Bio 425 syllabus

BIO 425 Aquatic Zoology

T-R 8:00-10:50

204 Dobbs Building

Dr. Steven L. Powers

208 Dobbs Building

slp@reinhardt.edu

(770) 720-9220

http://faculty.reinhardt.edu/powers/

Office hours: M&W 1-3:30, Th. 1:30-2:30

Objectives of Course

Our planet is currently undergoing the greatest rate of extinction it has experienced in over 65 million years. Humans are unmistakably the major cause of this great extinction. While freshwater ecosystems make up a tiny proportion of our planet in terms of area, the biodiversity contained within these habitats is staggering. Short reaches of streams contain hundreds of species of animals, representing nearly all major lineages of animals. Many aquatic animals are among the most vulnerable organisms on the planet due to narrowly endemic distributions, relatively small population sizes, high degrees of specialization, a need for large reaches of undisturbed habitat, and widespread degradation of aquatic habitats. An appreciation of aquatic biodiversity by the human inhabitants of this planet will help bring about changes in policy and everyday life that will help reduce the current rate of extinction among aquatic animals.

Furthermore, much of our understanding of ecological, physiological, developmental, reproductive and evolutionary processes is due to research involving freshwater animals. For each major lineage of animals inhabiting freshwaters, we will discuss unique and shared ecological, physiological, developmental, and reproductive adaptations as well as evolutionary relationships of taxa.

Aquatic animals also provide direct benefits to humans as we rely on them as food, industrial, recreational and decorative resources. They also provide an opportunity to efficiently and effectively monitor the quality of water that we rely on for personal and industrial uses.

The primary objectives of the course are listed below:

1. Students should be able to identify major lineages of aquatic organisms and many common taxa inhabiting the southeastern United States and particularly North Georgia.

2. Students should be able to identify unique and shared ecological, physiological, developmental, and reproductive adaptations as well as evolutionary relationships of aquatic taxa.

3. Students should be able to comprehend and critically evaluate scientific literature and popular media reports regarding aquatic biodiversity and the ecosystems in which they live.

4. Students should be able to be able to perform bioassessments of streams in North Georgia.

Conceptual Framework

This course will be conducted in a way that will make many attempts to communicate course content to multiple learning styles (eg. visual, auditory and tactile means). Helpful online resources will be revealed to students as they become pertinent to course material and available to the instructor and students. Both field and laboratory methodology will be an integral part of laboratory exercises and will familiarize students with the organisms of study in their natural setting as well as under close examination in a laboratory setting. Field methods will be intensively demonstrated during a Saturday field trip (date TBA) in which students will participate in intensive field sampling for freshwater organisms.

Discussion and questions raised by students will be encouraged to help facilitate an atmosphere of inquiry-based learning. Ultimately, each individual student will be responsible for his or her own success. Therefore, if a student is not satisfied with his or her progress in the course, the instructor should be promptly alerted to this problem (preferably during office hours) so that strategies for improving performance and increasing comprehension and success can be discussed. Poor performance is best corrected early in a semester and can be impossible to correct later on. To be successful, students in this course must be willing to take responsibility for their own learning. It will be nearly impossible to achieve success in this course unless large amounts of out of class study time incorporating highly effective study methods are committed to the course. An understanding of taxonomical hierarchy, evolutionary and ecological relationships as well as an intimate familiarity with the study organisms is essential to success in this course. Memorization of selected terms will be much more useful if those terms are included in a “big picture” synthesis of information. Most importantly, this is a 400 level class and should be one of the most challenging courses you will experience as an undergraduate. It should simultaneously be one of the most enjoyable courses of your undergraduate study.

Text

No textbook is required for this course.

Useful Text Resources

Page, L. M. and B. M. Burr. 1991. Peterson field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston.

Boschung, H. T. and R. L. Mayden. 2004. Fishes of Alabama. Smithsonian Press. Washington, D. C.

Etnier, D. A. and W. C. Starnes. 1993. The fishes of Tennessee. University of Tennessee Press. Knoxville.

Parmalee, P. W. and A. E. Bogan. 1998. The freshwater mussels of Tennessee. University of Tennessee Press. Knoxville.

Thorp, J. H. and A. P. Covich. 1991. Ecology and classification of North American freshwater invertebrates. Academic Press, Inc. San Diego

Taylor, C. A. and G. A. Schuster. 2005. The Crayfishes of Kentucky. Illinois Natural History Survey Special Publication No. 28. Champaign, IL.

Allan, J. D. 1995. Stream ecology: structure and function of running waters. Chapman & Hall. London.

Recommended (but not required) Lab Supplies

Snorkel and Mask

Helpful Websites

http://tolweb.org - Tree of Life

http://crayfish.byu.edu - Crandall lab info on Crayfishes of North America

http://www.fishbase.org - Fishbase

http://www.mnh.si.edu - Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History

http://www.acnatsci.org - Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences

http://www.amnh.org - American Museum of Natural History

http://www.usask.ca/biology/skabugs/ - University of Saskatchewan

http://waterknowledge.colostate.edu/aq_bugs.htm - Colorado State University

http://www.benthos.org/index.cfm - North American Benthological Society

http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/cbd/index.html - Illinois Natural History Survey

http://www.gwu.edu/~clade/faculty/lipscomb/Cladistics.pdf - Cladistic Analysis

http://www.bama.ua.edu/~clydeard/clam/ - Mussels of Sipsey River, AL

Grades

Final student grades will be based on three lecture exams, three lab exams, and one paper worth 100 points each. There will also be two other lab assignments worth 25 points each making a class total of 750 total points possible. Other assignments may be given at the discretion of the instructor that will increase the total number of points available in the course. Final grades will be based on a percentage of the total number of points earned from the total number of points possible. The grading scale listed below will be used.

A = 89.5-100
B = 79.5-89.49
C = 69.5-79.49
D = 59.5-69.49

F=less than 59.5

Attendance

Students are expected to attend all class and laboratory meetings.

*Students who miss scheduled exams will receive a "0" for that exam unless arrangements are made with the instructor prior to the exam.

Students with Disabilities

Any student with a diagnosed or suspected disability that may hinder their comprehension or performance in this course should contact the Academic Support Office in the Tarpley Center immediately.

Academic Misconduct

All acts of dishonesty in any work constitute academic misconduct. This includes, but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, fabrication of information, misrepresentation of the work of others as your own, and abetting any of the above. Any academic misconduct is a violation of the Reinhardt College Code of Honor and will be dealt with accordingly.

Course Schedule

Week 1 (Aug 21-25)

Lecture: Introduction, Phylogenetic Systematics, Taxonomy, “Protists”, Porifera

Lab: Introduction, reading & understanding phylogenies, procedures, safety

Week 2 (Aug 28-Sep 1)

Lecture: Cnidaria, Platyhelminthes, Gastrotricha, Rotifera, Nematoda, Nematomorpha, Mollusca: Gastropoda

Lab: “Protists” – Nematomorpha, Gastropoda

Week 3 (Sep 4-8) Monday = Labor Day, no classes

Lecture: Mollusca: Bivalvia

Lab: Mollusca: Bivalvia

Week 4 (Sep 11-15)

Lecture: Lecture Test I