reciprocal Averaging (RA), Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA). Lecture 7	Kent, Chapter 6, "Ordination methods" through "Principal components analysis (PCA)" (pp. 194-214).
Wed 14 Nov	Lab 7: Introduction to PC-ORD - Polar ordination. Lab 7 Handout (Polar ordination)	Lab 7 Handout (Polar ordination) McC&G, Chapter 13, "Introduction to Ordination" (p. 102-113). McC&G, Chapter 17, "Bray and Curtis (Polar) ordination" (p. 143-148) McC&G, Chapter 14, "Principal components analysis" (p. 114-121)	Submit Lab #7 "Polar Ordination" at end of lab for check.
Mon 19 Nov	Lecture 8: Ordination 4: Reciprocal Averaging (RA), Correspondence analysis (CA), Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA). Lecture 8	Kent Chapter 6, through "Detrended Correspondence Analysis" (pp. 214-236).
Wed 21 Nov	Lab 8: PC-ORD – Ordination using eigenvector methods; Detrended correspondence Analysis (DCA). Exploration of NMDS, CCA, dendrograms and TWINSPAN in PC-ORD. Ina Timling's figure (computer lab, 301 Bunnell Bldg.). Lab 8 Handout	Lab 8 Handout Kent Chapter 6, through "Ordination and multivariate analysis as panacea" (pp. 237-254). Kent Chapter 8, "Numerical classification, cluster analysis and phytosociology" (p. 307-338).	Write up of Lab 7-8 (Indirect ordination) is due Monday 26 Nov.
22-25 Nov	-- THANKSGIVING BREAK --
Mon 26 Nov	Lecture 9: Overview of: Braun-Blanquet Table analysis & syntaxonomy US National Vegetation Classification Lecture 9	Kent, Chapter 7, (p. 243-275), Phytosociology and the Zurich-Montpellier (Braun-Blanquet) school of subjective classification Faber-Langendoen, D., R. H. Crawford, and D. L. Tart. 2009. Contours of the revised U.S. national vegetation classification standard. Bull. Ecol. Soc. Am.:87-93 Assign readings for Monday 3 Dec.	Submit Lab 7-8 "Indirect Ordination" for grade (100 pts).
Wed 28 Nov	Lab 9 – Table sorting and classification of class data using Excel. (computer lab, 301 Bunnell Bldg.) Lab 9 handout	Lab 9. Sorted Table analysis. MD&E Chapter 5, 45-66, The relevé method.	Notebooks due for grade (200 pts). Submit Lab 9 Sorted Table analysis for check. Note: Final Table is due Wednesday 5 Dec.
Mon 3 Dec	Lecture 10: Discussion of Hollingsworth et al. (2006) (PDF); and Schickhoff et al. (2002) papers (PDF).	T. N. Hollingsworth, M. D. Walker, F. S. Chapin III, and A. L. Parsons, "Scale-dependent environmental controls over species composition in Alaskan black spruce communities," Canadian Journal of Forest research, vol. 36, no. 7, pp. 1781–1796, 2006. U. Schickhoff, M. D. Walker, and D. A. Walker, "Riparian willow communities on the Arctic Slope of Alaska and their environmental relationships: A classification and ordination analysis," Phytocoenologia, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 145–204, 2002.
Wed. 5 Dec	Lab 10 - Table sorting, analyses for final paper (computer lab, 301 Bunnell Bldg.).		Submit Lab 9 "Sorted Tables" for grade (100 pts).
Mon. 10 Dec.	Questions and writing on papers.		First draft of papers due for check of progress.
Wed Dec 12	Student oral presentations.		Send copy of oral presentations to Skip (100 pts for undergraduates, 200 pts for graduate students).
Fri 14 Dec.			Final papers due. Send .doc file to Skip (100 pts for undergraduates, 300 pts for graduate students).

Return to top