Forest Communities and Ecosystems

Forests are the most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems on earth and are also highly valued due to their natural resources. Forest ecosystems support complex interactions among constituents of the atmosphere, the forest, and the underlying geology, and they are critical to the global carbon balance. This program will provide an overview of forest ecosystems, the conditions under which forest ecosystems are established and sustained, and the biology and ecology of forest succession, nutrient cycling, trophic organization, and species coexistence. This program spans two quarters with fall quarter learning focused on the definitive element of forests: trees and associated plant communities, and winter quarter focused on forest animals and their population biology and community ecology. 

In fall, our work will focus on disturbance ecology (including wildfire), physical geography, biogeochemistry, carbon, and nutrient cycling in these ecosystems. We will examine the pools and fluxes of organic and inorganic nutrients in intact forests, and the major disturbances and abiotic drivers of change that threaten and diversify forest landscapes in the Pacific Northwest. We will also examine forest ecosystem science in forests worldwide, identifying unifying themes for forests, forest disturbances, and ecological change. 

Our lectures and field labs will emphasize the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula and Mount Rainier National Park, with a multiple-day field trip at the beginning of the quarter. Students will gain field experience with long-term studies in local permanent plot experiments and studies. Students will also acquire experience with various sampling techniques that are used to measure nitrogen, water, and carbon in forested ecosystems in lab exercises in forest biogeochemistry. Weekly seminars will focus on reading a major biogeochemistry text and understanding scientific articles from the primary literature. Each student will develop a scientific research proposal throughout the fall quarter. We will also visit forests to examine the impacts of anthropogenic influences on temperate rainforest ecosystems. Readings and guest lectures will introduce students to major ecological and biogeochemistry issues for temperate rainforests.

Winter quarter will focus on forest animal communities and will build on fall quarter learning of forest plant communities by gaining a better understanding of the relationship between plant and animal ecology in forest ecosystems. We will investigate population regulation, animal community assembly and coexistence, as well global patterns of forest biodiversity. We will also learn about forest management and conservation practices that focus on biodiversity conservation.

Field and lab work will focus on animal biodiversity and taxonomy in Pacific Northwest forests. Students will build on fall quarter field work in local permanent plots by learning standard field methods for studying forest animals. We will learn foundational analytical approaches for estimating animal abundance and diversity as well as analytical methods for investigating relationships between plant and animal communities. We will also use publicly available datasets to analyze population changes over time and space. 

Learning will be assessed via quizzes, writing and discussion of assigned seminar readings, documentation of field and lab work via a field and lab journal, in-class work, homework assignments, and the completion of an independent project.