NATH8295, 3.0 CEUs   Class night and time: Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30 pm Class meetings: September 23-December 2 (no class November 25) Lectures in person at Woodend Field trip dates: Saturday, 9/26 (9 am-12 pm) Plant-Pollinator Interactions at Patuxent Research Refuge, National Wildlife Visitors Center (South Tract); Saturday, 10/10 (10 am-1 pm) Plant-Herbivore Interactions at Little Bennett Regional Park; Saturday, 10/24 (9 am-12 pm) Seed dispersal and frugivory – examining foliar fruit flags at Rock Creek Park. Instructor: John Lill This 10-week course will explore the myriad ways that plants and animals interact in natural communities. Major sub-topics will include pollination, herbivory, plant defenses, frugivory, seed dispersal, ant-plant interactions, and carnivorous plants. You’ll explore these fascinating and often intimate interactions through the lens of evolution, probing the fitness benefits and costs to each partner engaging in these interactions. You’ll come to appreciate how plants use (and often manipulate!) animals to overcome the limitations of being rooted in place but still needing to mate with one another, disperse their offspring, and fend off their natural enemies. There will be three field trips, two written assessments, and each student will take turns presenting a paper of their choice on a relevant topic. We will read and discuss excerpts of book chapters and/or accessible scientific papers each week.