ESR101 Week1 Lab: Introduction

Outline for day:

1. Introductions and overview of the course
2. What is biodiversity and why do we want to save it?
3. Description of the assignments and how they will be graded (from the syllabus)
4. Importance of collaboration and your personal responsibility to submit your own version of the work
5. What is a "field lab"?
6. What are some possible actions we can take (individually or as a community) to save and promote more biodiversity in the Portland Metro area?
7. Hypotheses for control of biodiversity
8. Assignment

1. Introductions

• Instructor
  • name
  • thesis research
  • other field and research experience
• students
  • name
  • where they live in Portland (which will be used for picking groups)

2. What is biodiversity

• multiple definitions used by Metro, Oregon, Costa Rica for example
• natural capital with a special role in the strong sustainability argument
• saving it because it is valuable
  • what are those values (utilitarian, etc)
  • how is value described or measured
  • if we decide to take actions, then it has value (agency argument)
• Environmental science is not value neutral

3. Description of the assignments

• see the syllabus and the links there
• late work policy is strictly enforced

4. Collaboration

• Work in groups to collect information on specific green spaces or wild areas
  • each person needs to contribute to these groups
  • be ready and have something to offer
  • be present while working in a group (attention to the task)
• The work you turn in must represent your work and your understanding of the problem.
  • write all of your own paper - work from group notes
  • attribute written parts, maps, graphics to other people if necessary
  • attribute or reference other works or data from other groups or sources
• Collaboration tools
  • email list of group
  • sharing references, notes, pictures, maps, etc.
  • wiki site, build a single page together that summarized your work
  • accessing data from other sources and putting them in to your work

5. Field Lab

• See syllabus for description and underlying reasons
• Portland area has so much to offer

6. Discuss possible actions

• List on board
• Categorize by individual action, group, or government
• What would we need to know to choose where to put our effort?
  • need to understand what factors limit biodiversity
  • are there particular factors that are driving the loss of biodiversity
  • is it a complex interaction including the internal structure of the system
  • implications of the difference between cause-effect and complex interactions

7. Hypotheses that we will explore

• barriers/corridors
• size of natural areas and edge effects
• invasives
• availability of suitable range of habitat types
• soil

8. Assignment

• Divide the class by where they live
• By next class, groups should decide what area they are going to focus on (See Metro Greenspaces map and Tualatin Hills (www.thprd.org) and what two hypotheses they are going to compare (assignment 1)