FSEM 122   Ecology & Quality-Environment

Faculty Profile for Professor Fuller

Ecology and the Quality of the Environment

Many of the key environmental problems that face society today involve how biotic systems are affected by alterations of physical and/or chemical factors. Students are introduced to ecological concepts that explain the nature of the environment and their relationship to environmental problems. Topics include human population dynamics, community and ecosystem dynamics, biodiversity and habitat fragmentation, invasive species, water pollution, hazardous waste disposal, renewable and nonrenewable resources, and climate change. Environmental degradation and pollution are approached from an ecological perspective, but also will address environmental ethics, environmental justice and economic and political aspects of environmental problems. Students read position papers that address both sides of an environmental problem and discuss the merits of both sides of different environmental issues. Students who successfully complete this seminar will receive course credit for CORE 159S and satisfy the Scientific Perspective core requirement.

Professor Fuller is the Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies whose research interests center on trophic relationships and energy flow in stream ecosystems, predator-prey interactions, algal-bacterial interactions and, more recently, he has been studying the delayed recovery of acid-stressed streams in the Adirondack Mountains. Professor Fuller teaches Evolution, Ecology and Diversity as well as Ecology, Limnology and Advanced Aquatic Ecology and in the Environmental Studies Program.