This class offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the principles of climate, ecosystems, and biogeochemistry needed to understand human impacts on the natural environment. We will also discuss global change prediction and the scientific bases for global change assessments and policy measures. Key topics are the physical climate system and its variability, the carbon cycle and related biogeochemistry and ecosystem processes, land use issues, the interactions among climate, ecosystems, and biogeochemistry, and the impact of global change on societally relevant parameters. Common threads in all of these topics will pervade the whole semester; these include the use of observations and models, the consideration of multiple scales of change (temporal and spatial), the interaction of human behaviors and choices with natural systems, and the linkages among aspects of global change science (may not be offered every year). Prerequisites: ENVR 2000 or GEOG 2100 or Consent of Instructor.
Common Course Outline