This counts as a cognate for EEB students!
Ecosystem Ecology
EEB/NRE/Environ 476
Winter 2014
2.30 – 4.00pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays
Instructor: Mark Hunter (mdhunter@umich.edu)
Ecosystem Ecology focuses on the fundamental process that sustain life on earth, including the transfer of energy and the cycling of matter. The study of ecosystem processes is ever more relevant as climate change, nutrient deposition, species invasions and species extinctions alter the rates at which energy flows and nutrients cycle in ecosystems. Ecosystem ecology provides important concepts and tools for the management and restoration of ecosystems.
This course explores both fundamental theory and practical applications in ecosystem ecology. Examples from terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems are used throughout. The goal of the course is to develop understanding of the physical, chemical, and biological factors controlling the dynamics of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
Ecosystem Ecology also explores how ecosystem processes provide a template upon which evolutionary processes take place and, in turn, how evolution feeds back to influence energy flow and the cycling of matter in ecosystems.
The course format is a mixture of lecture and class discussion. Discussions are based on readings from the recent literature and chapters from a recent textbook. The course is appropriate for graduate and advanced undergraduate students who have taken a General Ecology class and one or more 300/400 level courses in Ecology. Ecosystem Ecology fills concentration requirements in the area of Ecology and Evolution (section II in the Biology Concentration) and elective requirements in the EEB and PitE concentrations.
