BIOEE 4570 - [Limnology: Ecology of Lakes, Lectures]

(PBS-AS, BIO-AS)

Fall. Not offered: 2021-2022. Next offered: 2022-2023. 3 credits. Letter grades only (S/U grades with permission of instructor).

Prerequisite: BIOEE 1610 or written permission of instructor. Recommended prerequisite: introductory chemistry.

Staff.

Limnology is the study of fresh waters (and other inland, nonmarine environments). This course focuses on lakes and ponds as aquatic environments with distinct terrestrial boundaries where the interactions between organisms are often strong and adaptations to the aquatic environment easily recognized. Physical (light, temperature, and mixing) and chemical (dissolved elements and compounds) properties of lakes affect organisms in important ways, and lake organisms, likewise, influence the physical and chemical properties of their environment. Lakes are exciting environments for study in their own right and for gaining perspective on ecological and evolutionary processes in general.

Outcome 1: Understand how lakes with different basin shapes are formed, how basin shape and lake situation in the landscape and airscape influence physical water movement and the distribution of chemicals and organisms. Infer the dynamics of lakes of different in basin shapes and situations in the landscape.

Outcome 2: Understand how physical properties of lake water such as light penetration, viscosity, and turbulence determine the nature of interactions among organisms through competition, predation and parasitism.

Outcome 3: Interpret equations and graphs and will be able to use them to explain the outcomes of ecological interactions among organisms in lakes.

Outcome 4: Assemble the components of lake ecosystems into a coherent understanding of how the parts interact.

Outcome 5: Become familiar with experimental and synthetic approaches to gaining knowledge about lake dynamics.

Outcome 6: Assess the effects of human impacts on lake organisms and ecosystems, to understand the ecological processes underlying those effects, and to explain possible mitigation management actions.

Outcome 7: Appreciate lakes as exemplars of ecosystems and will understand how the interspecific interactions that take place in lakes provide models for understanding ecology more broadly.