Workshops Overview


NASA-MSU Golley-Odum Workshop:
Constructing and teaching a great Landscape Ecology course

Time: 8:00-11:30 am – Doubletree Hotel
Cost: Free
Organizers: Kimberly M. Mattson (Virginia Tech) and Deahn Donner Wright

This workshop presents the foundations of developing and teaching a landscape ecology course at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Workshop speakers will discuss fundamental topics pertinent to landscape ecology curricula, such as including ecosystem and population perspectives into curricula, appropriate foci for undergraduate and graduate courses, the role of technology in the classroom, and developing pedagogical tools. Participants should be able to construct a syllabus and gain insight into developing a teaching philosophy by the end of the workshop. A list of resources for further course development will be provided. We invite graduate students, post doctoral fellows, early career faculty, and other interested individuals to participate.

Speakers will represent a variety of landscape ecology backgrounds. They will speak about their experiences in teaching landscape ecology and provide guidance in the following areas:

  • Including key concepts in syllabus development
  • Relating academic exercises to practical applications
  • Pros and cons of various class formats
  • Integrating technology into the classroom
  • Pedagogical practices

There will also be an open session at the end of the workshop in which participants and speakers may discuss specific topics in more detail.

Eco-hydrologic modeling with the RHESSys modeling framework

Time: 8:00-11:30 am – University of Arizona
Cost: $30
Organizers: Christina Tague (UC-Santa Barbara) and Janet Choate (San Diego State University)

RHESSys is a GIS based, terrestrial eco-hydrologic modeling framework designed to simulate carbon, water, and nutrient fluxes as the watershed scale. RHESSys models the temporal and spatial variability of ecosystem processes and interactions at a daily time step over multiple years by combining a set of physically based process models and a methodology for partitioning and parameterizing the landscape.

This workshop will provide an introduction to RHESSys and its applications. We will use several case studies to give participants hands on experience in applying the RHESSys modeling framework to explore the impacts of climate change and urbanization on a variety of eco-hydrologic responses (streamflow, evapotranspiration, net primary productivity, net ecosystem exchange nitrification/denitrification).

NASA-MSU Golley-Odum Workshop:
Job hunting experiences of recent graduates

Time: 1:00-4:30 pm – Doubletree Hotel
Cost: Free
Organizers: Anita Morzillo and Jeff Hollister (US EPA)

Securing a job after completing a graduate degree is among a graduate student’s most rewarding (and most stressful) experiences. The job hunting experience, from submitting an application to signing a contract, is likely not the same for any two people. It is nearly impossible for any candidate to know exactly what will be sought and expected from him/her during the process. To provide current students (and non-students) with a broad perspective and real experience of what they might encounter during the job application process, we have assembled a panel of 8 landscape ecologists who will discuss their job hunting experiences. Post-graduate positions that we will cover include agency and university-based post-docs, assistant professorships, positions with non-profit organizations, and master’s-level positions. Panelists will reflect on their own job hunting experiences and provide insight on how the actual process compared to their perceived expectations. Additional items for discussion will include extraneous circumstances such as balancing professional family obligations and suggestions for accommodating dual-career relationships. A portion of the session will be reserved for discussion and questions, as well as opportunity for one-on-one discussion with panelists.

IDRISI – Land Change Modeller

Time: 1:00-4:30 pm – University of Arizona
Cost: $30
Organizers: Ron Eastman (Clark University)

FRAGSTATS

Time: 8:00-4:30 pm – University of Arizona
Cost: $85
Organizer: Sam Cushman (USDA Forest Service)

This workshop is designed to provide an introduction to landscape structure analysis using FRAGSTATS, a computer software program designed to compute a wide variety of landscape metrics for categorical map patterns and to explore some issues regarding the use of landscape metrics to describe landscape structure. FRAGSTATS is distributed for free over the internet and is the most widely used landscape structure analysis software available. The specific objectives of this workshop are to:

  1. Introduce participants to landscape structure analysis.
  2. Provide participants with hands-on experience with FRAGSTATS.
  3. Provide participants with insights into the behavior of landscape metrics.
  4. Provide participants with insights into future directions in landscape structure analysis.

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

  1. Make informed decisions regarding the selection of appropriate landscape metrics for particular questions of interest.
  2. Conduct a landscape structure analysis using FRAGSTATS and appropriately interpret the results.
  3. Apply the results of landscape structure analyses to conservation situations, including evaluating the ecological consequences of alternative land management scenarios.