BOT 480: Algal Diversity and Evolution

Spring 2005 Syllabus 

9:00-10:15 am Tuesdays & Thursdays, Wednesday afternoon lab 1:30-4:30 pm (all in St John 603)

Instructors:

Faculty: Alison Sherwood, room 607A (asherwoo@hawaii.edu), phone 956-3680

Graduate Assistant: Cheryl Squair (squair@hawaii.edu), phone 956-3943

Download PDF of the 2005 syllabus here

Collecting algae in Hawai'i: We are in the process of obtaining a permit for the class to conduct their collections. As we discussed on the Waikiki field trip, some areas of O'ahu are off limits for collecting this year (and in some cases, all the time), including some regions of Waikiki and Hanauma Bay and Pupukea (north shore). Please take a few minutes to look at these maps and be aware of the Marine Life Conservation Districts on our island.

OFFICE HOURS:

Alison Sherwood will be available on Thursday afternoons from 1:30-2:30pm, in St. John room 607A.

Please call or email to schedule an appointment is this time does not fit in your class schedule.

TEXTBOOKS:

Required: Graham & Wilcox. 2000. Algae. Prentice Hall. (available at the UH bookstore for $92.80 new or $70.55 used).

Optional: We will also be using two recently published books on Hawaiian marine algae by Dr. Isabella Abbott and Dr. John Huisman. Limited copies of these will be available in the laboratory for use, but if you are planning a career as a marine biologist in the tropical Pacific you may want to consider purchasing your own copies (available at UH bookstore, on Amazon.com, or at Bishop Museum):

Abbott, I.A. 1999. Marine red algae of the Hawaiian Islands, Bishop Museum Press.

Abbott, I.A. & Huisman, J.M. 2004. Marine Green and Brown Algae of the Hawaiian Islands, Bishop Museum Press.

FIELD TRIPS:

All trips are optional although VERY strongly recommended. The purpose is for you to collect algae for your herbarium (which comprises a significant proportion of your final grade) and to see the organisms in their natural state. The first three trips are to collect marine algae (seaweeds). For these trips you will need to bring appropriate footwear (e.g. reef walkers, especially for Makapuu trip) and snorkel gear / swimwear, if you plan to be in the water (NOTE: this is strongly recommended unless you are not a comfortable swimmer). The final field trip will be to a stream site to observe and collect freshwater algae, and also to see and collect some terrestrial/subaerial algae representatives.

GRADING SCHEME:

ADDITIONAL WEB-BASED RESOURCES:

• Reef Algae Web Site or http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/reefalgae

• The Phycological Society of America http://www.psaalgae.org (most of the following links came from this page)

• Guide to Pressing Seaweeds http://www.cryptogamicbotany.com/lm_press_seaweed.html

• Desmid website (www.desmids.nl)

• AlgaeBase website - information on taxonomy of all algae (http://www.algaebase.org)
• Portuguese Seaweeds Website - Portal das Macroalgas Portuguesas (http://www.uc.pt/seaweeds)
• PISCO Marine Algae Database: an online collection of images (http://www.piscoweb.org/cgi-bin/qml/newalgaequery.qml)
• Desmid Information, including beautiful photos (http://www.desmids.info/)
• Algae associated with sea turtles in Hawaii (http://www.turtles.org/limu/limu.htm)
• The Phytoplankton Image Library (http://www.cedareden.com/phyto.html) by Michael R. Martin
• The Latz Research Laboratory with information on dinoflagellates and bioluminescence (http://siobiolum.ucsd.edu/)
• The International Research Group on Charophytes with information on living and fossil charophytes (http://www.life.umd.edu/labs/delwiche/Charophyte.html)
• A Checklist of Fijian marine algae (http://www.usp.ac.fj/marine/fijilist.htm)
• Jeremy Pickett-Heaps' web site for Cytographics with information on algal videos, preparation of live cells, etc (http://www.cytographics.com)
• Web-based multimedia course entitled "A phylogenetic survey of photosynthetic organisms" focusing mainly on algae by Derek Keats (http://kewl.uwc.ac.za/)
• Algal Images (especially diatoms) from Rex Lowe's lab (Bowling Green University) (http://www.bgsu.edu/Departments/biology/algae/index.html)
• Great Lakes Diatom Home Page (http://www.umich.edu/~phytolab/GreatLakesDiatomHomePage/top.html)
• Algal images for teaching and ecological data from southeastern Ohio from Morgan Vis' lab (Ohio University) (http://vis-pc.plantbio.ohiou.edu/algaeindex.htm)
• Smithsonian Institution Algae Web page with information on algae in general, recent publications, how to preserve algae and herbarium collections (http://www.nmnh.si.edu/botany/projects/algae)
• The University of California Museum of Paleontology with general information: Green Algae (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/greenalgae/greenalgae.html), Chromista (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/chromista/chromista.html), Red Algae (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/protista/rhodophyta.html), and Dinoflagellates (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/protista/dinoflagellata.html)
• Mike Guiry's seaweed page (http://www.seaweed.ie)
• CYANOSITE with information on Cyanobacterial research (http://www-cyanosite.bio.purdue.edu/index.html)
• The Harmful Algae Page with photographs, news stories and information (http://www.redtide.whoi.edu/hab/)
• ECOHAB: Florida - Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (http://floridamarine.org/features/view_article.asp?id=9024)

07/01/2005