This course explores plants biology through the lens of climate change, and in parallel, explore climate change through the lens of plant biology. You will learn a lot about both plant biology and climate change, come to appreciate the science of each, and most importantly, understand their interactions and how much that affects your lives both now and in the future.

The interactions of plant biology and climate change have significant impacts on biodiversity and environmental quality/sustainability; food quality, quantity, and security; and human health and disease. From an appreciation of this science, you will be better equipped to understand the social and political challenges and choices that you must make now and in the future.

Instructor(s): Seemann
Typically offered: Every Spring
Credits: 3
Format: Lecture and discussion
Grading: Based on quizzes and exams.

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Typically offered: Fall alternate years, odd

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Plants are the foundation of Earth's terrestrial landscapes and critical to human civilizations. In this course we explore the evolution of morphological, physiological, and genomic traits associated with the shift of plants onto land from aquatic ancestors, and the major innovations leading to the rise of flowering plants. We discuss how plants interact with animals and fungi and how they influence global biogeochemistry. Laboratories explore the diversity of morphological and anatomical traits of living and extinct plants, apply phylogenetic methodology to morphological and molecular characters, and discuss the latest exciting research in plant evolution.

Instructor(s): Goffinet and Lewis

Typically offered: Spring alternate years, even

Credits: 4

Format: 3 h lecture, 3 h lab

Grading: Lecture: quizzes, homework, midterm, final; Lab: projects, write-ups, oral presentations, lab quizzes

Bryophytes and lichens are significant components of today's biodiversity, contribute essential ecosystem functions and can even be major players in shaping changes in global climate. This course explores the morphological diversity of bryophytes and lichens, the history of their diversification, the spatial distribution of their species diversity, their ecological significance, their interaction with their symbionts and their role in biomonitoring. The laboratory sessions provide opportunities to explore the body of bryophytes and lichens, and discuss recent primary research advancing our understanding of their biology.

Instructor(s): Goffinet

Typically offered: Spring alternate years, odd

Credits: 4

Format: 3 h lecture, 3 h lab

Grading:

Algae are often thought of as either the answer to our fuel crisis, as nuisances, or the cause of harmful blooms. Algae are diverse organisms forming the foundation of marine and terrestrial ecosystems. In this class we discuss the roles of algae in shaping past and present ecosystems, how they diversified over evolutionary history, their economic uses, and how they are impacted by human activities. The lab emphasizes identification and properties of different types of algae, and optional weekend field trips provide first hand experience seeing algae in their natural environments. We also read and discuss the textbook and selected primary literature.

Instructor(s): Lewis

Typically offered: Fall alternate years, even

Credits: 4

Format: 3 h lecture, 3 h lab

Grading: Lecture: quizzes, midterm, take home final; Lab: projects, write-ups, oral presentations, lab quizzes

Instructor(s): TBD

Typically offered: Variable

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Instructor(s): TBD

Typically offered: Fall Spring

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In this course, we learn about the ancient Earth and the organisms that inhabited it. The lectures cover two general areas: 1) concepts and methods in paleobiology, and 2) the chronology of life’s history as documented in the fossil record. We discuss all types of organisms, although the focus is on animals, and to a lesser extent plants. In lab, students learn to identify and interpret major groups of fossils using (mostly) real fossil specimens.

Instructor(s): Bush

Typically offered: Spring alternate years, even

Credits: 4

Format: 3 credits of lecture, 1 credit of lab, 1 field trip (weather permitting)

Grading: Grading is based on 2 midterm exams, the final exam, and the lab assignments

The biggest challenges of being a plant are that they can't go inside when it gets too hot or too cold, they can't move around till they find something to eat, they can't pick up and leave when there is nothing left to drink where they currently are, and when a bug comes to eat them, they can't call an Uber. Rather, plants have to figure out how to take light from the sun, carbon dioxide from the air, and water and nutrients from the soil under the often really tough environmental conditions of where the seed that produced them happen to sprout. Plants have to figure out how to do this in a desert when it is really hot, or in the alpine, where it is really cold. They have to figure out how to do this when there is almost no light when they are trying to grow at the bottom of a tropical rainforest, or when there is too much light (yes, avoiding sunburn is a real problem for plants too!). Plants have evolved an amazing array of physiological processes and adaptations that allow them to not only cope with the many challenges of the earth's diverse environments, but to prosper in the most brutal of climates, to make the world the green place we see when we step outside, and to be the fundamental source of food for our existence. And as if they don’t have enough to do just to survive, plants serve on the front line of fighting back against the human-caused rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is driving global climate change.

Instructor(s): Seemann
Typically offered: Fall alternate years, even (note: this course is currently not being taught due to high demand for EEB 2250)
Credits: 3
Format: 3 hr Lecture
Grading: Grading is based on a midterm exam, a final, and occasional quizzes.

This course focuses on the botany, systematics, and ecology of Connecticut's native and exotic plants. Students learn basic field botany skills including: writing detailed field notebooks, identifying local plants, making field presses, mounting herbarium records, and recognizing common New England habitats. This course relies primarily on outdoor field trips and is well suited to students who are interested in careers within wildlife management/field biology or who simply desire an in-depth knowledge of the nature surrounding UConn.

Instructor(s): TBD

Typically offered: Summer

Credits: 3

Format: Lecture, Laboratory, daily field trips

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