v.1.8.11

AGRONOMY 517 SYLLABUS for  2011
Condensed Version

UNIT 1:  THE NATURE OF WEEDS                                                                                  
1          The nature of weeds                                                                                       
         1.1  What is a weed?
            1.2  The definition of a weed
            1.3  Weeds and human nature
            1.4  Weedy traits
            1.5  The origins of weeds
            1.6  World origins and centers of agriculture, crop domestication and cultivation
            1.7  World crop-weed species groups                                     

UNIT 2:  THE EVOLUTION OF WEED POPULATIONS                                                            
2          Evolution, natural selection and weedy adaptation  
            2.1  Introduction
            2.2  Evolution
            2.3  Natural selection and elimination
            2.4  The process of natural selection
            2.5  Adaptation                                                                                               

3           Formation of the local weed population (deme):  Precondition to natural selection 
            3.1  Introduction:  opportunity and the formation of the local deme
            3.2  The structure of local weedy opportunity
            3.3  Habitat heterogeneity and dynamics
            3.4  Limiting resources and pervasive conditions in local opportunity
            3.5  The nature of plant invasions of local opportunity                                             

4           Generation of genotypic and phenotypic variation:  First process of natural selection
            4.1  Genotypes and phenotypes  
            4.2  Generate genetic variation    
            4.3  Generate phenotypic variation                                                                 

5           Survival, reproduction and inheritance:  Second process of natural selection   
            5.1  Survive, Avoid Mortality  
            5.2  Reproduce the fittest, eliminate the others
            5.3  Inheritance:  transmit parental traits to offspring                                                

UNIT 3:  ADAPTATION IN WEED LIFE HISTORY                                                       
6          Weed life history  
            6.1  Introduction to life history
            6.2  Plant life history classification systems
            6.3  Representing weed life history
            6.4  The ecological demography of plant population life history dynamics
            6.5  Evolutionary, trait-based, weed life history population dynamics          

7           Reproductive adaptation  
            7.1  Introduction
            7.2  Flowering, anthesis, fertilization and birth     
            7.3  Embryo adaptation:   embryogenesis and dormancy induction
            7.4  Propagule adaptation:   post-abscission fecundity                                    

8           Propagule dispersal in space and time 
            8.1  Introduction
            8.2  Dispersal in space   
            8.3  Dispersal in time:   formation of seed pools in the soil     
            8.4  Propagule germination and recruitment                                                   

UNIT 4:  ADAPTATION IN LOCAL PLANT COMMUNITIES  
            Weed-crop communities as complex adaptive systems
9          Neighbor interactions in local plant communities
            9.1  Adaptation to neighbors in the community   
            9.2  The nature of neighbor interactions in the community
            9.3  Strategic roles and traits of interference and facilitation with neighbors
            9.4  Effects of neighborhood interactions on plant density, growth and form          

10         Weed community structure, dynamics and biodiversity
            10.1  Weed communities
            10.2  Weed community structure
            10.3  Exploiting opportunity:  weed community dynamics 
            10.4  Weed community biodiversity               

©jdekker-2011