Biology 492-002.  Mount St. Helens Field Seminars [B]. 1 cr.

Requirements:

1.  Field Journal. You must keep a field notebook in which you write notes and observations from each trip.

2.  Writing assignments.  For each of the five trips, you will need to write a summary of what you learn.

Details.

  1. These write-ups are due one week after the trip. However, I need to make alternative arrangements (TBA) if you're on the July 29 trip.
  2. All write-ups must be typed (if you include figures they can be hand-drawn)
  3. Content. I want you to write a review of each trip. The review should include several things:

a)      A description of the trip: where and when you went; what it was like there who the trip leader was.

b)      I want you to review findings, discoveries, and lessons discovered through science or art. For several of the trips, these findings are likely to be scientific or natural history findings made by scientists. As references for this, you should get information from the trip leader, any handouts provided, and readings, if assigned.  On other trips, such as the photography seminar, these things may be artistic, or have to do with viewing the landscape from a new perspective, etc.

c)      I also want to here your own findings - interesting observations, anything you find especially interesting, etc.

d)      If I assign a reading, you must use that reading in your write up in a non-trivial way.

Think of this as an expanded restaurant review in which you might describe the context of your review (you visited the restaurant on several occasions accompanied by so and so, the mood was slithy one night, gimbly the other), you evaluate the menu offerings, etc.

    4. Format.    Papers have to be minimum of 3pp single spaced, 12pt font no more than 1" margins, and no more than 6 pp.

I still need to work something out for the July 29 field trip, since that's the last day of classes.

 

Trip 1: Old growth forest as seen from the canopy crane.
Leader: Ken Bible, University of Washington

Required readings:
1. The following three research Fact Sheets

a. Biodiversity - epiphytes and birds
b. Hemlock dwarf mistletoe (btw, you'll be standing under a lot of mistletoe on this trip..)
c. Ecophysiology of Conifers.
(also available at http://depts.washington.edu/wrccrf/Research/Research.html)

2. Shaw, D.C. et al 2004. Ecological setting of the Wind River Old Growth Forest. Ecosystems 7: 427-439.
Optional readings:

1. The remaining research fact sheets.
2. Van Pelt, R. and Nadkarni, N.M. 2004. Development of canopy structure in Pseudotsuga menziesii forests in the southern Washington Cascades. Forest Science 50: 326-341.  (This paper will also be a required reading for the July 14 trip with Dr. Bishop).

Resources:
Wind River Canopy Crane Research Facility web page: http://depts.washington.edu/wrccrf/
Nalini Nadkarani, The Evergreen State College - Canopy Pioneer and inventor of Canopy Barbie: http://academic.evergreen.edu/n/nadkarnn/


Trip 2: Buckwheats and Blues.  July 2.
Leader: Robert Michale Pyle.
Required Readings:
There were no required readings for this trip.

Recommended books and resources:
1. Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide. 1997. Robert Michael Pyle
2. The Butterflies of Cascadia: A Field Guide to All the Species of Washington, Oregon, and Surrounding Territories. 2002. by Robert Michael Pyle.
(Plus many other books by Dr. Pyle).

 

Trip 3: Destruction and Rebirth at Mount St. Helens. July 7-8

Leader: Fred Swanson

Required Readings:
Swanson, F.J. and J. J. Major. 2005. Physical events, environments, and geological-ecological interactions at Mount St. Helens: March 1980-2004. In: Ecological Responses to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Dale, V.H., F.J. Swanson and C.M. Crisafulli (Eds.). Springer.

Recommended books and resources:

Consider buying the book Ecological Responses to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens by Dale et al. It is an authoratative and fairly comprehensive look at the ecological research that has occurred at Mount St. Helens.  

Trip 4: Geology and Biology of Mount St. Helens South Side. July 14.

Leader: John Bishop

Required Readings:
del Moral, R., D.M. Wood, J.H. Titus. 2005. Proximity, microsites, and biotic interactions during early succession & ecological responses to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. (V. H. Dale, F. Swanson & C. Crisafulli, eds). Springer-Verlag. pp 93-110. Focus reading sections regarding vegetation on lahars.

 

 

Trip 5: Photography in the eye of the volcano. July 21-22.

Leader: Gary Braasch

Recommended books and resources:

None 

Trip 6. Biological reassembly on the Pumice Plain. July 29.

Leader: John Bishop

Required Readings:
Readings for Trip 3 and Trip 4 (above) - Read the portions specific to the Pumice Plain and Debris Avalanche

 

Bishop, J.G., W.F. Fagan, J.D. Schade and C.M. Crisafulli. 2005. Spatially structured insect herbivory and its effects on primary succession. In Dale, V.H., F. Swanson, and C.M. Crisafulli, eds. Mount St. Helens ecological research: Ecological recovery of Mount St. Helens after the 1980 eruption Note surprising effect of caterpillars on lupins, and the even more surprising avoidance by caterpillars of high density lupin areas.

 

25 years of Ecological Change at Mount St. Helens SQuick two page overview of change at Mount St. Helens.