EN 388: Environmental Literature: Handouts
| Assignments: These are designed to enhance your awareness of the outdoor world and its complexities as well as to serve as laboratory exercises for what Peterson discusses. We will also use the information you gather in class discussion and in our nature hikes. Most of all, these are supposed to be enjoyable. Let me know if they are/aren't. And suggestions are welcomed. Numbers in brackets refer to Peterson. | HANDOUTS
are due on assigned dates; late work will be penalized; sloppy work
will, if read, be penalized. You should expect to take an hour or
two to properly perform them. You will be graded on your performance. You
are excused from having to do this work the day you have an oral report;
you may, however, do the work for extra credit if you wish.
click on HANDOUTS to go to Handouts. |
Due Dates Sep 24 Leaves Sep 28 Dicots & Monocots Sep 30 Leaf Color Oct 1 Trees Under Attack Oct 6 Chemical Warfare Oct 8 Disturbance Oct 13 Milkweed Oct 15 Food Oct 20 Forest Patterns Oct 22 Forests Oct 26 Grocery Store Oct 28 Mess Hall Nov 3 Kitchen Herbs Nov 5 Nov10 Nov 13 |
Locate at least five different kinds of leaves on Post. Identify the genus and, if possible, the species. Locate both needle-leaved and broad-leaved [8] plants, deciduous and evergreen[9]. Determine if they are simple or compound. Determine if they are simple or compound.
Analyze the geometries of your leaves, and consider such elements as thickness of skin [epidermis], protective devices, etc. Read Peterson on tree geometry[215-8]; Account for the differences in light [use a light meter if you have one to quantify these differences] in an open field, under an oak, under a dogwood, under a pine, under a spruce. See also stratification[p7].
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Find the bamboo grove on Post near Stono. Compare a bamboo leaf with a grass blade and a tree leaf. What differences/similarities do you find in the way the veins are arranged? Look up the difference between dicot and monocot in a dictionary or biology book.
For fun, dissect a lima bean and look for two leaflike "cotyledons." Try sprouting a bean and a brown rice grain and see what comes up.
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Observe the colors different species of leaf turn. Look up in Peterson or, better yet, a biology book, and figure out what makes the various colors. Which trees are most colorful, which least? Read Peterson on colors and foliar fruit flags [226-31], then find out what Darwin thought of leaf color. Can you reconcile the two opinions? Can someone out there explain to me why plants don't use the green spectrum for manufacturing chlorophyll?
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How many life forms can you find taking advantage of trees? What external features of trees encourage/discourage opportunisitc life forms?
Read Peterson on leaf folders,etc[249-52]; galls[252-7] How many different kinds of these various insect defenses can you find? On what plants do they occur? Can you indentify any of these insects; do different insects prefer different plants? What kinds of defenses can you enumerate? What materials do the insects use? Which are solitary? Which are communal?
Plant Defenses[149-52] Describe at least 5 mechanical plant defenses that you notice about Post. Try to determine what sort of herbivore the plant is discouraging, what sort would ignore the defenses. Look for: thorns, hairs, thick bark, thick leaves, water traps, etc.
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See if you can find as examples of chemical plant defenses: Poison Ivy, Mint, Milkweed, Wood Sorrel, Spicebush, Sassafras, Walnut. Can you find leaves that give evidence of herbivores trying to evade chemical defenses[see p151]?
Walnuts and alianthus trees are famous practioners of allelopathy[105]; locate one and see if you can determine the boundaries of its chemical influence.
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Read Peterson on butterfly mimicry[245-7]; locate a milkweed patch & find some of these butterflies.
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PETERSON'S
FOREST GUIDE
Use this to ask questions about the forest you are. You can find all of
these terms discussed in Chapter 1 of Peterson.
stratification
broad/needle-leaved
evergreen/deciduous
indicator species
species richness
soil
soil moisture
evidence of fire
plant population patterns
forest's age
forest gaps
forest's future
ecotones
old fields
animals
food chain
seasonality
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How many kinds of plants and in what layers do you find them
a] on VMI Cliffs
b] in the pine forest behind VMI
c] in the deciduous forest on the slope down to the Maury
d] on the Parade Deck
e] along the edge of the parking lot
Identify as many of these as you can and determine what percent are native, what percent alien. Can you account for this distribution?
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SOIL MOISTURE [xeric, mesic, hydric -17]
Walk from Woods Creek up and over to the VMI Cliffs, noting as you go the changing nature of soil moisture. Can you relate changing vegetation to the changing moisture levels? Walk up the road from Woods Creek paying attention to the changing vegetative patterns. What accounts for the differences? What plants grow where?
