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
    • Trees of the Wasatch
    • Shrubs of the Wasatch
    • Invasives
  • Biomes
    • Biome Overview
    • Climate diagrams
    • Vegetation sight-seeing trip
    • Biome images
  • Models
  • Lab
Still in preparation - check back soon
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Topic 29 - ​R​ emembering Utah's past and envision Utah tomorrow - what pioneers saw before, what we see today, and what our children will see tomorrow
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Essential elements from Topic 29:
Over the past two centuries, there have been significant changes in the composition and distributions of Utah's plant communities. Most of these changes are the result of human activities and/or are the consequences of our policies and management decisions. In this lecture, we will 
  1. Describe Utah's vegetation around the Salt Lake Valley at the time that time pioneers arrived in the 1840's and the significant changes that occurred during the first 50 years of white man's settlement. Here we must understand the climate that the pioneers were familiar with and how that contrasted with the environment that they found in Utah.
  2. Use repeat photography to see what kinds of changes occurred from the mid 19th century to the mid 20th century.
  3. Understand the changes in Utah vegetation that occurred in association with increased grazing (cattle and sheep) and a fire-prevention policy.
  4. Recognize the consequences of cheatgrass invasion on the semi-arid and arid regions of Utah from 1880 through today. Here it is important to understand how changes in plant composition have interacted to increase fire frequencies.
  5. See the changes that have taken place along the Colorado River and other riparian zones of southern Utah over the last century. As a result of changing climate over this period, it is clear that invasive species have increased in abundance during that time and that the distributions of many native species have expanded northward.
  6. Learn about Envision Utah and Mountain Accord, two non-profit organizations, working to help frame the questions and provide planning opportunities to be considered in urban development, watershed protection, and improving air and water quality to sustain Utah's future.


Click here to download PDF of slides associated with Topic 29
Click here to view YOUTUBE videos on Topic 29
Jim Ehleringer, University of Utah