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Students, The plants that cover our planet give character to the landscape, provide habitat for wildlife, and supply essential ecosystem services. What factors determine whether a spot on our continent supports chaparral or swamp, boreal forest or prairie? What relationships exist between climate and vegetation, and how do soils, terrain, fire regimes, and human activity past and present figure into the equation? How does one study vegetation and how it has changed over time? What are the key conservation and management issues in diffferent vegetation types in North America? We'll explore these questions this coming Fall in Geography 439, Plant Geography of North America, as we travel from the arctic tundra of Canada to the rainforests of Panama (with a side trip to Caribbean islands). Please see photos on the attached flyer for a sampling of the beautiful and interesting biological diversity we'll study. For undergraduates, this course counts as a physical geography course in the Geography major and is listed as an elective for majors in Ecology and in Environmental and Soil Science. Grad students are also welcome. There is no official lab, but we'll use some class or outside of class time to look at plants and vegetation on campus and in the Knoxville area. Several former students have been inspired by Geography 439 to obtain summer internships working in a diversity of vegetation types in U.S. national parks. That would be the ultimate "lab" that goes with my course, and I'll be pleased to help students connect with the Student Conservation Association and other groups to make this possible. Questions? Please see attached flyer and then contact me by email or phone to discuss. The prerequesite for the class is Geography 131 or similar, OR coursework in botany or ecology or similar. (That's right, one or the other area, not both. These are not hard and fast rules and I'm willing to help you play a bit of catch up if needed). Sincerely, Sally Horn Sally P. Horn, Professor Department of Geography 304 Burchfiel Geography Building 1000 Phillip Fulmer Way The University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996-0925 U.S.A. phone: (865) 974-6030 fax: (865) 974-6025 e-mail: [log in to unmask] http://web.utk.edu/~utkgeog/faculty/horn.htm Initiative for Quaternary Paleoclimate Research http://web.utk.edu/~cqpr/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To review the archives of CLUBGGY or Join/Leave the list go to: http://listserv.utk.edu/archives/clubggy.html