Geography 433/533

Fire and Natural Disturbances

Fall, 2011

Lecture: Tues & Thurs, 2:00-3:20, in 260 Condon
 
Instructor: Daniel Gavin (dgavin@uoregon.edu)
Office: 110 Condon Hall; Phone: 346-5787
Office Hours: 1:30-2:30 in 110 Condon
 
Required field trip October 15-16
Lecture Schedule Tue & Thu 2-3:320 in 260 Condon

Lecture schedule is available here (and scroll to bottom of page for internet links)

Course Overview: Wildland fire is one of the most important natural disturbances of ecosystems.  It is also a disturbance that presents a risk to human society that is difficult to balance among competing interests.  This course will serve as an introduction to disturbance ecology with a focus on wildland fire.  Fire will be examined at many levels: the weather and fuel conditions that result in a range of fire behaviors, the effects of fire on vegetation and ecosystems, and the history of fire including its connection to long-term climate change.  We will study fire as an important process in all of the major biomes, not only the Pacific Northwest.  Other natural disturbances to be addressed include wind, insect outbreaks, ice storms, and drought, all of which have synergistic effects with fire.  The last portion of the class will address human use and suppression of fire, including specific management issues of fire in the Pacific Northwest.  Field trips will involve visits to a variety of forest types and recent fires.

Objectives of the course:

  • Understand the patterns and controls influencing natural disturbances over landscapes and through time.
  • Understand the basics of fire behavior and effects on species and ecosystems, including adaptations of species to fire.
  • Apply simulation models of fire on landscapes to understand how disturbance interacts with landscape elements and vegetation to produce landscape mosaics.
  • Examine the historical variability of fire in order to place the current fire landscape in a longer-term context.
  • Develop an in-depth knowledge in an area of fire science of your choice.
Assessment (see below for details):
  • Research paper on a topic of your choice. 35% of your total grade.
  • Field trip report: 10% of your total grade.
  • One homework exercise: 15% of your total grade.
  • Two exams: 20% and 20% of your total grade.

Course materials (weekly schedule will be posted during the summer):

  • Fire Ecology in Rocky Mountain Landscapes, by William Baker.
  • Additional materials will be compiled into a reading packet or posted on blackboard.uoregon.edu.

Expectations for the course
A. Attend lecture and field trips.  Repeated absences will be noted and, more importantly, you will miss crucial information that will be on the exams.
B.  During lecture please be respectful of everyone's learning experience.  This includes:
No talking amongst each other.  Please leave your social conversations for outside the classroom.  However, questions during lectures are encouraged.  If you have a question, raise your hand or catch me after class.
C.  Please don't leave in the middle of lecture. It is distracting for many people, including me. If you need to leave, then let me know before the lecture starts, then sit near an exit.
D.  Do not have your laptop open to surf the web.  Note-taking on laptops is OK.
Cheating, such as copying material from other students on tests, will result in failing the test at a minimum and I will pass the information on to the Dean of Students.  In serious cases, you will flunk the class or be expelled from the university.
E.  Plagiarizing.  Plagiarizing occurs when you copy materials from other sources without citing the source (i.e., taking credit for someone else’s work), or copy someone else’s lab.  All students should be familiar with the material in this guide on avoiding plagiarism (http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/plagiarism/students/).
F.  Incomplete policy.  An “I” grade will be given only under the most unavoidable circumstances.  I can only provide minimal extra help for completing an I grade.  Incomplete grades must be completed during the summer.
G.  Disabilities: I will accommodate all disabilities; please let me know early in the course what these may be. 
H.  We will be going on an overnight field trip on Oct 15 and 16. We will be camping in a primitive campground in tents. --The field trip will be followed up with a list of short questions due one week later (Field trip reports).  It is important to let me know ASAP if you have an unavoidable conflict.  Transportation will be provided in 2 or 3 vans (supported by attached fees).  Please be prepared for the weather, bring water and food (lunches), and sturdy walking shoes.  It can be significantly cooler and wetter in the areas we will be going. We will need to share camping gear with those who may not have it. Tent and sleeping bag rentals are available through UO Outdoor Programs. We will discuss these details in class. The trip will involve short hikes and some off-trail walking, and may be during cold and wet weather.


Research paper: Undergraduate students will write a synthetic review paper on the natural disturbance regime of a region.  The goal of this paper is to 1) synthesize at least two scientific disciplines and 2) address how scientific data are used in the public policy arena.  For example, a paper may address the disturbance regime of Douglas-fir forests of the western Cascades of Oregon (from historical and remote-sensing approaches) and how scientific understanding of these disturbances has influenced development of forest policy on federal land.  Or, the natural disturbance regime of the “sagebrush sea” of the Great Basin is poorly understood, yet this region has seen huge changes in vegetation cover.  The research paper would 1) review the evidence for the Great Basin disturbance regime from documentary evidence and tree-ring studies, 2) in light of this history, discuss what current restoration goals may be and the management practices occurring today, and 3) how management addresses natural disturbance regimes.  These papers may be based largely on existing review papers and government reports, but it is expected that the student will go to primary journals for the most current data and perspectives.  Undergraduate papers will be 10 to 12 pages double-spaced plus references and figures. Graduate students will complete a major research paper with an original research component.  These papers should have two elements: 1) a review component based entirely on peer-reviewed scientific literature, and 2) an original research component, where primary data is collected and analyzed.  The data may come from fieldwork, remote sensing, geospatial databases, or be a formal meta-analysis of existing literature.  The research paper is to be 15 to 18 pages double-spaced plus figures and references.  (35% of the total grade.)

The key to producing a quality review paper will be the research involved.  This requires going to a wide range of sources of information, and cite them properly as outlined in the UO Guide to Avoiding Plagiarism.  All source material should not be material produced to be distributed on the Web, but rather from material produced to be published by reputable publishers (i.e., books and journals).  The topic of the paper should have a focus on wildland fire and use scientific evidence, but the topic is your choice.  For example, fire regimes of a particular area or biome, aspects of particular management situation, etc.  It is OK to advocate in your paper, but it should be clear what is personal opinion (generally best to keep to a separate section of the paper).  Use evidence and examples to support any general statement. 

A preliminary, very brief, outline of the research paper is due on or before Nov 03.  This should describe the major sections of the paper, and a list of references (as described above) demonstrating you have looked into the feasibility of your idea for a research paper.  There is no required format for your paper, but I suggest using headings such as 'Introduction', headings specific to different themes of the paper, and 'Conclusions.' Be sure to state clearly the goal of the review in the Introduction.

Field trip report: Undergraduate students will write a one-page (double-spaced) answer to questions posed at the start of the field trip.  These reports are to help teach note-taking skills of natural environments.  Alternative assignments regarding the assigned reading will be given to students who cannot attend the field trip.  The alternative will be to draw a comparison between two recently assigned readings and add additional interpretation to the readings.  Graduate students will analyze small data sets collected during the field trip.  These data sets will be on tree seedling density in permanent plots established at each of the field sites.  These results will be presented in class. (10% total grade).

One homework exercise involving computer simulation of disturbance dynamics:  The graduate students will be required to perform a complex statistical analysis of the results of the simulation, while the undergraduates will summarize the results with data graphics alone.  (15% total grade)

Two exams: Neither are open-note.  Exam 1: Multiple choice and very-short answers.  Graduate students will have 50% fewer multiple-choice questions and will have short-answer questions allowing for a longer written answer.   Exam 2: A short, short-answer exam (20% total grade).  Undergraduate students will answer four questions directly derived from lecture and assigned readings.  Graduate students will have two of the four questions making connections between readings.

Department of Geography, University of Oregon
Modified September 2011