Principles and Methods of Systematic Biology (EEB 5347)
Fall 2013
Lecture MW 9:05-10:35 In the Bamford Conference Room TLS 171B
Lab F 9:05-10:35 Probably the McCarthy Room, 4th floor TLS
Instructor: Dr. David L. Wagner, TLS Rm 471
Phone: 486-2139
office hours open; best to call or email ahead
email: david.wagner'at'uconn.edu
Graduate Teaching Assistant: Russ Meister
Office hours: BioPharm 323 Stop by or by appointment
Phone: 486-3947
email: russell.meister'at'uconn.edu
Contents
Textbook and readings
There is no assigned text. Generally you can expect one or two readings to be assigned for each lecture. Many readings will be available as pdfs, downloadable from the course website. Others, available in hard copy only, will be on reserve in the departmental office (TLS 312) in the filing cabinet next to the window. You are free to check out copy #2 for 3 hours; copy #1 should stay in the office, i.e., so one is always there for others to photocopy.
Schedule
Day | Topics | Reading/Assignment | Lab |
---|---|---|---|
Aug 26 | Organizational meeting; an introduction to biological systematics Basic Definitions ![]() |
Lecture instead of lab this week | |
Aug 28 | The many roles of biological systematics Species Definitions ![]() ![]() |
Hubbell Reading ![]() | |
Aug 30 | Species definitions & species intermediacy & collections tour | Templeton 1989 ![]() ![]() | |
Sept 2 | Labor Day, No class | Babbidge Library resources; taxonomic literature Meet in Babbidge library electronic classroom 1 (EC1) on level 1, to the left and behind Info Cafe 1 (http://classguides.lib.uconn.edu/content.php?pid=238531&sid=1968055) | |
Sept 4 | Species definitions & species intermediacy Species II and III Lecture ![]() |
Finish reading/reread Templeton from Friday, Read Prosek's article (http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/2868/) Optional Readings: Futuyama Section (via email), Coyne and Orr's Species Concepts Overview (via email) | |
Sept 6 | Lab, Meet in library Room EC1, walking in through the main entrance, go straight back and up to level 1, then see this map (http://www.lib.uconn.edu/maps/Level1EC12013.pdf), you will be coming out of the stairs in the center of the map | Ehrlic & Raven 1969 ![]() Make a slide or two about geographic subspecific variation Nichols Gene tree species tree discordance ![]() | |
Sept 9 | Species definitions & species intermediacy; variation within species | Mallet 2013 ![]() ![]() Wilson and Brown ![]() Winston Chapter (emailed) |
Taxonomic resources: key websites, taxonomy exercise assigned (Meet in McCarthy Room, 4th floor TLS) Literature Search Activity ![]() Online Resource List ![]() |
Sept 11 | Subspecies and geographic variation ![]() |
Read Futuyma's section on gene tree/species tree issues (from the Species chapter distributed earlier, pages 476-478) Mayr Chapter 4 (emailed) Send Dave or myself an example slide of infrasubspecific variation Possibly read this too ![]() | |
Sept 13 | lab | lab Dave's names lecture ![]() | |
Sept 16 | Variation within a genotype: ontogeny & phenotypic plasticity ![]() |
Lab: Alpha taxonomy: finding taxonomic characters & keys; descriptions and diagnoses; introduction to Mesquite’s alpha taxonomic features Mesquite I ![]() Dave's Tiger Beetle Intro ![]() | |
Sept 18 | Variation within a genotype | Macrotaxonomy and plant systematics readings sent out by Dave | |
Sept 20 | lab | lab | |
Sept 23 | Supraspecific taxa ![]() |
NYC field trip (Do NOT meet in McCarthy Room, 4th floor TLS) | |
Sept 25 | Phylogenetic inference: mostly a historical overview ![]() |
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Sept 27 | lab | lab | |
Sept 30 | Trees and characters; types of dendrograms; rooting and polarization |
