BIO 333 - Ecological Botany (4)

Prerequisites: Must have a C- or better in BIO 110 , BIO 111 , and BIO 112 , or permission.

Ecological Botany is the study of strategies employed by species in the plant kingdom ranging from algae to flowering plants to survive in their environment. These strategies involve complex interactions with both biotic and abiotic components of an ecosystem. This course uses plants to understand ecological interactions and the ecological interactions to understand plant biology. Students will learn basic botanical classification systems and how the ecology of an organism influences where an organism fits into this classification system. In addition, students will learn the basic tools used to sample and study plant populations with an emphasis on prairie and freshwater ecosystems. In the service learning portion of the lab, students will collect and analyze data for local environmental interests. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to identify and classify major groups of plants, identify plant guilds and discuss how species function in an ecosystem, recognize how the environment influences plant evolution, understand ecosystem process at all ecological scales (individual, population, community, ecosystem). In addition, students will be able to compile, analyze, and interpret scientific lab experiments.