(Upload on October 5 2022) [ 日本語 | English ]
Mount Usu / Sarobetsu post-mined peatland
From left: Crater basin in 1986 and 2006. Cottongrass / Daylily
A few pointers on reports and exams
Reports [ 00 | 01 | 02 | 09·08 | 10·11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | Excellent reports | Entrance exam ]
The basic rules for the submission of reports on my lectures.
|
AttentionIf I deem that you make the following matter(s) in your report, I will not accept the report.
Queries: |
Students of which major is ecology
Students of which majors are not ecology
|
All students
|
|
|
In this term (second term, 2014), your scores are graded based on the reports. The reporting assignment is described below.
|
|
In this term (second term, 2013), your scores are graded based on the reports. The reporting assignment is described below.
The reporting assignment is described below.
The score will be graded based on the results of reports described below. All attendance must answer the relevant question.Select question 1 or 2, and answer it.Question 1
Submit your report that indicates the evidences on faults and corrects the faults, as follows. |
(Remarks) Question 2Visit websites managed by Tsuyuzaki. Select a couple of pages that are related the this lecture (in the broad sense), and correct the mistakes. You may point out typographical and/or grammatical erros. However, grade will be higher if you point out logical errors. Write the name of website(s). Copy the part(s) that you want to correct. Explain why that is incorrect. Show the amendment. |
How to write the term paper is explained in Japanese on that page, because all the students who take this course are Japanese in this term.
This year a few quizzes were provided every talk.
October 9 20011) Show an example of "ecotone" and explain why you think that is an ecotone. B
October 16 20011) Find out one environmental gradient that determines plant community pattern. Explain how you consider that gradient affects the pattern.
October 23 2001
Part 1. October 30 20011) If you have not enough money, how do you create the most diverse ecosystem? A
November 6 2001
1) How can you apply "diamond graph" on your research? November 13 2001
1) Cluster analysis is not used for community ecology only. Show one example of cluster analysis that is applied to analyze in the other research areas. Explain the results. November 20 20011) Report the difference between DCA (or CA) and PCA. Explain when we should apply PCA rather than DCA. B
|
November 27 20011) Ordination is often used for social science. Show one example of that. Then, explain how the result is.
December 4 20011) Show one example of GIS analysis. Explain why it is interesting for you.
December 11 2001What is the largest disturbance in Hokkaido? Indicate one and explain why you think that is the largest. A January 15 20021) What is 'biotope'? Is this a kind of 'restoration ecology'? Answer. Then, explain why you think so. B
January 22 2002Part 1. January 29 20021. Consider the most abundant seedbank. Where do we find out it? Explain why you think so. |
Explained in JapaneseIn the winter semester of 2001, a paper for evaluation is given to you instead of a writing examination, as follows:1. Select "three" quizes that you answer. 2. Summrize the answers within one page for each quiz. 3. Indicate the references you read. |
The challenge to answer the difficult quizes indicated by "A" (most difficult) and "B" (difficult) in quiz section will be scored higher.
Attention for exam in 2001
|
In the winter of 2000, a paper for evaluation is given to you instead of a writing examination, as follows:
1. In the lecture, I did not introduce some items shown by "!" in the contents above. Select one item and summarize it based on a couple of references, i.e., scientific papers and/or textbooks.
The scientific papers must be originated from: Nature, Science, American Naturalist, Ecology, Ecological Applications, Ecological Monographs, Journal of Ecology, Journal of Applied Ecology, Journal of Vegetation Science, Plant Ecology, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, and Biological Conservation. (All of those journals have kept in the GSEES library.) Papers must be new!!! This means the papers must be published after 1995.
2. After the summary, write your opinion on the paper.
I have seen a few papars that express "I just agree all!!!" This kind of opinion is not scored. You should propose "constructive suggestion". There are no restrictions of number of pages. However, it is desirable and fine that the explanation should be concise and to the point.