Page and Holmes: Trees ![]() Forey et al. Chapters 2 and 3 ![]() Krell and Cranston 2004 ![]() Possibly one more, by Felsenstein |
Describing and diagnosing species; specimen/museumdatabases DELTA, MANTIS & other taxonomic computer tools. (Meet in McCarthy Room, 4th floor TLS) |
Oct 2 | Taxonomic characters: polarity, outgroups, order, weighting, and step matrices | ||
Oct 4 | lab | lab | |
Oct 7 | Distance methods, UPGMA, neighbor-joining, correcting distance data, multivariate methods | Lab: Neighbor-joining and corrected distances; PAUP* (introduction) (Meet in McCarthy Room, 4th floor TLS) | |
Oct 9 | Parsimony; search algorithms; algorithmic power, accuracy, and inconsistency | ||
Oct 11 | lab | lab | |
Oct 14 | Midterm exam | Parsimony with PAUP (Meet in McCarthy Room, 4th floor TLS) | |
Oct 16 | Midterm Review | ||
Oct 18 | lab | lab | |
Oct 21 | lab | lab | Lab: PAUP*: tree searches; tree statistics (Meet in McCarthy Room, 4th floor TLS) |
Oct 23 | Reliability and measures of tree support | ||
Oct 25 | No Lab/AMNH & Bronx Zoo Trip | ||
Oct 28 | lab | lab | Lab: Likelihood (Garli and/or RAxML) and Bayesian analyses (Meet in McCarthy Room, 4th floor TLS) |
Oct 30 | Maximum likelihood (Lewis Guest Lecture) | ||
Nov 1 | Bayesian inference (Lewis Guest Lecture) | ||
Nov 4 | Data partitions; consensus; comparing trees | Lab: PAUP*: ModelTest; molecular clocks; AIC et al. (Meet in McCarthy Room, 4th floor TLS) | |
Nov 6 | Molecular systematics in plants (Les Guest Lecture) | ||
Nov 8 | lab | lab | |
Nov 11 | Molecular systematics in animals (Simon Guest Lecture) | COI Barcoding and analyzing your own data sets (Meet in McCarthy Room, 4th floor TLS) | |
Nov 13 | lab | lab | |
Nov 15 | DNA barcoding | ||
Nov 18 | Nomenclature | Lab: Mesquite; character optimization; character correlation (Meet in McCarthy Room, 4th floor TLS) | |
Nov 20 | Nomenclature; Phylocode | ||
Nov 22 | Lab | Lab | |
Nov 25 | Thanksgiving Recess | Thanksgiving Recess, Do NOT meet in McCarthy Room | |
Nov 27 | Thanksgiving Recess | ||
Nov 29 | Thanksgiving Recess | ||
Dec 2 | Special topic: Phylogenetic trees & evolutionary processes | No lab this week DO NOT Meet in McCarthy Room | |
Dec 4 | Special topic: Taxonomic collections | ||
Dec 6 | Special topic: Systematics and conservation biology and the future of biological systematics | ||
Dec 14 | Final: 8-11 AM |
Lab and take home exercises | 20% | 200 pts |
Midterm | 20% | 200 pts |
Term paper | 22% | 220 pts |
Nomenclature exercise | 1% | 10 pts |
Participation | 2% | 20 pts |
Final | 35% | 350 pts |
Total | 100% | 1000 pts |
Term paper
Each student will be required to prepare a paper that will be due on December 2nd. Styles that have been adopted in the past include (1) a literature review
that could be incorporated into a thesis chapter or (2) an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant proposal. Another angle would be to (3) review a subject relevant to systematic theory or methodology. If you are considering the DDIG option this year's Dissertation Improvement Grants will be due on October 10th, 2013. Visit http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5234 htm
Funding sources for taxonomy and biodiversity
Here is a comprehensive guide to potential funding sources for taxonomy and biodiversity studies. It was created in 2010, so most sources are up to date.
Funding for biodiversity and taxonomy 2010.pdf
Important dates (May change a bit)
7 October, 2013: Paper Topic Due
14 October, 2013: Midterm
16 October, 2013: Brief Outline with 5 references
18 November, 2013: First draft due (May change)
2 December, 2013: Paper due (May change)
EEB5347 website from 2011 (http://hydrodictyon.eeb.uconn.edu/eebedia/index.php/EEB5347_2011)