Plant Ecology in a Changing World
  • Topics
    • Topic Overview
    • Biomes and Climates in a Changing World >
      • Adaptation, biodiversity, and environment
      • Climate constrains plant distributions
      • Biome and climate relationships
      • Deserts
      • Grassland, savanna, and shrub biomes
      • Forest biomes
      • Alpine and tundra biomes
    • Plant adaptation >
      • Plant microclimate 1
      • Plant microclimate 2
      • Leaf energy budgets
      • Water movement through the soil-plant continuum
      • Principles of photosynthesis
      • Photosynthesis responses to light and temperature
      • Environmental stresses limit resource capture and use
      • Nutrients in the environment
      • Adaptation to environmental stress
    • Resource Allocation Changes with Environment >
      • Architecture and canopy processes
      • Plant phenology and resource allocation enhance performance
      • Leaf economic spectrum
      • Life history and reproduction
      • Defense against herbivory
      • Plant competition
    • Plant Responses to a Changing World >
      • Global changes occurring today
      • Invasive species
      • Atmospheric CO2 impacts plant
      • C3/C4 photosynthesis and climate
      • Climate change and the global carbon cycle
      • Climate warming and its impacts
    • Engineering Plant Communities >
      • Remember Utah's past and envision our future
      • Restoration ecology
      • Managed ecosystems
      • Utah urban ecology
      • Urban ecological futures
  • Assignments
    • Assignment Overview
    • Discussion
    • Problem sets
    • Ecology & Global Changes
    • Plant ecology policy
    • Defense of policy
    • Exam #1
    • Exam #2
  • Campus
    • Campus Overview
    • Grasses
    • Green infrastructure >
      • GI Overview
      • Stormwater >
        • GI 1
        • GI 2
        • GI 3
        • GI 4
        • GI 10
      • Green roof
      • Pollinator >
        • Pollinator species
    • Conifers
    • Deciduous
    • Invasives
  • Biomes
    • Biome Overview
    • Climate diagrams
    • Vegetation sight-seeing trip
    • Biome images
  • Models
  • Lab


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Plant Ecology Laboratory (BIOL 5465) is a separate
​3-unit laboratory class with field trips. The field trip experiences are designed to introduce students to ecological gradients in northern Utah, ranging from coniferous forests in the Wasatch Mountains to the salt deserts of western Utah and from near pristine ecosystems through urban ecosystems. Students are also expected to work in groups to design and defend a work proposal. Each experience is designed to develop critical thinking, analytical, writing, and oral presentation skills. 


Jim Ehleringer

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A six-module laboratory and field course

Picture
  • Coniferous forests of the Wasatch Mountains (Big Cottonwood Canyon field trip; upper and lower limit tree distributions on north- and south-facing slopes; site water balance and plant distribution modeling)
  • Grassland and oak shrublands of the lower Wasatch Mountains (Red Butte Canyon field trip; line transects for plant community characterization; DBH sampling to estimate tree ages; sun-shade leaf evaluations)
  • Salt desert communities of western Utah (Tooele Valley and Skull Valley field trip; line transects to characterize plant distributions along salinity gradients; determining soil salinities and nitrate concentrations; evaluating leaf carbon isotope variations to assess stomatal constraints and photosynthetic pathways)
  • Campus as a Living Lab (structure and leaf characteristics of dominant trees in forest ecosystems across North America, Europe, and Asia)
  • Analytical training and theoretical principles of isotope ratio mass spectrometry, gas chromatography, and elemental analyzers with applications to solid, liquid, and gas samples
  • Developing, assembling, presenting, and evaluating a proposal 
Jim Ehleringer, University of Utah