EA173 PO - Ecology of Streams, Lakes and Wetlands with Lab

When Offered: Offered alternate years; next offered spring 2027.
Instructor(s): M. Los Huertos
Credit: 1

This lecture and laboratory course explores the physical and biological patterns and processes of inland waters. We begin by reviewing the hydrologic cycle and discussing the physical processes that occur in headwater streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs and estuaries. Early seminars introduce the chemical processes and ‘signatures’ of headwaters and gaining surface waters. The course is structured to focus on different types of systems separately, e.g. streams, lakes, wetlands and estuaries while demonstrating that many of the same ecological processes and phenomena occur in each, i.e., biogeochemical cycling, controls on primary production, evolutionary selection, community patterns, population dynamics and food web structure. The most visible taxa in aquatic systems will be introduced including algae, plants, fish, birds, amphibians and reptiles via laboratory and field work. The course will discuss how drinking, irrigation, recreation, transportation, flood control and power generation compete for water resources, altering the ecology of inlands ecosystems. Case studies will integrate ecological sub-disciplines while highlighting the human-nature conflicts in freshwater systems. Students interested in watershed and marine systems will find the course extremely useful in their understanding of how various biota co-exist in these seemingly simple systems. There will be two weekend field trips for the course. Letter grade only. Prerequisites: BIOL 041E PO or EA 030 PO plus one lab course or CHEM 001B PO or one semester of statistics. May be repeated twice for credit.

Satisfies the following General Education Requirement(s), subject to conditions explained in the Degree Requirements section of this Catalog:
Area 2