FOREST GEOGRAPHY
Fall 2006
GEOGRAPHY 4371
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: T. VEBLEN
OFFICE: GUGGENHEIM 201
OFFICE HOURS: right after lecture at 1:45; or by appointment (492-
8528; email )
TEACHING ASSISTANT: Meredith Albright
OFFICE: Guggenheim 312
OFFICE HOURS: by appointment.
Lecture: Tu Th 12:30 - 1:45, Guggenheim 205
Required text: Kimmins, J.P. 2003. Forest Ecology. 3rd Edition. Macmillan Publishing, NY.
Class Web Page: http://www.colorado.edu/geography/courses/geog_4371_f06/
Recommended prerequisites: introductory courses in physical geography and biology and general ecology.
Note: if you have not had a general course on ecology you should read chapters 4 and 5 of Kimmins as soon as possible.
Grading: quiz 10%
two midterm tests (30% each) 60%
takehome final exam (due 9 a.m., Dec.18) 30%
Note: Make-up exams are not given. If you have to miss a test for a medical or other valid (and documented) reason, you will be assigned a grade for that test determined by your average grade from the other tests.
Term paper option: anyone who wishes may substitute a term paper on a topic related to the course content (maximum length of 12 pages, double spaced) for the take-home exam; if you elect the term paper option, you must tell me the title of the paper no later than October 21.
Field trips: Saturday (8:00 a.m. to 3 p.m.) field trips are scheduled as follows:
Trip 1. Sept. 16 — Subalpine forests in the Front Range
Trip 2. Sept. 30 — Montane forests in the Front Range
Additional field trips may be scheduled
Lecture and Assigned Reading Schedule
Lecture Topic / Assigned ReadingI. Introduction (8/29)
A. Forest dynamics and forest management (8/31) / Kimmins, Ch. 2 & 3
II. Tree autecology
A. The species as an ecological unit (9/5) / Kimmins, Ch. 16 (omit pp. 444-450)
B. The concept of environment (9/7) / Kimmins, Ch. 6 (omit pp. 142-146, 159-166)
C. Solar radiation (9/12) / Kimmins, Ch. 7 (omit sections on animals)
D. Temperature (9/14) / Kimmins, Ch. 8 (omit pp. 220-226)
9/19 Quiz (30 minutes)
E. Wind (9/19) / Kimmins, Ch. 9 (omit section on animals)
F. Water (9/21) / Kimmins, Ch. 10 (omit pp. 275-276)
G. Plant nutrients (9/26) / Kimmins, Ch. 5 (pages 72-79 and 87-105 only); and Ch. 11 (omit pp. 307-310)
H. Fire (9/28) / Kimmins, Ch. 12 (omit pp. 341-345)
Take-home test due 10/5
III. Forest synecology
A. Population ecology (10/3, 10/5) / Kimmins, Ch. 14 (omit pages 384-394)
B. Plant community concepts (10/10)
Biotic interactions: herbivore impacts (10/12) / Kimmins, Ch. 13
C. Succession and climax concepts (10/17) / Kimmins, Ch. 15
D. Mechanisms of succession and regeneration (10/19, 10/24)
E. Methods: age structure analysis (10/26) / Kimmins, Ch. 17
Veblen 1992, pp. 152-187
IV. Applications of ecological knowledge to forest management
A. Concepts of ecosystem-based management and historic range of variability; and methods of HRV (10/31) / Kimmins, Ch. 18 (omit section 18.5), Ch. 19, and Ch. 20 (omit pages 553-563)
Veblen & Donnegan 2006, Ch. 1 and 2
B. Montane forests in Colorado: autecology and stand development Ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir (11/2)
C. Montane forests: beetles, budworm and fire (11/7, 11/9) / Romme et al. 2003a,b,c
Veblen & Donnegan 2006, Ch. 5.1 (focus on montane cover types)
Veblen & Donnegan 2006, Ch. 5.2 and Ch. 6 (focus on montane cover types)
Review and discussion for test (Nov. 14)
In-class test (Nov. 16)
Thanksgiving Break Nov. 20-24
D. Subalpine forests in Colorado: autecology and stand development (11/28) / Veblen & Donnegan 2006, Ch. 5.1 (focus on subalpine cover types)
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E. Subalpine forests in Colorado: beetles, blowdown, and fire (11/30, 12/5, 12/7) / Veblen & Donnegan 2006, Ch. 5.2 and Ch. 6 (focus on subalpine cover types)F. Climate variation and implications for forest management in Colorado (12/12) / Veblen Donnegan 2006, Ch. 4 and Ch. 5.2.3.2
G. Synthesis (12/14) / Veblen & Donnegan 2006, Ch. 7 and Ch. 8
Take-home final exam (due 9 a.m., Dec. 18)
Assigned readings:
Romme, W.H. T.T. Veblen, M.R. Kaufmann, R. Sherriff and C.M. Regan. 2003a. Ecological effects of the Hayman Fire Part1: Historical (Pre-1860) and current (1860-2002) fire regimes. Pages 181-195 in: Hayman Fire Case Study Analysis. USDA Forest Service Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-114.
