Course Information

Welcome to "Discovering Beringia," an undergraduate course undergoing development and diversification. Here follows the basic syllabus or outline for the course. As a web-based course, its "platform" may be Blackboard, Moogle, or other structure. This blog will advise you of its disposition.

Course Syllabus

GEOS F 392 (Cross-listed: BIOL F 392, RD F 392)[1]

“Discovering Beringia” 3 credits (3 + 0)

Instructor of Record: David W. Norton, 218C O’Neill, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm MWRF. 907.474.7746; ffdwn@uaf.edu {NOTE: There will be guest instructors frequently during this course}

Textbooks:

O’Neill, D. 2004. The Last Giant of Beringia: The mystery of the Bering Land Bridge. Boulder CO: Westview Press vii + 231 pp.

Ruddiman, W. F. 2001. Earth’s Climate: Past and future. New York NY: Freeman xxii + 465 pp.

Hopkins, D.M., J.V. Matthews, Jr., C.E. Schweger, and S.B Young (eds.) 1982. Paleoecology of Beringia. New York NY: Academic Press xiv + 489 pp.

Flannery, T. 2001. The Eternal Frontier: An ecological history of North America and its peoples. New York NY: Grove, 404 pp.

Marshak, S. 2005. Earth: portrait of a planet. 2^nd Ed. New York NY: W.W. Norton. 748 pp.

Supplementary readings from peer-reviewed literature will be assigned and made available through ERes, or on a course-specific web page

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Origin and successive refinements to the scientific (geologic, biogeographic, climatological and archaeological) evidence for episodic terrestrial connections between Asia and North America since the Mesozoic. Reconstructions of ecosystems in the subcontinent of Beringia. Significance of Beringia to high-profile scientific topics and issues, such as global climate change, peopling of the Americas, and species extinctions. PREREQUISITES: One of the following---GEOS 100X, GEOS 101X , BIOL 105-106X, BIOL 102, BIOL 104X, or permission of Instructor

COURSE GOALS

A. General

1. Acquaint students with the historical developments by which broad scientific consensus on the previous existence(s) of land bridges vs. marine transections of these bridges has been achieved and extended;

2. Develop a trans-disciplinary forum for discussion of the persuasiveness of ecological, paleontological, geologic, and other discipline-specific evidence;

3. Familiarity with several methods and styles of undergraduate instruction and discourse;

4. Experience connections between cutting-edge scientific investigations and instructional curricula in the sciences.

B. Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Mastery of this regional (Western Arctic) interdisciplinary theme, which is fundamental to the development of high-latitude earth and biological sciences, and to human geography;
2. Practice the observational and communications skills that scientists have applied in the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries to the building of this unifying theme;
3. Grasp the manner in which geological, paleontological, biological and other scientific disciplines marshal evidence when contributing to a unifying theme in sciences;
4. Become conversant with the cutting edge of Beringia theory and the bases for hypothesizing a land bridge connecting Asia and western North America, particularly from late Mesozoic and early Tertiary geologic, floral and faunal events and patterns;
5. Develop the capability to evaluate the reliability of proxy data used in paleoclimate reconstructions.

Instructional Methods: Various modes, including lectures, audioconferencing, ERes, field trips.

Course Calendar:[2]

Week One: “Greenhouse Earth” 100 million years ago; Continents, seas & sea level, tectonism; Tectonic scale climate changes; seasonality, plants and animals; Geologic Time Scale.

Week Two: Biogeographic patterns by the end of the Mesozoic; K-T catastrophe and mass extinctions; Transition from “Greenhouse Earth” to “Icehouse Earth” throughout the Tertiary, and suggested mechanisms for this transition.

Week Three: The Beringian Paradoxes of the Quaternary; Paleogeography; Key Earth Processes; High Latitude Seasonality; Water and carbon cycles; Orbital scale climate changes.

Week Four: Early notions of Asia’s and Alaska’s floral and faunal similarities; Personalities in Beringia studies; Beringia in the Pleistocene; Evidence from Glacial and Periglacial Environments.

Week Five: A Review of Radiocarbon and other Dating methods; Grouping, segmenting and naming intervals in the flow of time; Review of Proxy Data and hypothesised mechanisms.

Week Six: Beringia’s communities and ecosystems reconstructed; Beringia’s significance in “peopling of the Americas” debates; Late Pleistocene changes in Beringia; Significance of Beringia research to projected climate changes.

Course Policies:

Participation in class discourse, hence attendance, is especially important. As the course develops, students may elect to replace one or more exams with written or oral presentation to class exploring a topic related to Beringia and the Bering Land Bridge. Such topics would be mutually agreed upon with the Instructor.

Evaluation:

Class participation 50 %; Papers and periodic exams 30 %; Assisting students who have little formal science background with course material 15% Evidence of original thinking 5 %.

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[1] UAF -92 suffix designates a special topics course, in which instructional material is on trial before a course is formally adopted into the UAF Course Catalog.

[2] This Syllabus was based on a 6-week Summer Sessions schedule in which classes meet 4 days weekly for 3 h each day. North American Semester courses are based on 14 weeks of instruction, 3 hours per week