Seminar in Natural Science (online)

Weeks 7-9
Required Readings for Illinois Ecosystems

Prairies 

• Atlas of Biodiversity (pp. 14-23)
• Illinois State Museum. (2000). Prairie Ecosystems. Retrived Oct. from <http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/prairie/htmls/intro.html>. [MT]

• Whelan, Christopher J. (2009). "Affects of Excluding Birds on Illinois Prairies." Center for Biodiversity, IL Natural History Survey. Retrieved Oct. 2009 from http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/cbd/research/highlights/index.html. [BP]

Forests 

• Atlas of Biodiversity (pp. 24-33)
• Illinois Department of Natural Resources. (1994). Illinois Forests. The Changing Illinois Environment: Critical Trends. [KW]
• Pepper, Justin. (2008, Spring). First Aid for the Forest.  Chicago Wilderness Magazine. [KL]

Wetlands

• Atlas of Biodiversity (pp. 34-49)
• IL Dept of Natural Resources. (2009). Wetlands. Retrieved Oct. 2009 from http://dnr.state.il.us/wetlands/index.htm. [JW]
  • Read these sections from the website: Understanding Wetlands, Functions and Values, Status and History
• Bourne, Joel (15 Sept. 2000). Louisiana’s Vanishing Wetlands: Going, Going… Science 289, 5486. [EC]

Rivers

• Atlas of Biodiversity (pp. 46-7)

• Theiling, Charles (1998). Ch. 14: The Illinois River. Ecological Status and Trends of the Upper Mississippi River System.

• Hawthorne, M (2007, September 14). Project to measure danger of murky Chicago River. Chicago Tribune. [JM]

• Revkin, A. (2009, July 16). Peeling back pavement to expose watery havens. New York Times.

Great Lakes

• Atlas of Biodiversity (p. 49)

• Environmental Protection Agency. (2009, July 22). Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement | Great Lakes | US EPA. [CC]

• Union of Concerned Scientists. (2008). Great Lakes Communities and Ecosystems at Risk.
  • Read "Executive Summary" and explore one of more of the other chapters
• McGlashen, Andrew. (2009, February 12). (Not So) Great Lakes Cleanup: Daunting cleanups of various toxic hot spots around the Great Lakes are bogging down. Scientific American News. [KD]

Assignments

Field Trips

Links

Schedule

Texts

391 Home Page 

mb's Home Page

May Theilgaard Watts' Reading the Landscape of America (1975), a truly original work of natural history that shows how to "read" the ecological character and history of a landscape, and in doing so communicates basic tenets of methods of ecology and biology.  Includes several essays on Illinois and the Chicago region.

Last updated 10/29/09