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).
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
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
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
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