More than five years have passed ... [ English exam ]
First Midterm Study Guide1. Definitions - You will be asked to define or demonstrate your understanding of many of the following terms: ecotone, vegetation zone, azonal vegetation, corridor, patches (disturbance, remnant, resource, regenerated, etc.), climax community, individualistic hypothesis, climax climax hypothesis, indicator species, Grime strategies (ruderal, competitive, stress-tolerant), edge effect.2. Critique this statement: Climax communities in the forests of western Washington are rare or absent. Is it true or false? Support your answer. 3. You have information available to you in several places concerning the locations and characteristics of several vegetation zones. For any two zones observed thus far during this course, you may be asked to complete a table or questionnaire that could include such information as: typical associated canopy, shrub and ground layer species, geographic locations, environmental requirements (precipitation, temperature, snow, etc.), and typical associations. 4. You may be asked to provide examples of species we have observed that indicate particular extremes of environmental conditions. Such conditions might include: temperature (hot or cold), moisture (wet or dry in particular locations), salinity, or soil pH. We may also ask you to identify species that might indicate particular disturbance regimes (e.g., over-grazing, fire, logging, trampling, etc.). 5. The biota of a particular location is determined by many factors. One less-appreciated factor pertains to patch qualities. Several patch qualities may be listed and you will be asked to comment on how that factor influences the number of species or some other aspect of diversity in the patch. Such patch qualities include: patch size, shape (ration of edge to area), number of similar patches in a landscape, degree of patch isolation, level of patch resources, condition of patch ecotone, age of patch etc. 6. You may be asked to draw, label or discuss a Grimean triangle. You may be asked to place either species or associations within such a triangle. 7. You should understand the geographic and environmental relationship among the tree species of western Washington. 8. We may provide you with a graph showing the distribution of species vs. some environmental gradient and ask that you answer questions concerning the graph. 9. Place associations from one side of the Cascades into their proper relative position on a mosaic chart, that is with respect to both moisture and elevation (temperature-growing season). 10. Many factors control species richness (see Q.5). Explain how each of the following may control the number of species in a habitat: habitat diversity, resource abundance, disturbance, patch size and age, patch isolation, patch shape, and ecotone qualities. 11. Most vegetation in our region is dominated by trees. Describe at least four types of vegetation in our area dominated by shrubs and four more dominated by herbs. Briefly suggest the reasons for these departures and whether the condition will persist through time. 12. We will provide you with groups of several species that you have seen and ask you to arrange each group in several ways. For example, we might list several ferns and ask you to rank them in order of drought stress. We might list several common understory species and make the same request. 13. Contrast the views of Clements and Gleason with respect to the degree of community overlap, the degree of coevolution and the role of competition. 14. Suggest a particular Washington plant community that would occur near each of the apices of a Grimean triangle. Second Midterm Study Guide1. A new super weed appears from outer space to terrorize human kind. What might its five most important characteristics be? List five (5) weed species that are extremely nasty in western Washington and stage why.
List five ways in which weeds in general can be useful and for each use list two species that are so used. 3. Be prepared to discuss why a given species occupies a significantly different portion of the available landscape in different parts of its geographic range. Examples of such species include Arbutus, Abies grandis, and Tsuga heterophylla. You should come up with several others. 4. Be prepared to locate specific plant associations with respect to one another in relationship to the environment. For example, you may be asked to diagram the distribution of common associations that we will name on a mosaic diagram. 5. You should know what a weighted average is and suggest ways in which the concept is used. You'll probably be asked to calculate a weighted average, given some sample data. 6. For common species (those demonstrated in lab), you should be able to indicate those zones where the species typically occurs and additional zones in which it would not be unexpected. It is likely that such a question will be a matching type. 7. Discuss at least six ways in which a landscape is influenced so that succession does not result in climax communities similar to what occurred prior to European settlement. 8. What is a rationale for identifying plant associations and for constructing keys to these associations? What are some problems associated with such keys? 9. Discuss the method of naming plant associations. In particular, from looking at the array of associations on a mosaic diagram, why might you sometimes get the mistaken notion that a species has a bimodal distribution? If associations are meant to reflect close fits to the environment, what would be the ideal type of species to use to name an association? 10. Your pasture is infested with a single noxious weed. List 5 strategies or techniques you might use. Discuss why some these would be ineffective if you had a mixture of several noxious weeds. 11. Describe three mechanisms of succession. In particular, what does each predict will be the mechanism of species replacement. Also, contrast the initial floristic composition model with the relay model of succession. 12. Early succession is affected by several factors. Be prepared to discuss how each of the following might influence succession: disturbance size, intensity and frequency, degree of isolation, habitat stress, residual species. 13. Describe what is meant by: arrested succession, accelerated succession and deflected succession. What factors might militate against several successions in the same area converging to a similar vegetation type (association)? 14. Indicators may be of several sorts. These include taxonomic (species, genera, families, etc.), strategies (ala Grime), and growth-forms. You should have a good working definition of each type and be prepared to suggest the virtues and short-comings of each. For example, growth-forms are very useful if little is known about the flora, but cannot be used on a fine scale. 15. List the categories of a simple descriptive classification of growth forms and compare to a functional classification. What are the fundamental differences in the intentions of these two approaches? What are the implications for using either of these systems for interpreting the landscape. Second Midterm - Autumn 1992 (in part)3. List 4 actions that you could take to increase the rate at which a vacant lot could be improved into a natural area. Do not include such factors as picking up the discarded bottles or washing machines.4. Define each term, then state how each may best be used and what is its major drawback. (12 pts).
