FW4140 - Vegetation Modelling

FW4140 - Vegetation Modelling
at MTU Biometrics

Course Description from MTU Calendar

FW 4140 - Vegetaton Modelling. Use of models in research and management of terrestrial ecosystems. Teaches application with emphasis on philosophy; models as tools, design goals and approaches, and interpreting the meaning and significance of model outputs.

Course Syllabus

You may download a copy of the 2008 syllabus by clicking here.

Grading

There are NO formal exams in this course. Your course grade is made up of seven assignments, equally weighted and worth 40% of your course grade, and three quizzes, worth 20% each.

Assignments Assignment 01 Assignment 02 - Data Files - CFI Field Data Sheet Assignment 03 Assignment 04 Assignment 05 - NorthPro Assignment 06 - spreadsheet Assignment 07	Handouts - newest on top 2008-03-28: Adams and Ek (1974) 2008-03-21: Overview of the TASS model 2008-01-24: FVS Region 9 Tutorial 2008-01-18: Powerpoint slides from the first lecture 2008-03-28: NorthPro equations from Robert's teaching notes
Quizzes 2008-02-29: Quiz 1 - example - answer key 2008-03-28: Quiz 2 - example - answer key 2008-04-24: Quiz 3 in the lab session - example - answer key	Note: some links on this web page are to objects or files that you may wish to save on your computer. In most web browsers you can download rather than open a link by clicking the right mouse button and selecting "save as" or "download".

Textbooks

This year there is a required text for this class. I also suggest some references:

This great reference for Forestry and Natural Resources Inventory subject material is required:
Avery, T.E. and H.E. Burkhart. 2002. Forest Measurements (5^th ed). McGrawHill, Madison WI. 456 p.

A comprehensive text on modelling forests with an emphasis on trees, which you can download:
Vanclay, J.K. 1994. Modelling Forest Growth and Yield: Applications to Mixed Tropical Forests. CABI, Wallingford, UK. 312 p.

Assigned Readings - newest on top

2008-03-21: The NorthPro Manual
2008-02-15: Davis et al. (2000), Ch. 5, pp. 210 - 229, on individual tree models.
2008-01-24: FVS Region 9 Tutorial - pp. 7 - 12 and pp. 19 - 24.
2008-01-25: Read Vanclay (1995) pp. 1 - 13.
2008-01-17: Essential FVS - Chapters 1 - 3, pp. 1 - 19.

Resources

Remember that recordings of each lecture are available on iTunesU!

Official FVS home page
FVS at MTU
Avery and Burkhart's text on amazon.com
NorthPro - an Excel add-in
Joseph Buongiorno's page at UW-Madison, which includes info on NorthPro and related models