A study of the structure and function of plants and their responses to environmental factors in a variety of ecological contexts. Course topics include water relations of plants, mineral nutrition and the soil environment, photosynthesis and respiration, nitrogen metabolism, as well as the growth and development process. Plant responses will be evaluated to environmental factors such as air temperature, water availability, light quantity and quality, carbon dioxide concentration, and to a variety of human interactions such as ecological restoration and agricultural food production. Laboratories will be largely investigative, using a variety of physiological instruments to evaluate plant productivity in greenhouse, growth chamber, and field environments. Lectures and laboratories. Prerequisites: Biology 224 (or 141) and 205; Chemistry 253 (or 261 and 262).