PLANT SYSTEMATICSBSC 5993Gerald F. Guala |
Instructors
Gerald Guala
Herbarium
Fairchild Tropical Garden Research Center (Where the class meets)
11935 Old Cutler Rd.
Miami, FL 33156
Meeting Time:
Course meets every Friday afternoon. 15:15-18:00pm
Meeting Place:
Fairchild Tropical Garden Research Center.
11935 Old Cutler Rd.
Coral Gables, FL 33156
General Map Specific
Map
Book:
Various books and web resources will be used. Handouts, web sites and other course material provided by the instructors. Reading materials will be available on the web or on the file cabinet outside of Dr. Guala's Office at Fairchild Tropical Garden.
The course text is: Judd, Campbell, Kellogg & Stevens 1999. Plant
Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach. Sinaur Press (www.sinaur.com).
The Compleat Cladist
is available online. Students should download it as well.
Grades:
Grades will be based on a Mid-Term Exam and a Final Exam, OR
on a monograph completed and turned in by 3pm on the day of the final.
Students will be required to express their preference for a monograph
OR the tests by March 2nd - changes will not be entertained after that
date.
Mid term exam:
A mid term exam will be worth 100 points and take place Friday,March
16th at 15:15 at Fairchild Tropical Garden. The exam will consist of essay
and short answer questions based on all material presented through March
9th.
Final exam:
A final term exam will be worth 100 points and take place Friday April
27th. The exam will consist of essay and short answer questions based on
all material presented through March 20th.
Students will use the concepts given in the lectures for this
monograph and I will assist them in the literature search and in developing
some of
their own ideas. The monograph should include ALL of the elements
of a complete monograph (extensively described in class) fully executed.
Students will loose 5% per 24 hrs that it is late.
Week 1 (January 12th 2001) – No class –
Phylogenetic Theory
Week 2. (January 19th 2001) Cladistic
theoryRead
Chapter 2 of Judd et al.
Week 3. (January 26th 2001) Compare
and contrast phylogenetic methods (parsimony, maximum likelihood,
phenetics etc.). Read sections 1,8-9 HERE
Week 4. (February 2nd, 2001) Species
concepts and ranking vs. grouping
Week 5. (February 9th, 2001) The
relationship of phylogeny to biogeography - Guala & Ortega.
Characters, Collections and Nomenclature
Week 6. (February 16th, 2001) Molecular characters -
Ortega
Week 7. (February 23rd, 2001) Anatomical
& Morphological characters - Fisher
Week 8. (March 2nd, 2000) Databases and virtual collections
Remember
that you must decide if you are going to do a monograph by March 2nd.
Assigned reading for week 8: Stevens,
P. 1991. Syst. Bot. 16: 553-583.
Week 9. (March 9th, 2001) Chemical & other unusual
characters - Ortega
Week 10. (March 16th, 2001) Herbaria and other physical
collections / Ortega finishes lecture on pollen characters. Monograph
Notes
SPRING BREAK
Week 11. (March 30th, 2001) Nomenclature (Pipoly)
PART II Important examples considered in depth.
Week 13. (April 6th, 2001)
Cladogram of life.
Week 14. (April 13th, 2001) Phylogeny of the Angiosperms
(contrast different systems Univ.
Maryland orTexas
A&M) and a 50 min. Phylogeny of Asteraceae (Ortega)
Week 15. (April 20th, 2001) Selected groups: Palms
(Zona), Grasses
April 27th 2001(monographs due
by 5pm)
About Your Professor:
Gerald "Stinger" Guala
grew up in Pennsylvania and has spent the last decade in Florida.
He directed the operations of the Fairchild Tropical Garden Herbarium (the
largest collection at the garden) and the Graduate Systematics
Program at the Fairchild Tropical Garden. His research is focussed
on Biogeography and systematics, especially of the grasses. He also
works extensively with large databases in botany.
Guest Lectures will also be given by an esteemed group of experts in their fields:
John Pipoly
Course Objectives:
This course is designed to be one of the essential (and required) courses in the Graduate Program in Tropical Plant Systematics. This course will teach students how to be a plant systematist. It is much broader in scope than PCB 5616 (Applied Phylogenetics) and has more of a plant emphasis. It also goes beyond the applied emphasis in BOT 4723 (Taxonomy of Tropical Plants) by integrating more basic theory and concentrating more on plant groups that are globally and theoretically important rather than identification of locally abundant families.
Organization of lectures and seminars:
Most of our lectures will be presented using slides, overhead transparencies
or computer generated images. Much of the material from the lectures
will be
posted on the web site for the course ( /biog/
). Lecture outlines will be posted on the web site at least 24 hrs
before class and students will be expected to come to class with their
own hard copy. There will be a 10 min. break in the middle
of the 3 hour lecture period. I ENCOURAGE students to interrupt
me at any time during our lectures to ask questions and also ENCOURAGE
discussion during our lectures. I also ENCOURAGE students to set
an appointment with me at least twice during this semester. This will help
me to have feedback on my performance as an instructor and also to know
if students are having a good learning experience.
Student code of conduct:
Students are expected to respect and obey all regulations concerning
the code of conduct as they are indicated in the Student Handbook of Florida
International University. Therefore academic misconduct as indicated in
this handbook will not be tolerated. We treat each student as a mature
and
responsible person and therefore we expect that we will not be dealing
with cases of "cheating" of "plagarism". Cases of academic misconduct will
lead
to disciplinary penalties as indicated in the Student Handbook.
