Announcements

(22) Apparently I forgot to post the key to the third exam. It is now posted.

(21) This is totally off topic, but I wanted to help advertise a friend's Kickstarter project and thought that given WSU's reputation for tailgating, maybe someone would know someone who would be interested in The Coolest. It's a cooler/blender/music combo. I've seen the prototype and it is very, well, cool. -Jesse http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryangrepper/the-coolest-cooler-with-blender-music-and-so-much

(20) The lab for this week can be downloaded. Also, please bring your laptops to lab this week! (19) Bring your laptops and the printout of Liebig's Barrel (SimUText module) to lab this week! (18) I will not be grading question 46 in the **Nutrient Cycling chapter**. (17 ) I think I confused people more about the diversity-stability relationships in class. So let's try again. This short piece on disturbance and diversity might help: http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/disturbance-and-diversity-an-ecological-chicken-and-13256228 (16) In the **Decomposition** chapter, I will not be grading questions 57 and 62 (10) SimBio has found a bug in one exercise in the **Community Dynamics chapter**. They've fixed it, __if__ you have already opened the Community Dynamics chapter on your computer, you should get a new version by: If you have not yet downloaded the Community Dynamics chapter on your computer for the first time, you are all set and don't need to worry about this. __//Also, I will not be grading Question 14 in this chapter//__. (15) A practice exam 2, ** and now the key **, have been posted. Good luck studying! NOTE: I updated the key at of 9:20PM on 16 October. I had made an error in my math while calculating lambda and r in the question on the life table (page 7) (14) Lab this week is not in your lab book. Instead, **go to the Lab page and download, print, and read the instructions** //before// coming to lab. Also, **bring your laptop to lab**. (13) Dr. Mack will be guest lecturing in class on Tuesday, 15 Oct. **Please bring this handout to class**. (12) In the ** Competition chapter **, // Question 86 will not be graded //. (11) Here are (made up data from coin-flipping) that you can use to test your understanding of survivorship, fecundity, //R 0 //, //λ//, and //r//. Give it a shot! (4) In the **Population Growth chapter**, you do //not// need to answer question 59. Also, the schedule is correct: __You only need to complete sections 1-4 in the SimUText.__ NOTE that the SimUText automatically grades out of all of the questions, including those I did not assign; I cannot do anything about this, but my grade book is not affected by this bug. (9) Vegetation Sampling Data is available for Section 4 Lab under the lab tab. Thanks to K. Van Den Top for compiling (7) A study guide and practice questions (along with the key) for the first exam have been posted. (6) Article for Seed Removal Quiz (Brown and Heske 1990) now posted in "Lab" tab - BMC (5) If you add a // unique, concise, well-written // rule of thumb to the Rules of Thumb page ** by midnight 8 September 2013 ** you will get a nice little bonus on the first exam (probably being able to select a 2pt question as a freebie; i.e., you get the points for it without needing to answer it). (3) In the ** Climate Change chapter, ** please read sections __ **2 & 3 for Thursday the 5th and 4 & 5 for next Tuesday** __. 2) **Lab manuals**. I just check with the Bookie. Here is what they said (11AM Monday 26th): " We had ordered 85 of your course packs originally, and after speaking on the phone with you we have ordered another 20." You can call ahead it you like: 509-332-2537, ext. 123 1) For those of you waiting on your financial aid to come through before buying the SimUText book or otherwise ** not able to buy the book right now **, send me an email (jesse.brunner@wsu.edu). I've got a solution worked out.
 * The **insurance hypothesis** posits that in more diverse communities you are more likely to have a species with the functional characteristics to deal with any given change or challenge (e.g., some that are drought resistant, fire tolerant, able to fix N2, etc.)
 * The **portfolio hypothesis** does not focus on functional traits or characteristics, it just states that if you have a lot of species that //fluctuate independently// (e.g., in terms of abundance or biomass), the average across all of those species is pretty stable.
 * 1) deleting the old version by selecting 'delete lab/chapter' from the Help drop down menu and clicking on the title Community Dynamics and
 * 2) clicking on Community Dynamics again from the My Assignments page to get the new version.