LUOVA courses

BIOCHEMICAL ADAPTATIONS IN NATURAL POPULATIONS (2 ECTS)
Thursdays 29 September - 8 December 2011 at 13-15, Biocenter 3, Viikki campus

Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Dahlhoff, visiting Fulbright scholar, Santa Clara University, USA

Office hours: By appointment.

Objectives: This graduate and postgraduate seminar course will examine biochemical and physiological adaptations in natural populations, especially those potentially threatened by global warming. Organisms from terrestrial and marine habitats may be examined. While the focus will be primarily on animals, terrestrial plants living in extreme or threatened habitats may also be discussed.

Schedule:
	Day	Time	Room
	Thu 29.9.	13-15	6201
	Thu 6.10.	13-15	1402
	Thu 13.10.	13-15	1402
	Thu 20.10.	13-15	6201
	Thu 27.10.			NB! No class this week.
	Thu 3.11.	13-15	6406
	Thu 10.11.	13-15	1402
	Thu 17.11.	13-15	1402
	Tue 22.11.	13-15	6406	NB! Class held on Tuesday.
	Thu 1.12.	13-15	6406
	Thu 8.12.	13-15	6406

Coursework: This course will focus on recent studies published in the peer-reviewed literature. Each student will select a topic of interest, with guidance from instructor (sample topics shown below) and identify at least 3 papers from the primary literature on that topic. Students will assign one of those three papers as the "main" topic of discussion at least 1 week before their presentation time. Non-presenting students will turn in a 1-2 paragraph synopsis of that paper at the beginning of the class in which the topic is discussed, and come prepared with questions about the data, interpretations of data and conclusions, etc. from that one paper. The first topic of the term will be selected and presented by the instructor. Depending on class enrollment, 1-2 topics will be discussed per week.

Sample topics:
	Temperature adaptation in proteins from insects living at variable temperatures
	Environmental heat shock in ectotherms (rocky intertidal animals, terrestrial insects living in extreme environments, freshwater or marine fishes, etc.)
	Protein and membrane adaptations of desert plants
	Importance of genetic variation and phenotypic plasticity for surviving environmental change; genotype x environment interactions
	Physiological and biochemical adaptations to extreme cold (Antarctic fishes, Arctic insects, boreal reptiles, hibernation in mammals, etc.)
	Mechanistic causes of persistence, expansion and extirpation of natural populations

Target group: Master's and Ph.D. students interested in population and evolutionary ecology, spatial ecology and conservation biology. Exceptional undergraduates with scientific proficiency in English may enroll at consent of the course instructor.

Quota: 20 students.

Language: English.

Grading: Grade for the course will be based on performance on oral paper presentation (including quality of materials given to classmates, ability to explain topic and papers selected, quality of visual aids to presentation, and quality of scientific discussion generated), the short writing assignments associated with other students' presentations, and in-class participation of paper discussions. Course may be taken for a grade, or pass/fail.

Enrolment: If there are more applicants than we can take we’ll prioritize students to whom the course is highly relevant. Order of application will not be used as a selection criterion.

The deadline for applications was on Wednesday 14 September 2011.