INSTRUCTORWelcome to the web site for BI301! This course, which is taught at Oregon State University , covers selected topics related to human impacts on ecosystems. Because relatively few topics are discussed, coverage of the topics is more complete than in many, more traditional, environmental science courses, which cover a little bit about many topics. Information related to the course is available by clicking on the highlighted topics below. The course syllabus, which includes reading assignments for each week, is available by clicking syllabus. Full notes for most of the lecture topics are accessible by clicking the topic titles below, while a few are still being developed. For information on navigating to and through the topics, click "Navigate" here. For a discussion of the "philosophy" and workings of this home page, click "WEB" here.
One note about my philosophy in constructing this course supplement. Materials included are mostly text, rather than lots of pretty pictures. While this doesn't make for a particularly fancy "show," it does accomplish two things: (1) speeds your access to the information, since you don't have to wait for the graphics to load, and (2) avoids my having to obtain and update permission to display copyrighted information.
A second note: since I created this site, technology to support web sites has changed considerably. I haven't "upgraded" because this site is functional as it is (and upgrading would be a tremendous investment of time!). You might find navigating this site to be different than you are used to - -e.g., there aren't navigation bars that float along with content. However, you can always use the back or forward arrows at the bottom of each page to move around (and see the navigation link just above for more information), and, this introductory page contains links to all of the sections of the site -- use the "contents" button at the bottom of other sections to return to this page -- or bookmark it!
These materials are intended for on-screen use by students enrolled in BI 301 at OSU. Please do not print the pages! Formatting is "inefficient" in terms of paper use, in that I have left more space between blocks of text and have used larger fonts than are appropriate for printed materials; this with ease of reading on-screen in mind. You will receive handouts of materials such as study guides, old exams, and graphs and tables in class.
If you want help finding material that was covered on a given lecture day, click calendar. This will take you to a page where I provide links to relevant sections of this site for each lecture date (as it actually occurred, rather than as I HOPED it would occur). Remember, however, that these written materials include quite a bit of information that is not presented in lecture, and that you aren't "responsbile for" that additional material. If you go to the calender site and find that it isn't updated, please remind me and I'll do it.
Click on any of the following topics to move to them from here:
TOPICS
(I) Introduction
(II) Human population
(III) Agriculture
--The "Green Revolution "
-- Pesticides
--Land degradation (Grazing on public lands, erosion, salinization and waterlogging)
(IV) Air quality
-- General considerations and methods
--Focus on tropospheric ozone pollution
(V) Stratospheric ozone depletion
(VI) Global climate change (general background on greenhouse gases and trends inatmospheric concentration and emissions)
--Probabilities, ecological consequences, and human consequences and policies related to global climate change
(VII) Biological diversity
--Global patterns in deforestation and a look at what has happened in forests of the Pacific Northwest.
--Pacific Northwest -- what are the conventional approaches to logging and site preparation and their consequences, and how are they being changed?
STUDY GUIDES AND ADDITIONAL
REFERENCES
--Global climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion
Resource use reduction project -- Results from 2007 are listed here; there will be a new version for '08 once we've completed this project.
Click on "Navigate " for information on moving within and among these pages.
You may jump to the home page for Oregon State University by clicking "OSU" here. After visiting the OSU home page, you can return to this document by clicking on the "BACK" box in the toolbar near the top of your screen.
Click on "disclaimer" to access the official Oregon State University disclaimer statement. After reading the disclaimer, you can return to this document by clicking on the "BACK" box in the toolbar near the top of your screen.
Page maintained by Patricia Muir at Oregon State University. Page last updated October 30, 2007.
