ESCI 407/507: FOREST ECOLOGY
SPRING QUARTER, 2024

Last Updated: 4//23/2024

Laboratory Exercises

Required lab text: NONE

Objectives: The objectives of the lab are to give you some experience with: 1) basic forest sampling techniques; 2) data analysis and; 3) the presentation of your results in the form of a scientific paper.

And Just for fun: Forest Ecology Rap

 

Lab Reports: Approximately four lab reports will be assigned over the course of the term. These lab reports are intended to enable you summarize and describe the results of our fieldwork. Many of the field exercises will take more than a single week to complete. Most labs will require some analysis work on the computer on your own outside our regularly scheduled lab periods. All lab reports should be written in the format of a standard scientific paper. Here are some useful resources:

·         Information on the proper format, organization and grading criteria for your lab reports. Important Note: Read this information on formatting and organization! If you ignore the formatting and organizational information I have provided, you can expect to receive really lousy grades on your lab reports. 

·         Here is a sample lab report: ESCI407samplelabreport.pdf. 

·         Day, R.A. 1998. How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper. ISI Press.  This is a great little book that explains the structure of a scientific paper; from writing the title to the literature cited section and everything in between. An online version of this book might be available by clicking here. If this link does not work, try accessing the book by looking it up your self in the library's online catalog.

·         Finally, here is a brief Guide to Proper use of Scientific and Common Names of Trees. 

 

Academic Dishonesty: Cheating in any form, either during exams or in the lab, will not be tolerated.  All students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the University’s Academic Dishonesty Policy and Procedure in Appendix D of the University Bulletin.  You should be particularly careful when preparing lab reports.  In recent years, I have noted a disturbing increase in the incidence of plagiarism.  If you copy any text from any source and paste it directly into a lab report without attribution, this is plagiarism.  If and when you are caught, you will, at the very least, receive a failing grade for this assignment and you may also be subjected to additional disciplinary action as specified by university policy. Papers written in part using artificial intelligence (such as ChatGPT) will not be accepted.     

Excel 2003 to Excel 2007 Help: The campus is in the process of a slow transition from Office 2003 to Office 2007.  This is creating headaches for everyone.  Both sets of software are loaded on most university computers.  Many people who are familiar with Office 2003 struggle to find the equivalent buttons in Office 2007.  Here is a very helpful Interactive Guide to help with the Excel 2003/2007 conversion.  From this page, scroll down and Start the Guide.  This will bring up the Excel 2003 interface.  You then enter the command sequence you need.  When you complete this, the interface for Excel 2007 appears and it shows you how to do the same thing with Excel 2007.  This interactive guide seems to work pretty well.

Lab Exercises: Click on the headings below to obtain the specific details of each assignment. Additional headings will be added as we move through the term. You should take a look at the material posted below prior to each lab. You are responsible for printing out the material that you will need in the field for each exercise. Most of our on-campus labs will finish somewhat earlier than 5:00. At least three of our lab exercises will involve travel to off-campus study sites. Because of the travel time involved, it is unlikely that we will make it back to campus by 5:00. For these three labs (marked below), we will probably make it back to campus between 5:30 and 6:00. Please plan accordingly.

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First Lab (Data in Cyberspace and Introduction to Excel). Week of 4/2-5.

Second Lab: Climate and Edaphic and Biological Controls on Tree Growth. Week of 4/10-12; Late return to campus. It is critical that you carefully review this webpage before lab, especially the part about proper dress and the need to bring snowshoes!

Third Lab: Climate and Edaphic and Biological Controls on Tree Growth, Part II: Ring Width Measurement and Data Analysis. Week of 4/17-19

Calculating Evapotranspiration using the Penman-Monteith Equation (No lab write-up) Week of 4/24-26  NO LAB this week (Note that the Quadrat Sampling lab that was originally scheduled for this week has been move to the week of 5/6-10

Fifth Lab: Edge Effects on the Composition and Structure of Pacific Northwest Forests. Week of 5/1-3; Late return to campus.

Fourth Lab: Introduction to Quadrat Sampling Week of 5/6-10

Sixth Lab: Comparison of the Structure and Composition of an Old-growth and Second-growth Stand. Week of 5/15-17; Late return to campus.

Seventh Lab: A Carbon Budget for PNW Forests. Week of 5/22-24

No additional labs this quarter

LIDAR Demo : Week of 5/22-23

The Point-Center-Quarter Method: Data Collection on Sehome Hill and LIDAR Demo: Week of May 29-30

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