Postgraduate Course: Ecosystems and Global Change (PGGE11247)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | We all depend on, and impact, a vast range of services provided by ecosystems, from food and medicines to a stable climate, clean water and storm protection. This course provides an introduction to the ecosystem ecology underlying these services, in particular looking at how ecosystems are structured and function. The course has a practical ethos and involves fieldwork and analysis of real data from around the globe. It is suitable for students with a wide range of backgrounds, but you will need to quickly develop competence in managing data with Excel. The course looks at the dynamic nature of ecosystems, which often behave as complex systems. Different ways of representing and modelling such systems are explored through practical exercises and case studies. |
| Course description |
Week 1: Overview of Ecosystem Concepts and Global Change
Week 2: Ecosystems and the global carbon cycle
Week 3: Fieldwork practical: the structure of forests
Week 4: Modelling global (eco)systems: an example of the global carbon cycle
Week 5: Biodiversity: what is it and how do we measure it?
Week 6; Nutrient cycles
Week 7: Ecosystems as dynamic systems
Week 8: Agricultural ecosystems and ecosystem function
Week 9: Future earth
Week 10: Sustainable Marine Development
Week 11: Overview, feedback and exam preparation
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2022/23, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 34 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 44,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
152 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
100% coursework in three parts:
1. Data analysis report from the field trip (15%)
This will be a data driven report using data collected during the field trip to Hermitage of Braid (or given to the students if the field trip cannot take place). The bulk of the numerical work will be done in tutorials.
2. 3-page policy brief on Ecosystem Management. (35%)
This should be written as a POST note. It should engage in how a specific EGC topic has different dis/services and implications over different scales (either temporal or spatial).
3. Essay: Interactions between environmental sustainability goals for an ecosystem. (3000 words) (50%)
This essay should explore how we measure and/or manage a specific ecosystem. It should engage with at least two different topic areas covered by this course, and identify where trade-offs or synergies occur, and how these can be managed
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand the fundamental principles of ecosystem ecology, including how ecosystem structure relates to function, and what drives the dynamics of ecosystems
- Measure and model ecosystem structure and function, manage data, and analyse large ecological data sets
- Appreciate the diversity of ecosystem functions and expressions across different time, space and biome scales, and illustrate them through case studies.
- Describe the trade-offs in ecosystem management at the local and global scale, integrating ecosystem integration with global change drivers.
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Reading List
Reading lists will be provided for each week on Learn The following texts are used throughout the course:
1) Chapin, Matsoun and Vitousek (2011) Principles of terrestrial ecosystem ecology. 2nd edition. Springer.
2) Haefner, J (2005) Modeling Biological Systems: Principles and Applications. 2nd edition. Springer.
Other literature which gives you a flavour of the course content includes:
1) Steffen, W., J. Grinevald, P. Crutzen and J. MCNeill (2011). "The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical perspectives." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. 369 (1938): 842-867
2) Curtis, A (2011). The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts. Part 2 in the BBC TV documentary series All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace. Available online.
3) Gruber N, Galloway JN (2008). An Earth-system perspective of the global nitrogen cycle. Nature 451: 293-296
4) Hooper, D.U et al (2005) Effect of Biodiversity on Ecosystem Functioning: A Consensus of Current Knowledge. Ecological Monographs, 75 (1), 2005, pp 3-35
5) Post, ERO et al (1999). Ecosystem consequences of wolf behavioural response to climate. Nature 401 (6756): 905-907
6) Biggs, R., Carpenter, S.R., Brock, W.A. (2009) Turning back from the brink: Detecting an impending regime shift in time to avert it. PNAS vol 106, no 3, 826-831 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Data collection and management, data analysis using Excel, systems thinking and modelling. Summarising complex scientific issues for non-scientific audiences. Group work for presentations. |
| Keywords | Ecosystem functions,ecosystem dynamics,biogeochemical cycles,productivity,Climate change |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Casey Ryan
Tel: (0131 6)50 7722
Email: |
Course secretary | Ms Louisa King
Tel: (0131 6)50 2543
Email: |
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