ENVIRONMENTAL AND SUSTAINABILITY STUDIES (ESS)
Semester 1, 2017

ESS221 – Climate Change and Adaptation

LECTURING/PRACTICAL TIMES & VENUES

  • Wednesday, Period 4, All Students, (12:00 – 1:00) – BCB 5th Floor (Lecture)
  • Wednesday, Period 1, Group 1, (8:30 – 9300) – BCB 5th Floor (Tutorial)
  • Wednesday, Period Lunch, Group 2, (1:00 – 2:00) – T5C Dentistry Pre-Clinical (Tutorial)

PRESENTER

Coordinator:Dr. Rich Knight (Biodiversity & Conservation Biology Department, Office Room 5.89, 5th Floor BCB building, Tel. 021-959 3412, Email

Lecturer: Luci Coleman (Biodiversity and Conservation Biology Department, 5th Floor BCB Building), Email

AIM

Establish an understanding of the evidence of climate change and an assessment of the impacts and adaptions thereof.

OUTCOMES

Upon completion of the course students should be able to have and/or do the following:

  • An understanding and application ofthe evidence for climate change and associated global climate models
  • An understand of the response of biodiversity to past climates and the consequential adaptations to changing climates
  • The technical and conceptual knowledge of ecological niche based modeling and the tools and resources for biodiversity conservation planning in a critically changing environment
  • An understanding for the considerations of climate change within strategic conservation planning and the resultant costs
MAIN CONTENT
  • The implications for the impact of human activities on the environment to biodiversity
  • The indicators and likely impacts of climate change
  • Biodiversity’s adaptations to the threats and displacements of climate change
PRESENTATION & COURSE MATERIAL

The module runs for 14 weeksduring the first and secondterms of the first semester and will be presented through theory lectures as well as practical laboratories. Class attendance is imperative.There is a no textbook for this course. All course material is available online at:

  • (Shockwave)
  • Change chapter1 to appropriate chapter number as seen on course outline*

The two websites host the same information (eight lectures), though itis made available through different media: the first provides screencasts while the second provides lecture notes. Each lecture has a test yourself interactive tutorial; this tutorial is only available at the first website provided.

Any ancillary course material will be posted to (NISL). This will include this course outline, any assignments and related documents and links.

There is a course blog - ess221.blogspot.co.za. All assignments and associated documents will be posted here as well as any course announcements or other necessary communications.

ASSESSMENTS

The module will be assessed by one final examination as well a series of coursework assignments. The final exam is worth 40% of the course’s final mark, while the assemblage of coursework assignments will be combined to make the remaining 60% of the course’s final mark. This is broken down as follows:

Final Exam: 40%

Coursework: 60%

Video Project: 50% (or 30% of course final mark)

Take Home Test: 25% (or 15% of course final mark)

Mini DocumentaryAssignments: 25% (or 15% of course final mark)

Final Exam: The final exam will be offered during the assessment period of the first semester (12 June – 6 July); the date of the exam will be assigned by the university. This exam will cover the material covered across the eight lecturescovered in lecture as well as the four documentaries (see Mini Documentary Assignments below). The exam will be essay style.

Video Project: Each student will complete a video project to be turned in on Wednesday June 28th, 2017 before 5:00 PM. There will be a 10% penalty for each day late. Details related to the project will be made available during the first few weeks of the semester in practical.

This project will be completed in pairs. Partners will be assigned in the first week of tutorial. Students may only work with a student in their group. Each pair will be selecting a species from a preselected list of agricultural plant species (provided by the lecturer). The species each pair selects must be reported to the lecturer by 5:00PM on 8 March 2017 either in person or via email to .

As an overview, each pair will be selecting an agricultural plant species. The students will complete research on the species, generate an ecological niche model for the species under both current and future climatic conditions, and complete a PLOT analysis for the species and its modeled distributions.

Each pair will be required to generate a video to be posted onto YouTube containing this information. This video should shift through a PowerPoint and provide commentary for each slide, describing text and figures as appropriate.

All details related to the Video Project can be found in the Video Project directory on our class’ NISL directory.

Note, a draft version of the PowerPointwill due on 10 May 2017 before 5:00 PM; they must be emailed to . Paper copies will not be accepted. This draft will comprise 10% of the final Video Project mark. There will be a 10% penalty for each day late. A sample draft PowerPoint can be found in the Video Project directory on our class’ NISL directory.

