Ecosystem Processes, Biodiversity and Climate Change
Ecosystem processes, biodiversity and climate change
Course convenors: Casey Ryan and Patrick Meir
Course website:
Coppock room 2.22, email:
Office times: 3-5pm Mondays, 4-5pm, Tuesday. You can also contact me by email.
When? Semester 2, Tuesdays 2-3.50pm.
Where? Old Library.
Course Aims
1) To introduce the study of how ecosystems function.
2) To understand the terrestrial carbon cycle and how it is quantified.
3) To understand patterns of global biodiversity.
4) To critically assess the connections between biodiversity and ecosystem function.
5) To assess potential future effects of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem function.
6) To consider links among climate, atmospheric carbon dioxide & international policy.
7) To consider the effects of land use in the tropics (e.g. for development) on ecosystem function using a case study approach.
8) To learn to use an interdisciplinary scientific literature, to develop transferable skills in critical writing, in oral and visual presentation, and in teamwork.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course you should be able to:
1) Understand the terrestrial carbon cycle in the context of the global carbon balance.
2) Understand how this knowledge is acquired and to be able to critically evaluate research in the area.
3) Assess what is predicted for future changes in different ecosystem properties (e.g., biodiversity and productivity) in response to climate change.
4) Analyse how resource use can affect ecosystem and climate properties at a local and international scales.
And more generally:
1) Use a multidisciplinary literature independently, taking responsibility for your own learning by locating your own source material, evaluating its quality and using it appropriately.
2) Develop skills in oral and visual presentations through working alone or in a team. 3) Develop skills in writing critically, concisely and in an engaging manner.
4) Abstract and synthesize information, and develop reasoned arguments in support of specific arguments, theories or concepts.
Teaching and learning processes
Lectures to provide guidance on principal subject areas, theories and critiques.
Directed reading and web-based resources.
Tutorials to explore key ideas and research findings through discussion of selected papers.
Handouts associated with assignments and lectures each week.
Oral and written presentations with feedback.
Class essay (~1000-1500 words) with feedback.
Degree essay and examination question(s).
General advice and guidance on the course.
Assessment
Class assessment:
1) Individually-written one-page summary and a small-group presentation of a series of papers on a specific subject.
2) 1000-1500 word essay.
Degree assessment:
1) A 2000 word degree project (choice of titles provided); 40%.
2) Examination: 2 hrs, 2 essay questions from a set of 6; 60%.
Information on course components
Lectures and Tutorials
Lectures will provide an introduction to key topics, ideas and theories relevant to the course. However, they are only a starting point; the handouts provided with each lecture will suggest further reading. These lists are not exhaustive. You are encouraged to use them as a starting point for further research, on subjects that particularly interest you (e.g. via reference lists in suggested papers, Web of Knowledge literature database, other texts etc). In tutorials we will evaluate and assess the contribution of selected research papers using a group presentation and discussion format. You will learn about the different papers that others have prepared as well as the one you prepared. To gain the most from the tutorials you should read as widely as possible, especially other papers cited by or directly related to your assigned paper.
Submission deadlines
Degree project/essay: 1200 hrs, Thursday Mar 5th (Wk 8)
Class essay:1600 hrs, Thursday Feb 5th (Wk 4)
One-page article summaries: 1400 hrs on Tuesday of relevant weeks.
Degree assessment
Research Essay:
This is your opportunity to engage with one aspect of the course in detail. You will need to read widely to do this well. Some suggestions:
-Include a clear introduction and describe the wider scientific context and key relevant results.
-Describe the importance of your chosen topic and the questions you wish to address.
-Structure your essay strongly. Think where detail is needed and not needed; think about the order of sections and paragraphs.
-Support your arguments using a critical and evidence-based approach.
-Make appropriate use of tables, graphs and other figures. Make use of any opportunity to create your own by using published data in an innovative way. This can show understanding and creativity.
-Try to interpret disagreement between different scientific papers using your own reading of the subject, and argue any of your own ideas using data and observations from this reading.
-Cite published work appropriately and include a full reference list.
-The essay should be not more than 2000 words; it should be printed.
Examination:
The examiners will be looking for answers that show clear focus and demonstrate specialist knowledge of the subject, independent reading and thinking, and an appreciation of the wider picture.
The date of the exam is not yet set, but will be between 27 April and 29 May 2009
Class assessment
Assessment 1: presentation/group tutorial.
The tutorials will require active involvement of the whole class, and will need written and presented material by different groups of ~4 students.
The class will be divided up into ~6 groups of ~4 students. On the Tuesday preceding each tutorial (see timetable), each student will be allocated a paper to study in relation to the wider literature. The processes of individual and team-based work in this element of the course will develop your skills in concise written analysis and presentation.
1a. Summarise and evaluate selected papers.
Each person will be assigned a journal paper and will be required to produce a one-page written summary of it. Do not write more than one page and keep to sensible formatting and margins.
This will be submitted on the day of the tutorial at the class.
Each student in the class should receive a copy of the written summary: please bring photocopies of the text to be handed out ahead of your presentation (~25 in class this year).
1b. Tutorial/Seminar: discussion of a subject area (1 hour).
Each group will combine to present different elements of a scientific discussion/question relating to the papers that have been allocated to them. They will prepare a joint presentations using powerpoint, explaining the subject area and how the papers contribute to, or advance understanding of, the subject. Each team will give a presentation (~25 minutes), which should be followed by questions from the wider class and more general discussion.
The references will be supplied one week in advance of each presentation.
Remember that the aim is for you to assess the key elements and main advances of the paper in relation to the specific contents of that paper, but also with respect to the wider subject area. You will need to read more widely than this one article to do the assignment well, hence the group-lead discussion component. You will also need to discuss with your colleagues about how to present the material.
