Introduction

Welcome to 'Natural History in the 21st Century' - a new class in the Geography department at UC Berkeley. Natural history is characterized by individual, direct observation of the natural world often made by 'non-scientists'. In this course, we will explore the ongoing partnership between natural historians and the scientific community and the important role that new technologies play in facilitating these interactions.

This course will rely heavily on iNaturalist.org, a social network for naturalists, to enable the class to record and share observations. The course material will be broadly organized into three scientific fields that historically have relied heavily on the contributions of natural history: Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation Biology. As we cover each topic, we will explore examples of how natural history continues to contribute to each of these disciplines.

The structure of this class will be a combination of lectures and applied activities iNaturalist. Lectures are meant meant to give a broad overview of the environmental sciences and their relationships to natural history. All activities outside of lecture including homework assignments and a final project will take place on the Berkeley Geography 171 project which will recording and sharing natural history observations with classmates and the broader iNaturalist community. It is my hope that by the end of this class you'll have a strong applied understanding of environmental sciences and the important role that natural history and citizen science are playing in moving these fields forward.

Office Hours

Thursdays 12:30 in 561 McCone Hall or by appointment.

Website

All course activity outside of lecture will take place on the Berkeley Geography 171 project page on iNaturalist.org.

Grading Criteria

Weekly assignments will be given that relate to lecture material. These will include short readings and activities on iNaturalist such as recording observations, recording field journals, and interacting with other naturalists. In addition to these weekly activities there will be one final project focused on any of four topics covered in the course: 1) curating the tree of life, 2) managing an ecology project, 3) analyzing natural history data, or 4) contributing to conservation assessments. As explained in the class, each of these projects can be done using the iNaturalist platform. These projects will be demoed to the class during the final two weeks of the course along with an accompanying paper describing the project. The course will be graded based on performance in the weekly assignments and the final project. There will be no midterm.

Lectures

• Course Overview 1-21
• Linnean Taxonomy 1-23
• Guest iNaturalist Lecture (Ken-ichi Ueda) 1-28
• Guest Citizen Science Lecture (Alison Young) 1-30
• Climate 2-4
• Geology 2-6
• Evolution 2-11
• Landcover & Niches 2-13
• Ecological Niches pt.2 2-18
• Vertebrates 2-25
• Marine Invertebrates 2-27
• Plants 3-4
• Plants pt.2 3-6
• Value of Biodiversity 3-11
• Man Eats Planet 3-13
• Biofuels & Land Use 3-18
• Spring Break & Final Projects 3-20
• 4-1 Can we Detect Extinctions
• 4-3 Big Data
• Guest Microrganisms Lecture (Will Luddington, PhD) 4-8
• Guest Forestry Lecture (Jordan Golinkoff, PhD) 4-10
• Protected Area 4-15
• Museum Field Trip - no lecture 4-17
• Restoration 4-22
Final lecture 4-24

Homework

• Homework #1 - due end of day January 24th
• Homework #2 - due end of day February 4th
• Homework #3 - due end of day February 13th
• Homework #4 - due end March 4th
• Homework #5 - due end of day March 18th
• Homework #6 - due end of day March 20th
• Homework #6 - due end of day March 20th
• Spring Break Extra Credit - due end of day April 1st
• Homework #7 - due end of day April 8th
• Homework #8 - due end of day April 17th
• Homework #9 - due end of day May 6th (extended to May 8th because of Dropbox Security Breach)
• Homework #10 - due end of day May 6th (extended to May 8th because of Dropbox Security Breach)

Schedule

Introduction to Natural History in the 21st Century

Week 1: Course overview

January 21: Course overview
January 23: Linnean Taxonomy
January 25: Optional field trip - Palo Alto Baylands Bioblitz

Week 2: iNaturalist and BioBlitzes

January 28: iNaturalist demo by site co-founder Ken-ichi Ueda
January 30: Citizen Science and Bioblitzes by California Academy of Sciences CitSci Coordinator Alison Young

Overview of Climate, Geology, Species & Ecosystems

Week 3: Climate and Geology for the Natural Historian & Species

February 4: Climate and Natural History
February 5: Geology & the San Andreas Fault

Week 4: Species and Ecosystems

February 11: Ecoregions - global overview with emphasis on California
February 13: Ecological Niches & Phenology

Natural History & Ecology

Week 5: Major Ecological Concepts Week 1

February 18: Biogeography and Mammals
February 20: Ecosystems and Ecology

Week 6: Major Ecological Concepts Week 2

February 25: Life history and behavior
February 27: Vertebrates

Week 7: Ecological Interactions

March 4: Intertidal Natural History
March 6: Cal Academy Fieldtrip to Pillar Point

Natural History & Evolution

Week 8: Systematics vs taxonomy

March 11: Natural History of Plants
March 13: Natural History of Microorganisms! (Guest lecture by Dr. Will Ludington)

Week 9: Wrapping up Part I

March 18: Thinking about Final Projects
March 20: Class housekeeping - end of Part I

Week 10: Spring Break

Week 11: Conservation overview

April 1: Humans and the biosphere
April 3: Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology Field Trip (with Michelle Koo)

Conservation & Natural History

Weeks 12: Conservation threats

April 8: Spine of the Continent (Guest lecture by Mary Ellen Hannibal)
April 10: humans and the biosphere part II - climate

Week 13: Conservation interventions

April 15: Climate, Forestry, & Conservation (Guest lecture by Dr. Jordan Golinkoff, Conservation Fund)
April 17: Protected Areas & Restoration Ecology

Week 14: Education & Outreach

April 22: Environmental education
April 24: Community organizing and grass roots environmental action

Environmental Education and Action

Week 15:Final Project Presentations Week 1

April 29: Final project presentations and discussion
May 1: Final project presentations and discussion

Final Project Presentations

Week 16: Final Project Presentations Week 2

TBD: Final project presentations and discussion (we will find a time during Dead Week)

Week 17: Berkeley Finals Week

No Class

Readings

• Readings for Feb 4 - Chapter 1-2
• Readings for Feb 6 - Chapter 3

A Natural History of California by Allan A. Schoenherr