Functioning of Nature and Ecosystem Services

obowiązkowe

w sali

The course gives an introduction to ecology of ecosystems and reviews the connection between ecosystem functions and services delivered by them to humanity.

During lectures we first review energy flows in ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles, species interactions and trophic webs. We further elaborate on ecosystem services: provisioning, supporting, regulating, and cultural, and point to the imbalance between exploitation of provisioning and other ecosystem services as the major source of environmental crisis. We also review key aspects of functioning of selected ecosystems: oceans and coral reefs, freshwaters, forests, wetlands, novel ecosystems.

Exercises include two short field trips in the first part of semester (ecosystem diversity near Warsaw, investigating biodiversity patterns along gradients by simple methods, demonstrating the principles of ecosystems functioning), further indoor elaboration of the data, and finally presentation and discussion of the results.

Selected topics from basic ecology textbooks, e.g.

Begon M., Townsend C.R. & Harper J.L. Ecology: from individuals to ecosystems. Blackwell Publishing

Jax K. Ecosystem Functioning (Ecology, Biodiversity and Conservation). Cambridge University Press

Jørgensen S.E. (ed.) Ecosystem ecology. Academic Press

Raffaelli D.G. & Frid C.LJ. (eds.) Ecosystem Ecology: a New Synthesis. Cambridge University Press

Ricklefs R.E. & Rylea R. Ecology: The Economy of Nature. W.H. Freeman

Selected readings suggested by the course instructors

After finishing the course the student:

- understands the need to sustain the functioning of natural systems and the ways they provide ecosystem services of various type (K_W01);

- understands the natural processes underlying the use of the indicators of sustainable development in the themes: land, oceans seas and coasts, freshwater, and biodiversity (K_W06);

- knows where to search for reliable information source and how to verify it (K_W09);

- sees the evolutionary contexts of natural phenomena (K_W10);

- performs interdisciplinary work - derives knowledge from various subject disciplines in order to interpret data and synthesize ideas (K_U02);

- asks critical questions on the impacts of human activities on the functioning of natural ecosystems (K_U04);

- identifies weaknesses and strengths of standard actions taken to solve the problems of sustainable development (K_U07);

- effectively communicates in speech with the public and specialists in various fields (K_K03);

- improves his/hers professional skills (K_K04);

- cares about the reliability and credibility of his/hers research work (K_K07).

Direct assessment of knowledge and understanding of the topics covered in the lectures.

Control of attendance to the field trips and class exercises.

Continuous assessment of the involvement in the field data collection and analysis.

Final assessment of the short scientific-type presentation of the results of the field study.

Grades based on written exam and individual involvement and final project presentation.

-