Undergraduate Course: Forest Ecosystems: Past and Present (GEGR10104)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Geography |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | Forest ecosystems are globally important in terms of biodiversity and carbon cycling, but are under threat from both natural and anthropogenic disturbances (e.g. climatic change, fire, and deforestation). One of today's key science challenges is to understand how forest ecosystems respond to such disturbances. How might forests respond to increases in drought stress and temperature? How sensitive (or resilient) are they to disturbance? How have forests responded to climate and land use change in the past, and how does this inform our understanding of them today? Answers to these questions are urgently needed to inform management and conservation policy for these globally important resources. This course will combine analysis drawing from empirical studies in palaeoecology, ecosystem science and from modelling studies that work across disciplines. The course will consider forests in terms of how they function with reference to the cycles of carbon and water, how they are influenced by human land-use and climate change and how this may relate to land management and the conservation of biodiversity. The content will integrate over past, present, and future time-scales; our main focus will be tropical ecosystems, especially Amazonia, although temperate forests will be considered. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | No |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
1) To introduce the study of how forest ecosystems interact with the atmosphere.
2) To understand the terrestrial carbon cycle and how it is quantified.
3) To examine how forests respond to climatic and anthropogenic disturbance.
4) To consider the inter-relationships between forests, climate change, and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over glacial-interglacial, millennial, and present-day time-scales.
5) To appreciate the inter-linkages between tropical forests, climate change, fire, and human land-use, over past millennia, the present day, and future decades.
6) To examine the relationship between ancient cultures/civilisations and their tropical forest environments, and explore what lessons may be drawn for the sustainable management and conservation of today's tropical forests.
7) To learn how to use an interdisciplinary scientific literature, to develop transferable skills in critical writing, in oral and visual presentation, and in teamwork.
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Assessment Information
One 2,000 word essay (40%)
One 2 hour examination (2 questions) (60%)
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Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Replaces Tropical Ecosystems, Climate and Lost Civilisations' GEGR10093 and 'Ecosytem Processes, Biodiversity and Climate Change' GEGR10024 |
| Syllabus |
The course will consist of lectures to provide guidance on principal subject areas and theory. This will be supported by directed reading and suggested web-based resources. Students will be expected to engage with the subject beyond the basic reading lists, following areas of individual interest. Tutorials/seminars will be used to explore key ideas and synthesise research findings through discussion of selected papers. Presentation skills will also be developed through focussed team and individual-based work. Handouts will be provided that are linked to weekly assignments and the lecture program. Students will have the opportunity to consider forest ecosystems in relation to soil and climatic drivers, addressing mechanisms and patterns of forest dynamics at different geographic and temporal scales. Analysis of the responses by ecosystems to natural and anthropogenic disturbance (both past and present), in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, will build on this initial work, and will be followed by case (and more general) studies addressing tropical land-use and global environmental policy. |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Relevant texts
Bush M and Flenley J (2006) Tropical rainforest responses to climate change. Springer-Verlag.
Diamond J (2006) Collapse: how societies choose to fail or survive. Penguin books.
Gash et al. (1996) Amazonian Deforestation and Climate. Wiley.
Grace J et al (1995) Carbon dioxide uptake by an undisturbed tropical rain forest in southwest Brazil. Science 270, 778-780.
Handmer J W et al. (2001) Ecology, Uncertainty and Policy. Prentice Hall.
IPCC (2007) Climate Change 2007: Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis; Chapter 7. Couplings between changes in the climate system and biogeochemistry. http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch7.html
IPCC (2007) Climate Change 2007: Working Group III: Mitigation of Climate Change; Chapter 9 Forestry. http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg3/en/ch9.html
Keller M et al. (2009). Amazonia and Global Change, Geophysical Monograph Series, 186.
Malhi Y and Phillips O (2005) Tropical forests and global atmospheric change. OUP.
Mann C C (2006) 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
Meir P, Cox P & Grace J (2006) The influence of terrestrial ecosystems on climate. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21, 254-258.
Nepstad D et al. (2008) Interactions among Amazon land use, forests and climate: prospects for a near-term forest tipping point. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 363, 1737-1746.
Roy et al. (2001) Terrestrial Global Productivity. Academic Press.
Schlesinger W H (1997) Biogeochemistry: An Analysis of Global Change. Academic Press.
Waring R H & Running S W (1998) Forest Ecosystems: Analysis at Multiple Scales. Academic Press.
Willis K, Gillson L and Knapp S, eds (2007) Biodiversity Hotspots through time: using the past to manage the future. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 362, 167-333.
Relevant journals to browse include:
Nature, Science, Global Change Biology, Conservation Biology, Journal of Geophysical Research, Quaternary Research, Journal of Biogeography.
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| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | forest ecosystems |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Patrick Meir
Tel: (0131 6)50 2521
Email: PMeir@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Catherine Campbell
Tel: (0131 6)50 9847
Email: cathy.campbell@ed.ac.uk |
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