Presentations should include: key graphs, diagrams and tables, and in the case of the one-page written summary should include appropriate text analysing the main results and their significance.
Assessment 2: 1000-1500 word class essay.
A choice of titles will be provided. The essays should be put into the course ‘box’ and will be collected at 5 pm on Thursday of Week 4. The aim of this is to give you a chance early on to develop your expertise in a subject area of your choice. You may not decide which essay to go for until later in the course, but the titles are provided early on to facilitate time management.
Programme Summary
Each afternoon will include some of: lecture, tutorial/seminar, mini-workshop, discussion/debate, invited lecture, feedback.
Week 1.Introduction to course
Ecosystems
Tutorial/seminar grps chosen, papers for Week 2 provided
Class essay titles provided
Week 2.Measuring and modelling the terrestrial carbon cycle
Tutorial/Seminar; papers for Week 3 provided
Degree essay titles provided
Week 3.Carbon, forests and global climate
Tutorial/Seminar; papers for Week 4 provided
Week 4. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function
Tutorial/Seminar; papers for Week 5 provided
Deadline to hand in class essays
Week 5.Responses to climate change: ecosystem function and biodiversity.
Tutorial/Seminar; papers for Week 6 provided.
Week 6.Land use change, ecosystem properties, climate and conservation: a case study in Amazonia.
Tutorial/seminar + degree essay advice and reminders
Week 7.Climate change, carbon and international policy
Seminar; papers for Week 9 provided.
Week 8.Land use, carbon sequestration, policy and business.
Invited lecture from Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management:
“Land use, carbon cycle research and climate change opportunities”
Deadline for degree essay: 12 noon, on the Thursday of Week 8 (5 Mar); hand in at the office (Shiela Wilson is u/g secretary).
Week 9.The tropical terrestrial carbon balance
Tutorial/seminar
Week 10.Course summary
Special topic review/revision and discussion of exams
Relevant texts
Additional references will be provided with each lecture.
Ecosystems, carbon cycle, climate change
Aber JD and Mellilo JM (2001). Terrestrial Ecosystems, 2nd ed. Academic Press, San Diego.
Bonan G (2002). Ecological climatology: concepts and applications. CUP, Cambridge.
Butcher SS et al. (1992). Global biogeochemical cycles. Academic Press, London.
*Denman, K.L.,et al Couplings Between Changes in the Climate System and Biogeochemistry. In: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Ehleringer JR et al. (1993). Scaling physiological processes: leaf to globe. Academic Press, San Diego.
Gash JHC et al. (1996). Amazon Deforestation and Climate. Wiley, Chichester.
*IPCC, 2007: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 996 pp.
Kabat, P (2004) Vegetation, water, humans and the climate: a new perspective on an interactive system. Springer, New York
Roy J, Saugier B, Mooney HA. (2001). Terrestrial global productivity. Academic Press, San Diego.
Schlesinger WH (1997). Biogeochemistry: an analysis of global change, 2 ed. Academic Press, San Diego.
Van Gardingen PR et al. (1997). Scaling-up: from cell to landscape. CUP, Cambridge.
Waring RH and Running SW (1998). Forest ecosystems: analysis at multiple scales. Academic Press, San Diego.
*Watson RT et al. (2000). Land use, land use change and forestry: a special report of the IPCC. CUP for IPCC, Cambridge.
Ecology, ecophysiology, biodiversity
British Ecological Society (2001). Ecology: achievement and challenge. The 41st symposium of the BES. Blackwell, Malden.
Colinvaux P (1986). Ecology. Wiley, Chichester.
Gaston KJ (1996). Biodiversity: a biology of numbers and difference. Blackwell, Cambridge.
Goldammer JG (1990). Fire in the tropical biota: ecosystem processes and global challenges. Ecological Studies 84. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Jeffries M (1997). Biodiversity and conservation. Routledge, New York.
Jones HG (1992). Plants and microclimate, 2nd ed. CUP, Cambridge.
Monteith JL and Unsworth MH (1990). Principles of environmental physics, 2nd ed. Edward Arnold, New York
Mulkey SS, Chazdon RL, Smith AP (1996). Tropical forest plant ecophysiology. Chapman and Hall, New York.
Nobel PS (1999). Physicochemical and environmental plant physiology 2nd ed. Academic Press, San Diego.
Richards PW (1997). The tropical rain forest, 2 ed. CUP, Cambridge.
Schulze ED et al. (1994). Biodiversity and ecosystem function. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Solbrig OT, Medina E and Silva JH (1996). Biodiversity and savanna ecosystem processes: a global perspective. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Taiz, L & Zeiger, E (1998) Plant Physiology, 2nd ed. Sinauer, Sunderland.
Policy and development
Anderson AB (1990). Alternatives to deforestation: steps toward sustainable use of the Amazon rain forest. Columbia University Press, New York.
Faminow MD (1998). Cattle, deforestation and development in the Amazon: an economic, agronomic and environmental perspective. CAB, Wallingford.
Grubb M (1999). The Kyoto Protocol: a guide and assessment. Earthscan, London.
Handmer JW et al. (2001). Ecology, uncertainty and policy. Prentice Hall, London.
*IPCC, 2007:Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC, Cambridge University Press, UK, 976pp.
Schneider SH, Rosencranz A and Niles JO (2002). Climate change policy: a survey. Island Press, London.
*Watson RT et al. (2000). Land use, land use change and forestry: a special report of the IPCC. CUP for IPCC, Cambridge.
Watson RT et al. (2001). Climate change 2001: synthesis
*IPCC documents available at:
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