Ecology

This class introduces students to the most important ecological concepts and key questions across levels: global, ecosystem, community, population, and individual/physiological -- including interactions between species and the environment, adaptation and evolution, life history strategies/population growth, ecosystem approaches, and global-scale patterns, problems, and solutions. 

This class introduces students to interdisciplinary concepts in sustainable aquaculture. Aquaculture is the practice of farming aquatic species including kelp, seaweed, mussels, clams, oysters, shrimp, and fishes. This course will take an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the people/culture, animal/plant biology, economics, methods, and challenges for aquaculture with a focus on sustainability by growing species from different levels of the food chain together.

Terrestrial plants have been present on this planet for 440 million years and play a critical role as the basis of the terrestrial food chain. This course introduces students to the diversity of plant life and how plants have evolved and adapted to their respective environments. Topics include plant structure and growth, species interaction, community ecology, and succession.

This course examines the problem of maintaining biological diversity in a human dominated world within the aquatic ecosystems. Emphasis is on the biological concepts involved in population biology, genetics and community ecology, and their use in conservation and management of biodiversity. We will investigate the impacts of human-induced climate change, pollution, introduction of exotic species, over fishing, and endangered species conservation.

This course is designed to provide students with perspective on the impacts of exotic species, those organisms that are not native to a geographical area, primarily within Southern California but will also cover major invasions in the USA. The ecological, genetic, and evolutionary impacts of the invasions will be explored. Additionally, the management and control of exotic species will be discussed.

Students will learn how to manage, analyze, and visualize environmental science data using real world datasets and understand theory and applications of statistical techniques. Quantitative skills will be developed in Microsoft Excel and R/R studio.