Take Home Test: A take home test will be assigned during the last week of the first term on Wednesday, 12 April 2017. The test will be handed out during this class and will be posted in the ESS 221 folder of NISL. The test must be completed and turned in by Wednesday, 3 May 2017 before 5:00 PM into the hand-in box on the BCB 5th Floor. There will be a 10% penalty for each day late.

Mini DocumentaryAssignments: There will be four mini-assignments corresponding to the four videos the course will cover. These include:

A Farm for the Future:

The Climate Wars – The Battle Begins:

The Climate Wars – Fightback:

The Climate Wars: Fight for the Future:

The documentaries can be accessed in one of three ways:

(1) at the links above

(2) within the Documentaries directory on the course NISL

(3) on the lecture’s computer in BCB 5th Floor lab in the Desktop folder

ESS 221 Documentaries

Students will be required to watch each of the four videos – these videos will not be watched during designated class time; students are expected to watch them on their own time.

A three question short answer (5 points each, 15 points total) assignment will be assigned for each documentary. These assignments will be handed out in class and posted online on the following days; their corresponding due dates are marked in the table below. These assignments can be found in the Mini Documentary Assignments directory on our course NISL:

Each assignment must be turned into the hand-in box on the BCB 5th floor by 5:00 PM on its appropriate due date listed. There will be a 10% penalty for each day late.

Answers to each assignment will be posted the week following each assignment’s due date.

Docu No. / Documentary Name / Due Date
1 / A Farm for the Future / 15 March 2017
2 / The Climate Wars – The Battle Begins / 5 April 2017
3 / The Climate Wars – Fightback / 17 May 2017
4 / The Climate Wars: Fight for the Future / 31 May 2017

Further instructions and support are provided twofold: (1) via our UWC ESS Facebook group, ESS UWC and (2) our class blog (ess221.blogspot.co.za). Please ensure you have joined this public group. Any assignments will be announced in class and posted to both the facebook page and the blog.

LECTURING and TUTORIAL SCHEDULE (circumstances beyond our control may necessitate changes)
Quarter / Week - Date / Lecture Topic / Tutorial Topic / Key Due Dates
Quarter 1 / 1 - March 1 / Ch1: Evidence of Anthropogenic Climate Change / Tutorial 1: Introduction to Video Project and Data Sources / Partners Assigned
2 - March 8 / Ch2: Global Climate Models / Tutorial 2: Introduction to DIVA GIS and Exercise / Plant Species Selected and Reported
3 - March 15 / Ch4: Biodiversity Response to Past Climates / Tutorial 2: Introduction to DIVA GIS and Exercise / Documentary 1 Assignment Due
4 - March 22 / Ch4: Biodiversity Response to Past Climates / Tutorial 3: Download and Prepare GBIF Data
5 - March 29 / Ch5: Adaptations of Biodiversity to Climate Change / Tutorial 4: Preparing for the Video Project
6 - April 5 / Ch5: Adaptations of Biodiversity to Climate Change / Running and Interpreting Ecological Niche Models in DIVA / Documentary 2 Assignment Due
7 - April 12 / Ch6: Approaches to Niche Based Modeling / Running and Interpreting Ecological Niche Models in DIVA
BREAK / BREAK / BREAK / BREAK
Quarter 1 / 1 - April 26 / Ch7: Ecosystem Changes Under Climate Change / PLOT Analysis
2 - May 3 / Ch8: Implications for Strategic Conservation Planning / View Sample Project and Discuss Requirements / Take Home Test Due
3 - May 10 / Ch9: Economic Costs of Conservation Responses / Student's Work on PowerPoints and Story Boards / Draft PowerPoint of Video Project Due
4 - May 17 / Lecture Review / Video Filming Tutorial by Andre Daniels (UWC IT) / Documentary 3 Assignment Due
5 - May 24 / Lecture Review / Student's Work on Projects
6 - May 31 / Lecture Review / Student's Work on Projects / Documentary 4 Assignment Due
7 - June 7 / Lecture Review / Student's Work on Projects
Assessment / June 12 - July 6 / Video Project Due (28 June)
Re-Assessment / July 7 - July 19