a. Taxonomic Indicator: Best Use: _____Major Drawback: Lab Final, Study Guide Autumn 19921. You should know the main wetland systems and the major classes within each system. For each class of palustrine wetlands, what are some common associations and dominant species?2. List three non-seral shrub-dominated associations found in western Washington. For each, list the dominant species and indicate the environmental conditions controlling the vegetation. 3. You could be asked to fill in the mosaic chart. High-elevation associations and forest types are examples. 4. There will be about 20 species in an identification quiz. For each, you could be asked any or all of the following questions: name one or more associates; which zone; name an association; what is indicator value; what are its uses? 5. You could be asked to fill in a table with species that indicate particular conditions. 6. I could list some associations, then ask for typical species found in the association, other than those named. Study guide -- Final examination, Autumn Quarter 1992Note: any subject covered on earlier guides are fair game for this exam. The final will concentrate on material from the last third of the course and on synthesis among aspects of the course.Wetlands1. List the values of particular types of wetlands, being sure to make a clear distinction between estuarine and interior fresh water wetlands.2. Define these wetland terms: marsh, swamp, bog, meadow, mudflat, persistent emergent class, scrub-shrub class, forested class, etc. 3. You should be able to diagram or draw profile diagrams from open water to the uplands in either estuaries or fresh water systems and to name characteristic species. 4. In determining whether or not a site is a wetland, emphasis is placed on the "indicator" value of a species. First, what are the five indicator categories of the Fish & Wildlife service and how are they defined? Second, critique this concept, possibly with reference to the Klinka method. |
Biogeography5. You have the opportunity to reserve 10% of a large watershed from commercial logging for the purposes of preserving biotic diversity. How would you select the site, or sites? Consider both plants and animals in your answers. You should consider diversity, and answer such questions as the number, size and shape of reserves, the nature of ecotones and the availability of corridors (refer to SLOSS notes).6. You should know the definition of these biogeographic terms: equilibrium, extinction, colonization, relaxation, disharmony, barrier, corridor. 7. A. Explain a) what is the species-area curve and b) why you should expect it to be an increasing function. Will it always be a smooth curve? Explain. __B. You should be able to draw colonization/extinction curves and predict the relative equilibrium value for different kinds of islands, barriers, and species. 8. Why are there so many rare species in Hawaii? Why is the flora disharmonious there? 9. From a list of "islands" you could be asked to explain why the habitat is considered to be an island. (For example, an oak tree is an island if you are an oak leaf miner.) You could be ask to discuss ways in which it differs from a "real" island. Management10. What is the "humpback model" of JP Grime? How can knowledge of the standing crop of a site relative to similar sites in the area be useful in management? If you know the relative standing crop and the nature of the curve for your type of vegetation, what management tactics could you apply to increase or decrease diversity? What problems might you face?11. How might you go about converting a small vacant lot into a small park? Assume that you have 2 years for study, site analysis and installing plants, but that funds are very limited. 12. What is naturalistic landscape creation? What advantages might this approach have over traditional methods? What might be some drawbacks in our region? 13. Form a plant perspective, what is environmental stress? Explain several indices that measure aspects of stress. When a system has been under some type of stress for a long time, then the stress is terminated, what might happen to the system? You should consider the nature of resilience, landscape factors that might affect recovery, changes to the habitat that have resulted from the stress, etc. Do you think that diversity, per se, is a good index of stress when dealing with land plant communities? Explain. 14. Discuss the differences between persistence, resistance and resilience. Model these three system properties as richness vs time, given disturbances of varied intensity and in a Grimean triangle. 15. Discuss the ways in which vegetation might respond to global warming. What are some major constraints on the ability of species to cope with such changes? Communities16. List several distinctly different non-seral shrub-dominated community types and several herb-dominated community types. For each, state the environmental factor or factors that permit these growth-forms to dominate and to persist.17. I may prepare two lists: canopy dominants and understory species dominants. You would be asked to match the lists and to place the associations on a mosaic diagram. 