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Recent Courses

Geography 109. Prehistoric Agriculture. (4) Three hours lecture per week. Agricultural origins in the light of recent biological and archaeological evidence.

Geography 148. Biogeography. (4) Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: 1 or a lower division course in Biology or Earth Science. Changing distribution patterns of plants and animals on a variety of spatial and temporal scales. The effects of continental drift, Pleistocene climatic change, agricultural origins and dispersals. The ecology of invasions and extinctions. Island biogeography.

Geography 175. Environmental History of Mexico:  Undergraduate Seminar. Three hours of seminar per week. A reading and research seminar for undergraduate students.

Geography 260. Topics in Biogeography. (4) Course may be repeated for credit. Two hours seminar and one hour consultation per week. Research seminar on selected topics in biogeography. Recent offerings include: Late Quaternary Environmental Change in Mesoamerica.

Geography 261. Field and Laboratory Techniques in Quaternary Paleoecology. (4) Recovery of sediment cores from lakes and marshes. Field work usually in California or Mexico. Non-destructive methods of core analysis: magnetic susceptibility, x-radiography, photography, image analysis. Extraction of fossil pollen, seeds, and microscopic charcoal. Pollen and seed identification, photomicroscopy, charcoal scanning. Statistical analysis and graphical presentation of data.