⛔ Generative AI is prohibited in this course
Dr. Manning's syllabus bans generative AI outright for coursework — including using it to generate answers, to edit or revise your assignments, or to analyze course materials you were asked to consume. Violations are treated as academic integrity violations and may result in a failing grade for the assignment or the course.
What that means for this site: use these pages the way you'd use a textbook, a study group, or your own notes — reading, self-quizzing, reviewing. Do not use the AI chat widget, Quiz Me, or any AI tool to draft, edit, summarize, or analyze anything connected to BIOL 3340 coursework — lab reports, the final project, or the assigned readings. If you are unsure whether a specific tool is permissible, ask him in advance.
Quick start
Course facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Course | BIOL 3340 / 8345 — Ecology · 4 credits |
| Lecture | Tue & Thu, 8:30–9:45 am · ASH 438 (Arts & Sciences Hall) |
| Instructor | Dr. David Manning · Associate Professor, Biology |
| Office | Allwine Hall 422G |
| davidmanning@unomaha.edu — best way to reach him; replies within ~24 h on weekdays | |
| Office hours | Tue 10:30–11:30 am · Thu 1–2 pm · or by appointment. Open door = available. |
| Recommended text | Stiling, Ecology: Global Insights and Investigations (1st or 2nd ed.) — recommended, not required |
| Free OER | Ecology for All! (LibreTexts) |
| Writing guides | Pechenik, A Short Guide to Writing about Biology (7th/8th ed.) · Schimel, Writing Science |
| Schedule | Full 16-week schedule is below — mirrored from Canvas. Manning notes it may change (weather, etc.), so Canvas stays the authoritative copy. |
| Embedded book | Ecology for All! — all 807 pages readable on this site, searchable, with every scheduled chapter linked |
How the grade is built
| Component | Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Exam 1 · Thu Sep 24 | 15% | Definitions, multiple-choice, short answer, and longer essay questions. Drawn from lectures, readings, and class activities — and lab material may appear on lecture exams. Each exam covers its own block; none of them is cumulative. |
| Exam 2 · Tue Nov 3 | 15% | |
| Final exam · Tue Dec 15 | 15% | |
| Final project · due Tue Dec 8 | 15% | Presented informally in small groups on Dec 8. The two writing guides above are aimed squarely at this. |
| Lab | 40% | Lab assignments, reports, and participation. Lecture material may appear in labs. |
| Lecture portion = 60% total · Lab portion = 40% total | ||
Safety nets — use them deliberately, not casually
- One exam can be made up — for documented conflicts (university athletics, sudden illness, family emergency).
- One lab assignment is dropped — same rationale.
- Late work: −5% of the assignment value per day (a 20-point assignment loses 1 point per day).
- Alert him as soon as possible — beforehand where you can — with formal documentation.
Note: there is no "lowest exam dropped" policy, and exams are not stated to be open-note. Do not plan around either.
Grading scale
| Letter | Range | Letter | Range | Letter | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | 97.0–100 | A | 93.0–96.9 | A− | 90.0–92.9 |
| B+ | 87.0–89.9 | B | 83.0–86.9 | B− | 80.0–82.9 |
| C+ | 77.0–79.9 | C | 73.0–76.9 | C− | 70.0–72.9 |
| D+ | 67.0–69.9 | D | 63.0–66.9 | D− | 60.0–62.9 |
What actually earns the grade
Manning's own tips for success
"Ecology is not about memorizing terms, but it is about understanding processes." Build that into how you use this site: after every flashcard run, force yourself to explain the mechanism out loud, not just recite the definition.
- Attend and participate. In-class exercises are graded — completion or content, at his discretion — and are how you earn attendance credit. He also drops subtle hints about what is on exams.
- Take the readings seriously. Primary and popular readings go beyond textbook and lecture, are posted to Canvas, announced in advance, and likely discussed in class — and they are fair game on exams.
- Form a study group. He explicitly recommends making a habit of discussing lecture concepts as a team.
- Do the end-of-chapter conceptual questions in the textbook. He names these directly as exam practice.
- Slides are on Canvas — but they are the skeleton, not the course. Being absent costs you the rest.
Key dates — Fall 2026
From the Canvas schedule of topics. Manning notes the schedule is subject to change (weather, etc.) and that Canvas is the authoritative copy.
3 exams + a project
- Exam 1 — Thu Sep 24 · Weeks 1–5
- Exam 2 — Tue Nov 3 · Weeks 6–10
- Final projects due — Tue Dec 8, with informal small-group presentations in class
- Review session — Thu Dec 10
- Final exam — Tue Dec 15
The final is not cumulative
The Dec 15 final covers only the final third of the course material — that is roughly Nov 5 → Dec 3: ecosystem ecology (food webs, energy flow, production, decomposition, biogeochemical cycling), global change agents, restoration, and conservation biology.
Plan accordingly: Exams 1 and 2 are where the earlier material gets tested, and it does not come back. Don't over-invest in re-reviewing weeks 1–10 in December.
Breaks
- Tue Oct 20 — Fall break
- Thu Nov 26 — Thanksgiving
First class Tue Aug 25. Last content day Thu Dec 3.
