Classes

Field Methods in Environmental Monitoring (4 cr.)
This summer class will describe and demonstrate the field methods used in measuring ecological patterns and processes. This field-based class will include in-class lectures by IGERT graduate students engaged in ecological field studies, supported by hands-on field demonstrations of terrestrial and aquatic sampling methods and measurement. Topics will include the measurement technology used for monitoring of vegetative, edaphic, climatic, hydrologic and hydraulic, fish and benthic macroinvertebrate, geologic, and landscape features. Experimental design and statistical interpretation lectures will be included, building on example field studies which range from manual methods to cutting-edge automated sensors, and demonstrations by summer field and research crews at the H.J. Andrews Forest. Students will trace the “informatics life cycle of a data point” from the field setting through collection, data cleaning, database creation, to analysis, modeling, publication, and implications of research, using the Andrews Forest database system (http://www.fsl.orst.edu/lter/data.cfm).

This class will provide students with the knowledge of current methods for defining, measuring, and analyzing ecological patterns and mechanisms. This summer course emphasizes the integrated nature of ecosystems, concentrating on the intersecting process of the physical, chemical, and biological components of ecosystems. Systems analysis is a fundamental feature of the summer course, providing an elemental foundation in Eco-Informatics that participants can extend to any biological system.