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Use geometry to account for the extensive pine forest behind VMI -- regular, clumped, random populations [19]. Explain why it is interrupted by a deciduous forest. Can you determine the forest's age[21]? Its future[22]? ecotones[22] Are there more or fewer species on the edge of the pine forest versus the interior of the pine forest?
Find where W&L logged part of the pine forest behind VMI; describe the plants you find their now and try to determine the approximate age of the clearing -- seedlings[22] forest's age[21] old field succesion[23-5] . What old field plants do you find here?
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food chain[26] Observe a clump of goldenrod, dogbane, or a similar flowering herb. How many flowers do you count? How many kinds of insect? How many pollen and nectar gatherers? How many predatory insects? Construct a food chain of this particular community.
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Look at the unmown bank above the parking lot. This is an example of a ruderal or disturbed site, a perfect location for what we call "weeds," some native, many foreign. Bring PEterson with you and answer the following.
Can you find examples of annuals [101-5]these? Can you find some that are blooming? Setting seed? Dying?
Dig up both the overwintering rosettes of next year's bloomers and this year's bloomers in several biennials [105-6]; is Peterson's description accurate? Guesstimate the number of seeds per head of Queen Anne's lace. Taste both the seeds and root; can you sense its civilized relative?
Use your lenses to determine if Peterson's description of composites [108-12]is accurate. Try counting the number of seeds in a dandelion, aster, thistle, or other composite's head -- and then multiply by however many flowers the plants averages. What do you think happens to many of the seeds?
Look up legumes [115-8]in a plant dictionary or guide. How many different kinds can you locate on Post? What do they have in common? In difference? Dig up some clovers and examine the nodules; what can you see?
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Grocery store List the vegetables and fruits in a local grocery and determine their continent/country of origin. What do our stores reveal about our ethnic and historical pasts? Divide these various fruits and vegetables into their proper vegetative kinds [grains, fruits, roots, etc]. What kinds of vegetable matter attract humans? What parts of what plants do we consume? Which do we consume raw? Cooked? Account for the difference.
Take a world map and locate those areas from which we draw our food. Compare these areas to the ethnic makeup of the US; do these two correlate? For those areas NOT important in our diet -- what do people there eat? Why don't we eat these foods? Are any available in specialty stores here or elsewhere?
Compare the Healthy Foods Coop's vegetative stock to Kroger's or Harris Teeter's and account for the differences.
Sprout a carrot, potato, bean, coffee bean or citrus seed for fun.
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Trace back to their continents of origin all the food you ate today. Try to explain how they came to be considered breakfast, lunch, or dinner food.
Trace back to their actual location of production your foods for today. Figure out how much energy, how many people, trucks, planes, etc were required to serve you breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Check out just how much food we throw away after each meal. Figure out its caloric value and estimate how many people it might have fed.
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In addition to Peterson [155-8], you might read Darwin's Origin of Species [the last chapter sums him up and has a famous concluding image] and a biology textbook. Assume the following is a model of natural selection:
1. More offspring are produced than
can survive to reproductive age.
2. Offspring vary in heritable characteristics of form and behavior.
3. Some of these variations improve, some lessen, an offspring's survival
chances.
4. Those offspring with beneficial traits will outproduce those with detrimental
traits.
5. The result of this diffrential reproduction is natural selection.
Go out and find examples that support these various steps. Look for seeds, for overcrowded offspring, for competing offspring, etc. Can you see the struggle to survive between siblings? Species? Between different species?
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Locate a patch of milkweed and observe the various insects dining there. How many of those Peterson describes can you find? What others do you find [take an insect guide with you to identify them]? How many different activities can you see [feeding, courting, mating, stalking, eating, etc]?
Research the natural range of milkweed and compare it to the monarch's range. Do they in fact coincide?
Read Peterson on mimicry [236-47]. Can you find other examples of:
Mullerian mimicry -- where unpalatable
species resemble each other. What are the warning colors/patterns/shapes
that you observe?
Batesian mimicry -- where palatable species resemble unpalatable species?
CAREFULLY watch goldenrod, dogbane, milkweed, or other flower clusters [or make your own wioth a hummingbird feeder]. Can you recognize mimics of the yellowjacket, flies and beetles and wasps that resemble the aggresive yellowjacket? DON'T GET STUNG!
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Go to the herb section of your grocery store and locate the original homes of as many spices as you can.[some brands -- the expensive ones -- will give you little histories of the spice] What parts of what plants do we use? Where do they come from? Why are they so pungent? How could spiciness be a survival characteristic? Read the book in our noew book shelf on The Spice Islands.
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Read about the Oak-Hickory and Appalachian Cove Forests in Peterson, then visit the woods behind VMI. Can you locate examples of these two? Where does one begin and the other end? What causes this change in composition? How old are these forests? What trees are in them? Can you locate the various layers or strata in them? What legacies of human use can you find?
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