Contact: Dr. Jason Kilgore (Washington & Jefferson College) and Dr. Karen Kuers (University of the South): eren.phae@gmail.com
Initiated: 2020
Project Status: Currently accepting participants
Description
Welcome to Plants in the Human-Altered Environment (PHAE)! In this project, you will learn how plant community structure and function vary across landscapes and will compare data from your area to other sites.
Training Webinar, Recorded on August 11, 2020 (Closed Captioning Available)
Prior to participating in this Project, we request that all instructors indicate their use of PHAE by completing a short survey about your course. Upon receipt of your responses, we will send a link to a document that contains tips on implementing the project.
Hypotheses/Objectives: To compare the effects of a continuum of landscape alteration intensities on plant diversity, biomass, and ecosystem services, and to explore human socioeconomic connections to plants in the environment.
Summary of Methods: In support of the mission of the Ecological Society of America, the PHAE project reflects the Four Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) Framework’s core ecological concepts through its utilization of individual tree parameters (e.g., species, dbh, height, biomass) to evaluate and compare population size, potential carbon-sequestration, and community diversity in plots across different ecosystems and landscapes. PHAE enhances ecological skills through collaborative fieldwork (both on-site and virtual), communication across institutions, and the use of standard yet low- or no-cost approaches to measure plant and site characteristics, as well as the use of technological platforms like GoogleEarth, GoogleSheets, and R to share and analyze data. Variation in plot sizes will mean that students have to consider the significance of scale in their analyses, and this project will encourage students to examine the effects of humans on landscape features, plant-site interactions, and impacts on ecosystem services.
PHAE is composed of easily digestible units called Modules (see below links). The core modules (Modules 1 and 2) contain specific directions to identify and characterize a study site and plot wherever you are located, from campus to urban and rural landscapes. Additional modules can be implemented, depending on the number of sessions or amount of time that you have to dedicate to this project. Once the plots are set up, you can even develop your own modules based on the plot infrastructure. Let us know if you want to share your new module with the rest of the ecological community!
Expanded project info: PHAE Background, Module Instructions, & Plot Data
Curriculum: PHAE curricular materials (included in the Module Instructions linked above) are designed to achieve these Student Learning Outcomes:
- Recognize a continuum of natural and human-altered landscapes
- Identify an appropriate study site and plot within a range of landscapes
- Classify landscape features, identify woody and non-woody plants, and measure plant abundance and cover
- Improve data management skills by collecting, sharing, and analyzing data using defined variables in spreadsheets
- Analyze spatially relevant data within and across project sampling locations to address local, regional, and continental scale research questions related to local landscape features and plant abundance, diversity, and size
- Become familiar with continental-scale ecological research through EREN and NEON and the importance of long-term ecological monitoring across time and space
Other Project Materials: Assessment Materials
Publications will be linked here when available.