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

An upper division lecture course in plant ecology, spanning from ecophysiology and mechanisms of adaptation to climate, biome distributions, and the response of plants and communities to the many global changes that are occurring today

​This course is designed to provide students with a rigorous introduction to ecophysiology and adaptation, while at the same time introducing them to both the changes affecting plants today and to the ways in which this basic knowledge is applied to meet societal needs. 
Adaptation, evolution, plants as integrated systems, climate change, and sustainability, are key concepts melded into lectures throughout the course.

Jim Ehleringer,    University of Utah,

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Lecture topic areas

Picture
  • Biomes and Climates of the World  (The world as we see it, 7 lectures)
  • Plant Adaptation  (Environment and resource capture, 9 lectures)
  • Resource Utilization  (Integrating plant characteristics to enhance performance, 6 lectures)
  • Plant Responses to a Changing World  (Sustainability or changes, 6 lectures)
  • Engineering Plant Communities  (What we design as plant communities, 4 lectures)
Jim Ehleringer, University of Utah