Full schedule — topics & readings
Stiling chapters are from Ecology: Global Insights and Investigations. EFA = Ecology for All!, the free open textbook — every EFA link opens the book embedded on this site, at the right chapter.
| Wk | Date | Topic | Stiling | Ecology for All! |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tue Aug 25 | Introduction: 10 principles of Ecology (Kaspari) | 1.1–1.2, 1.4 | Ch 1.1–1.4 |
| Thu Aug 27 | Introduction II: importance of scale, global climatic patterns | 1.2, 22 | Ch 2.4–2.8 | |
| 2 | Tue Sep 1 | Physical/abiotic: temperature and climate change | 5 | Ch 2.4–2.8 |
| Thu Sep 3 | Physical/abiotic: water & nutrients | 6, 7, 27.6 | Ch 2.1 | |
| 3 | Tue Sep 8 | Individuals: evolutionary processes | 2 | Ch 3 |
| Thu Sep 10 | Individuals: speciation, behavior | 3 & 4 | Ch 4 · Ch 13 | |
| 4 | Tue Sep 15 | Populations: measuring populations, spatial/landscape ecology | 8 | Ch 6 |
| Thu Sep 17 | Populations: population dynamics | 9 | Ch 9 & 10 | |
| 5 | Tue Sep 22 | Populations: population growth | 10 | Ch 10 · growth simulator |
| Thu Sep 24 | 🔴 EXAM 1 — covers Weeks 1–5 (intro, physical environment, individuals, populations & growth) | |||
| 6 | Tue Sep 29 | Species interactions: competition and facilitation | 11–12 | Ch 14, 15 & 17 |
| Thu Oct 1 | Species interactions: predation / herbivory | 13–14 | Ch 16 | |
| 7 | Tue Oct 6 | Species interactions: parasitism | 15 | Ch 16.4–16.5 |
| Thu Oct 8 | Population regulation (top-down, bottom-up) | 16 | Ch 19 | |
| 8 | Tue Oct 13 | Community ecology: species diversity | 17 | Ch 22 |
| Thu Oct 15 | Community ecology: species richness patterns | 18 | — | |
| 9 | Tue Oct 20 | Fall break — no class | ||
| Thu Oct 22 | Community ecology: species richness & ecosystem services | 19 | — | |
| 10 | Tue Oct 27 | Community ecology: succession | 20 | Ch 18 |
| Thu Oct 29 | Community ecology: island biogeography | 21 | Ch 21 | |
| 11 | Tue Nov 3 | 🔴 EXAM 2 — covers Weeks 6–10 (species interactions, population regulation, community ecology) | ||
| Thu Nov 5 | Ecosystem ecology: food webs and energy flow | 25 | Ch 19 | |
| 12 | Tue Nov 10 | Ecosystem ecology: terrestrial, marine, freshwater perspectives | 22–24 | — |
| Thu Nov 12 | Ecosystem ecology: primary and secondary production | 26.1 | — | |
| 13 | Tue Nov 17 | Ecosystem ecology: decomposition | 26.2 | — |
| Thu Nov 19 | Ecosystem ecology: biogeochemical cycling — C, N, P, trace elements | 27.1–27.5 | Ch 20 | |
| 14 | Tue Nov 24 | Global change agents: ecosystem contamination | — | — |
| Thu Nov 26 | Thanksgiving — no class | |||
| 15 | Tue Dec 1 | Ecosystem restoration and conservation | — | — |
| Thu Dec 3 | Conservation biology | — | Ch 23 | |
| 16 | Tue Dec 8 | 🟢 FINAL PROJECTS DUE — informal presentations in small groups | ||
| Thu Dec 10 | Review session | |||
| 17 | Tue Dec 15 | 🔴 FINAL EXAM — final ⅓ of the course only (Nov 5 → Dec 3: ecosystem ecology, global change, restoration, conservation) | ||
How to read this schedule
- Each exam is a clean block. Exam 1 = weeks 1–5, Exam 2 = weeks 6–10, Final = weeks 11–15. Nothing is re-tested, so bank each block once and move on.
- Two textbooks, one topic. Stiling is the recommended buy; EFA is free and embedded here. When a topic lists both, read whichever explains it better for you — they cover the same ground.
- The heaviest stretch is Sep 29 → Oct 29 — five straight topic pairs (species interactions → community ecology) with no break until Oct 20, all landing on Exam 2.
- Ecosystem ecology is both the final's whole content and Manning's research area. Nov 5 → Dec 3 is where his emphasis and your last exam overlap completely.
Know your instructor
Dr. David Manning
Freshwater and ecosystem ecologist. Works on streams and rivers: nitrogen and phosphorus dynamics, detritus-based food webs, organic-matter breakdown, and how watershed land use — agricultural, urban, forested — drives nutrient loading downstream.
What to expect from that: aquatic systems carry real weight alongside terrestrial ones; ecosystem-level nutrient cycling and stoichiometry are likely emphasized more than in a typical intro course; and the "human–environment interactions" thread in the syllabus will lean on land use, eutrophication, and water quality. Expect primary-literature readings from this space.
Practical notes
- Email is the channel — roughly 24 h weekday turnaround.
- Open office door means come in. He states it explicitly — help, conversation, whatever.
- Documented conflicts: tell him beforehand and bring formal documentation.
- Lab and lecture are not siloed — each shows up on the other's assessments.
- Accessibility accommodations run through ASC (104 H&K · 402.554.2872) — request well in advance.
Reference materials
- LibreTexts — Ecology for All! (the OER named in the syllabus, free)
- Stiling, Ecology: Global Insights and Investigations — sourcing notes on the Books page
- LibreTexts — General Ecology
- Crash Course Ecology — 12 episodes (Hank Green)
- Yale Open Courses — Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (E&EB 122)
- Smith & Smith, Elements of Ecology (Internet Archive) — solid alternate reference, not the recommended text
- Wikipedia — Ecology (overview)
- Dr. Manning — Biology faculty profile
- Dr. Manning — Environmental Studies profile
- Dr. Manning — Google Scholar (his publications)
- UNomaha DigitalCommons — Biology faculty publications