18. Distinguish between subalpine and alpine meadows. For each, describe three major associations. You may be given several associations and asked to characterize them in terms of growth form and to organize them along one or more environmental gradients. 19. I might provide you with a mosaic diagram in which the axes are not labeled and ask you to provide interpret the gradients implied by the locations of the plant associations. Succession20. Give some examples of arrested succession and discuss the mechanisms.21. A city lot is undergoing succession. Your goal is to reestablish a forest community. Under each of the following (example) conditions, what would you do? a) succession has been arrested by strong dominance of an exotic shrub such as Scot’s bloom; b) there are serious barriers to immigration; c) soils have become compacted over the years; d) all of the above. Assess the nature of the succession if left alone, then determine if you will be accelerating, deflecting, or correcting the succession tract. Give brief examples of your tactics. 22. Name some stochastic events and give examples about how they might alter succession. 23. Contrast facilitation with inhibition as succession mechanisms. What does each predict concerning the order and structure of succession? Are these concepts mutually exclusive? 24. List five major factors or processes that would produce a plant association distinct from the climatic climax type in lowland Puget Sound. 25. List 5 (five) factors that have influenced the landscape of Central Whidbey Island. Indicators26. The indicator species concept can be extended to higher taxa. In general, what might each of these taxa indicate in our region: Orchidaceae; Asteraceae; Poaceae; Carex; Vaccinium, shrub Rosaceae; Ericaceae. For each group, name a species that is an exception to the general rule.27. For each of conditions listed, list several excellent indicators for low, medium and high levels of the condition: soil moisture, soil pH, salinity, grazing, trampling, nutrients, light, fire, and bioclimatic zone. List other conditions that could be inferred from species present on a site. 28. You may well be asked to write a question that does not significantly overlap any question on the test, then outline your answer. The question will be assessed for degree of difficulty, and the answer graded for how well it responds to your question. Therefore, a partial answer to an excellent question is likely to score higher than an excellent answer to an easy question. Questions are generally more important than answers. EXAM SCORE: /110 Final examination - Autumn Quarter 1992 1. Consider a Palustrine Forested Wetland that is 10 ha in size and that surrounds a small pond with fringing vegetation. First, what two additional vegetation classes could be found between open water and the forest? (10 points)
Classes: 1. Palustrine______wetland. (Values a-e) 2. There are five (5) basic indicator categories in the US Fish & Wildlife Service system. List them: (10 points)
(a-e) __B. List three (3) factors that control or influence immigration rates to islands: (a-c) __C. Assume that you are studying a habitat island that had its biota destroyed by fire many years before. You study it for several years and conclude that the flora has reached biogeographic equilibrium. What factors might lead you to predict that this equilibrium might change during the next 100 years? Would you expect the number of species to remain constant once equilibrium has been reached? Why? 4. Predict the relative equilibrium number of plant species within A and B of the following cases, by ranking the cases from low equilibrium to high equilibrium number. In part C, which situation normally has the higher diversity (Assume that the latitude and general climate is the same in each case) (12 points): A. Oceanic Islands B. Habitat Islands
1. Small island distant from continent 1. Large climax forest surrounded by
A. Rank: (low), , , (high)
1. a. Several small reserves or b. Single large reserve of equal area Advantages: (a-d) What might be one drawback in our region? Drawback: 6. List five (5) diagnostic tools that you could use to infer that a community is under some form of stress (10 points) (a-e) 7. Global temperatures have varied considerably over the eons, at least by 6oC. Why are so many people worried about the prospects of a mere 2oC change in the next 50 years? (8 points) Give 1 single, best reason here: We believe that many plant species will be threatened with extinction by global warming. List four reasons that a particular species might become extinct. (These could be biological populational, or biogeographic reasons.) 8. Please write an excellent question concerning material covered in this course that is not covered on exam. (This question will be rated on a degree of difficulty scale, 1 to 4). |