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr114.pdf
Romme, W.H., M.R. Kaufmann, T.T. Veblen, R. Sherriff and C.M. Regan. 2003b. Ecological effects of the Hayman Fire Part 2: Historical (Pre-1860) and current (1860-2002) forest and landscape structure. Pages 196-203 in: Hayman Fire Case Study Analysis. USDA Forest Service Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-114. http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr114.pdf
Romme, W.H., C.M. Regan, M.R. Kaufmann, L. Huckaby, and T.T. Veblen. 2003c. Forest succession. Pages 220-227 in: Hayman Fire Case Study Analysis. USDA Forest Service Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-114. http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr114.pdf
Veblen, T.T. 1992. Regeneration dynamics. Pp. 152-187 in D.C. Glenn-Lewin, R.K. Peet, and T.T. Veblen. Plant Succession: Theory and Prediction. Chapman and Hall, London. See class page for pdf.
Veblen, T.T. and J.A. Donnegan (2006). Historical range of variability assessment for forest vegetation of the national forests of the Colorado Front Range. Colorado Forest Restoration Institute and USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region. http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/projects/scp/tea/HRVFrontRange.pdf
Supplemental readings (available through the Science library e-journals):
Baker, W.L., T.T. Veblen and R.L. Sherriff. In press. Fire, fuels, and restoration of ponderosa pine- Douglas-fir forests in the Rocky Mountains, USA. Journal of Biogeography.
Bebi, P., D. Kulakowski, and T.T. Veblen. 2003. Interactions between fire and spruce beetle in a subalpine Rocky Mountain forest landscape. Ecology 84:362-371.
Bigler, C., D. Kulakowski, and T. T. Veblen. 2005. Multiple disturbance interactions and drought influence fire severity in Rocky Mountain subalpine forests. Ecology 86:30183029.
Kulakowski, D. and T.T. Veblen. 2002. Influences of fire history and topography on the pattern of a severe wind blowdown in a Colorado subalpine forest. Journal of Ecology 90:806-819.
Kulakowski, D., T.T. Veblen and S. Drinkwater. 2004. The persistence of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) in the Grand Mesa area, Colorado. Ecological Applications 14: 1603-1614.
Kulakowski, D., T.T. Veblen, and B. League. 2006. Influences of infrequent fire, elevation and prefire vegetation on the persistence of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) in the Flat Tops area, Colorado. Journal of Biogeography 33:1397-1413.
Kulakowski, D. and T.T. Veblen. In press. Effects of prior disturbances on the extent and severity of a 2002 wildfire in Colorado subalpine forests. Ecology.
League, K. and T.T. Veblen. 2006. Climatic variability and episodic Pinus ponderosa establishment along the forest-grassland ecotones of Colorado. Forest Ecology and Management 228:98-107.
Platt, R.V., T.T. Veblen, R.S. Sherriff. In press. Are wildfire mitigation and restoration of historic forest structure compatible? A spatial modeling assessment. Annals of the Assoc. of Am. Geographers.
Rebertus, A.J., T.T. Veblen, L.M. Roovers, and J.N. Mast. 1992. Structure and dynamics of old-growth Engelmann spruce-subalpine fir in Colorado. Pp. 139-153 in USDA For. Serv. GTR RM-213.
Schoennagel, T.L., T.T. Veblen and W.H. Romme. 2004. The interaction of fire, fuels and climate across Rocky Mountain forests. BioScience 54: 661-676.
Schoennagel, T.L., T.T. Veblen, W.H. Romme, J.S. Sibold, E.R. Cook. 2005. ENSO and PDO variability affect droughtinduced fire occurrence in Rocky Mountain subalpine forests. Ecological Applications 15:2000-2014.
Sherriff, R.L. and T.T. Veblen. In press. Ecological effects of changes in fire regimes in Pinus ponderosa ecosystems in the Colorado Front Range. Journal of Vegetation Science.
Sherriff, R.L. and T.T. Veblen. In press. A spatially-explicit reconstruction of historical fire occurrence in the ponderosa pine zone of the Colorado Front Range. Ecosystems.
Sibold, J.S., T.T. Veblen and M.E. Gonzalez. 2006. Spatial and temporal variation in historic fire regimes in subalpine forests across the Colorado Front Range in Rocky Mountain National Park. Journal of Biogeography 32: 631-647.
Sibold, J.S. and T.T. Veblen. 2006. Relationships of subalpine forest fires in the Colorado Front Range to interannual and multidecadal scale climatic variation. Journal of Biogeography 33:833-842.
Veblen, T.T., K.S. Hadley, E.M. Nel, T. Kitzberger, M. Reid, and R. Villalba. 1994. Disturbance regime and disturbance interactions in a Rocky Mountain subalpine forest. Journal of Ecology 82:125-135.
Veblen, T.T., T. Kitzberger and J. Donnegan. 2000. Climatic and human influences on fire regimes in ponderosa pine forests in the Colorado Front Range. Ecological Applications 10:1178-1195.
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