Tropical Forest Community Ecology (BOT6935 Section 6742)

Community Ecology of Latin American Forest (LAS6905)

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Instructors: Kaoru Kitajima (kitajima@ufl.edu) & Emilo Bruna (embruna@ufl.edu)

Time: Tuesday 5^th period (11:45-12:35)

Room: Carr 221

Textbook: Tropical Forest Community Ecology (2008) Walter P. Carson and Stefan A. Schnitzer (eds.), Wiley-Blackwell.

Objective: Comprehensive overview of the conceptual foundations and advances in community ecology of tropical forests, with a strong emphasis in Latin American forests from which most examples are drawn.

Calendar of topics and reading assignment (last update: January 23, 2009)

	date	Topic	Chapter	Who?	Guest Fac
1	13-Jan	Intro & spatial distribution of tropical trees	1,2	Kitajima	--
2	27-Jan	Latitudinal & geographical distribution	3,4	Fabiany	--
3	27-Jan	Herbivory & trophic interactions	5,16	Emilio	--
4	3-Feb	Maintenance of species coexistence	7,8	Trevor
5	10-Feb	Neutral theory - chance vs. determinism	9,23	Ali	Bolker
6	17-Feb	Trade-offs and niches	10,11	Paulo
7	24-Feb	Natural enemies & mutualists	13,15	Jordan
8	3-Mar	Treefall gaps	12,14	Martijn
	10-Mar	Spring break – no class
9	17-Mar	Biogeography, phylogeny and exotics	6,24	Jared	Gordon B.
10	24-Mar	Big animals rule	17,18	Jose
11	31-Mar	Little ones matter	19,20	Judit
12	7-Apr	Productivity, succession & animals	21,22	Gerardo
13	14-Apr	Conservation - losses & opportunities	26,25	Marelene	Karen K.
14	21-Apr	Last class - Preservation vs. conservation	27,28	Xavier*	Jac Putz

Bruna out of town: January 8-14 & March 1-7

Kitajima out of town: April 2-12

Requirements for obtaining one credit for the course

• Active participation to discussion with a good preparation (having read the assigned reading in advance and bring at least one question to the group)
• Serve as a discussion leader for one meeting
• Create a bibliography listing 5-10 papers published after 2007 on the same topics.

Non-registered participants: Please let the instructors know the dates you plan to attend, and commit to these dates, for which you will be expected to do the same as above.