EEB Program Courses

These are unofficial and somewhat arbitrary list of courses of potential interest to graduate and undergraduate students in ecology and evolutionary biology, culled from hundreds of courses in the life sciences.

For official course information, consult the University course catalog. For more information about prerequisites and course content, contact instructors directly.

August 2009 - New EEB-relevant Courses for Fall!

GEOL 689-601, Paleocommunity Analysis

Despite the rather narrow title, this is a course primarily about multivariate analysis of ecological and paleoecological community data. The main aim of the course is for students to learn how to make use of the full potential of community-type ecological and paleoecological data. Students will learn the statistical basis, use, and limitations of a variety of quantitative techniques including measurement of diversity (rarefaction and a variety of indices), cluster analysis, principal coordinates analysis, non-metric multidimensional scaling, correspondence analysis, and canonical methods like redundancy analysis and canonical correspondence analysis. The necessary mathematical background needed to understand these methods will be reviewed, but the focus of assignments will be on application of methods. As each new method is covered, students will apply it to a data set of their choice (either from their research or from the published literature). The aim is to understand the foundations of these methods in order to expand beyond what is covered in the course and also gain practice in ecological/paleoecological interpretation of diversity and compositional data. Students who successfully complete the course will be able to apply a wide variety of multivariate techniques in their own research and be able to critically evaluate the application of these methods by others. Students in the past have come from many EEB affiliated departments including Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Biology, Ecosystem Science and Management, as well as Geology and Geophysics.

View/Print Syllabus

For more information, contact:
Thomas Olszewski
163 Halbouty Building
office phone: 845-2465
e-mail: tomo@geo.tamu.edu

Biology 481 Introduction to Biogeography - Seminar

An EEB relevant course that will be available this fall is Biol 481-503, Introduction to Biogeography. It is a one hour seminar course, which will give a broad overview of classical biogeography. The main aim of the course is for students to learn about the different themes encompassing biogeography. The course begins with a review of the history and science of biogeography, then covers the geologic history of the earth, followed by topics such as species formation and extinction, vicariance and dispersal, reconstructing the history of lineages, and island biogeography. The second half of the course will be student lead, with students leading the discussing of specific biogeography topics, including an oral presentation on their topic. The course is appropriate for anyone interested in studying the distribution patterns of plants and animals, and those students interested in building a firm foundation in the basic principles of biogeography. Students from other departments such as GEOG, ENTO and WFSC are encouraged to register for the course.

View/Print Syllabus

For more information, contact:
David E. Baumgardner, PhD
Lecturer
Department of Biology
Texas A&M University
3258 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-3258
979-845-4191 (phone)
979-845-2891 (fax)