Integrated Study of Environmental Effects on Organisms

Kutztown University, Kutztown PA

Investigators

Abstract

Biological Sciences (61) The interaction of organisms with their environment is manifested in biological responses at many scales, from the biochemical to the ecosystem level. The relationships of organisms and their environments has been of concern to ecologists in the context of natural environmental variation and is of growing importance in light of the effects on organisms of human-influenced environmental change. In this project eight laboratory classes offered in the Biology department at Kutztown University are being adapted to introduce students to study of the physiological responses of organisms to natural environmental variation or to human-influenced environments. The efforts are an adaptation of and based on the experiences of faculty at Bloomsburg University, Cornell University, the University of Delaware, and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Laboratory exercises focus on measurement of effects of environments on organisms from the physiological to the whole organism scale of response. The organisms to be studied include bacteria, protists, plants, and selected marine invertebrates. The environmental factors are being studied in controlled environments in the laboratory or greenhouse as well as under conditions of natural environmental variation in field sites. In this project: 1) Students are working cooperatively to examine the relationship between organisms and environment in inquiry-based laboratory exercises, 2) Students, working in groups, use computer-interfaced physiological equipment to quantify response to selected environmental factors, 3) Students examine how selected environmental factors impact organisms at the level of individual performance, population numbers, or in competitive interactions among species, 4) Students analyze physiological and whole organism data using comparative quantitative methods from graphical representation to basic inferential statistics and 5) students present results in manuscript-style laboratory reports, in posters, or in oral presentations patterned after those typical of a professional meeting.