Course Description
Provides interdisciplinary training in ecology, organismal developmental biology, and ecotoxicology. Students will engage in investigations of how subtle changes in the environment during development can lead to different phenotypes, including altered health and susceptibility to disease. An emphasis will be placed on how environmental contaminants impact development.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Students will be required to complete, in addition to regular
assignments, a review and synthesis of current scientific
literature related to an aspect of environmental impacts on
development. Topics must be approved by course instructors. The
literature synthesis will culminate in the student delivering a
short lecture on the topic to the rest of the class and leading a
discussion on the topic.
Athena Title
Ecol Develop Biol and Ecotox
Non-Traditional Format
This course has a non-traditional format consisting of seven weekly class meetings on campus and an intensive field and lab workshop at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (four days during spring break).
Prerequisite
[(BIOL 1108 and BIOL 1108L) or (BIOL 2108H and BIOL 2108L)] and (ECOL 3500-3500L or ECOL 3505H-3505L or GENE 3200-3200D or GENE 3200H or FANR 3200 or FANR 3200W) or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
In this course, students will learn and gain practical hands-on experience applying contemporary field and molecular techniques commonly used in developmental biology, ecotoxicology, and ecology. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: • Demonstrate knowledge of how the environment influences and in some cases, directs organismal phenotypic trajectories by acting on developmental processes. • Demonstrate knowledge of how anthropogenic stressors affect developing animals. • Acquire hands-on experience in laboratory (e.g., nucleic acid extraction, quantitative PCR) and field techniques (e.g., sampling, staging, preserving tissues) used to address developmental questions. • Demonstrate understanding of experimental design in ecological developmental biology and ecotoxicology.
Topical Outline
PART 1. INTRODUCTION TO CLASS FORMAT AND STRUCTURE PART 2. A CASE STUDY: AMPHIBIAN NATURAL HISTORY AND REPRODUCTION • Basics of amphibian reproduction • Breeding strategies • Complex life cycles • Phenotypic plasticity of amphibians • Designing ecotoxicology studies of amphibians PART 3. THE BASICS: DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY AND PLASTICITY • What is EcoDevo? • Developmental biology: conceptual overview and terminology • Phenotypic plasticity • Developmental origins of adult health and disease • Studying development in non-model species PART 4. ECOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY AND DISEASE STATES: ENDOCRINE DISRUPTION AND ECOTOXICOLOGY • Endocrinology: overview and terminology • Environmental endocrinology • Endocrine disruption • Environmental epigenetics • Anthropogenic impacts on development PART 5. TOWARD A DEVELOPMENTAL EVOLUTIONARY SYNTHESIS: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER • Applications in the lab and field; Student project presentations