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Dear Geography and Sustainability majors and minors, This Fall I am offering Geography 435, Biogeography. I have the course set up as instructor permission to make sure I have room for geography and sustainability majors and minors -- e.g., you! To sign up, send me a short email with your student ID number (including the zeros at the beginning) and I will forward your request with my OK to Ms. Connie Mroz in our office, and she will sign you up. Sample simple email (feel free to copy and paste!): Dear Dr. Horn, I am a geography major and want to take Geography 435. My student ID number is 00xxxxxxx. Thanks, Susy student No test or other hurdle to overcome to gain admittance, just email and tell me your major/minor and you are in! I want you in the class! The course fits into many connections packages and in majors other than geography, and is also a Global Challenges course in the College of Arts and Sciences, so I tend to get a lot of students from outside of geography. Hence this effort to save room for you. If you want in the course, or even if you just think you want in, email me now ([log in to unmask]) to get a place. You can always change your mind later and drop it. But I expect the course to fill fast and I may remove the registration restriction after a bit. Thank you! Sally Horn Sally P. Horn, Professor Department of Geography For those who want to know more, here is information on the class pulled from the syllabus last time I taught it. Course Description: This course will focus on the changing distributions of plant and animal species (and of other organisms) on Earth, and on the biological, physical, and cultural processes that have brought about these distribution patterns. Human impacts on biotic distributions and biodiversity and the application of biogeographic information and principles to conservation will also be considered. Recommended background: Introductory physical geography or coursework in biology or ecology. Central Learning Objectives: Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: * Describe how physical environmental factors influence or control species distributions at global, regional, and local scales. * Explain how biological interactions and natural disturbances influence where species occur. * Describe the roles of plate tectonics, evolutionary processes, and climate change in shaping biogeographic patterns over time. * Give examples of direct and indirect ways that humans alter the distributions of species. * Describe the geography of biological diversity on our planet. * Discuss possible future biogeographic patterns on a warmer and more crowded Earth. * Apply theories and principles in biogeography to conservation and other issues. * Appreciate biogeographical aspects of current news and events. Geography 435 is a Global Challenge Course in the College of Arts and Sciences. Students pursuing a major in the College and following the curriculum from 2015–2016 or later need one global challenge course. Here is why Geography 435 satisfies the requirement (this is text I wrote when I proposed the course as a global change course in 2014): Humans depend for survival on Earth’s biosphere, and always have. People use plant and animal species for food, clothing, medicine, and in other ways, and through the use and manipulation of biotic resources change landscape, ecosystems, and the species themselves. Human population growth and changes in human use of Earth’s ecosystems have imperiled many plant and animal species and habitats, reducing the biodiversity that sustains us. Geography 435 focuses on the distribution of biological species and diversity and how patterns have changed over time, with particular attention to how human actions and changes in both natural and anthropogenic climate change drive changes in ecosystems and in the abundance and distribution of species. The course meets the global challenges requirement because it addresses the historic origins of, and contemporary thought regarding, issues of habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity, and climate change impacts on the biosphere that affect human society. These issues are of transnational and increasingly international significance, as for example in the case of invasive plant and animal species that destroy forests of irreplaceable economic and ecological value, as we are seeing today with invasive species in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, or that devastate agricultural crops or human health. Another example is the shrinking distribution of coastal mangrove communities, which protect people who live along tropical coasts from the impacts of hurricanes yet are often removed to develop hotels or fish ponds. Geography 435 provides students with opportunity for focused inquiry into critical issues facing the biosphere and hence our own survival. Geography 435 is part of three Connections Packages that satisfy degree requirements in the College of Arts and Sciences: (1) Humans Living on a Dynamic Earth, (2) Biodiversity and Humans, and (3) Environment and Society. 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 e-mail: [log in to unmask] http://geography.utk.edu/about-us/faculty/dr-sally-horn/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To review the archives of CLUBGGY or Join/Leave the list go to: http://listserv.utk.edu/archives/clubggy.html