Announcements Pick up your collections by Wed PM. Q. & A. session Thursday 11 December 11:00

AM in Rm 124 BSE. Comprehensive final exam, Monday 15

December, 11:00 AM-1:00 PM. Will include some sight ID (20 specimens, 29 points).

Field BotanyRenewable Natural Resources 230

Semester summary

Course overview3

Course overview and plant growth forms Who is this guy? Why Field Botany? Goals, organization and mechanics

What we will do How we will do it

Describing plants and their growth forms

Cells, tissues, and organs

Cells, tissues and organs Vegetative

Stems Leaves Roots

Reproductive Flowers/cones Seeds Fruits

Photosynthesis & water relations5

Photosynthesis and water relations Photosynthesis: The single most important

chemical reaction in the biosphere Light reactions + carbon fixation reactions CO2 uptake means water loss (transpiration) Three photosynthetic pathways

Water relations Forces driving transpiration Strategies for coping with drought

Primary growth6

Primary growth Contrasting growth and development Primary growth = growth in length

Secondary growth7

Secondary growth Secondary growth = growth in girth Vascular cambium is a cylindrical meristem Cork cambium is a cylindrical meristem Wood development in (columnar) cacti

Reproduction8

Plant reproduction What is reproduction? Asexual reproduction Sexual reproduction

Systematics9

Systematics Systematics

Taxonomy Phylogenetics

= the scientific study of biological diversity

Evolution10

Evolutionary processes and their outcomes The agents of evolutionary change Adaptation is the result of natural selection Speciation: the origin of species

Plants interacting11

Interactions among plants and other organisms Competition Facilitation

Mutualism Commensalism Parasitism

Soils, geomorphology12

Soils, geomorphology and plant growth Soils

Basic characteristics Formation Particle size and texture Particles cluster to form structure Pore space filled with air/water Plants receive mineral nutrients from the soil

Geomorphology Tectonic uplift and volcanism build up landscapes Erosion and mass wasting lead to denudation that

produces sediment

Weather, climate and the evolution of adaptation

Weather, climate, and adaptation

Weather Climate

13

Describing vegetation14

Methods for describing vegetation Community basics Describing communities

Species richness Evenness (diversity) Physiognomy The importance of time

Biomes15

Global vegetation patterns Biome basics Biome descriptions Using your knowledge of biomes

Plants as ecosystem players16

Plants and ecosystem processes Ecosystem basics Biogeochemical cycles

Carbon in ecosystems Nitrogen: the major nutrient

Succession17

Succession Succession basics Disturbance

Primary succession Secondary succession

Wind Water Disease Humans Fire* Non-human animals*

Colonization and replacement

Succession18

Fire and invasive plants Disturbance: Fire

Fire behavior and regimes Fire adaptations

Meristem location Meristem protection Seed adaptations

Post-fire invasion Cheatgrass in temperate shrublands Buffelgrass in deserts

Special problems associated with pyrogenic plants: Temperate shrublands in California

Herbivory19

Herbivory Herbivory basics

Types of herbivores Herbivory affecting vegetation and plant evolution Herbivory can have effects over many scales

Herbivory at the level of individuals Amount and plant part consumed is important Different plants respond differently

Resistance Avoidance Tolerance

Herbivory and plant populations Herbivore preference can affect abundance

Livestock grazing in southern Arizona Bark beetles and conifers in the western U.S. Mesquite invasion of desert grasslands

Paleoecology20

Paleoecology Paleoecology basics Tools for reconstructing past vegetation

Macro and microfossils Lakes and bogs Packrat middens

Tree rings Historical ecology

Lecture title

“Nothing else looks anything like this!”