Course Objectives:

(1) To gain an understanding of patterns and controls of biogeochemical processes at a range of spatial and temporal scales, with emphasis on processes relevant to ecosystem and global scales.

(2) To investigate key nutrient pools and transformations in the atmosphere, soils, and hydrosphere, with an emphasis on the role of living organisms in nutrient transformations and fluxes. 

(3) To gain a fundamental understanding of the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur, and how these cycles are linked to past and present global change.


(4) To examine nutrient cycling at the ecosystem level, including nutrient inputs and outputs, internal transformation, uptake and storage by biota, and the role of disturbance/management on ecosystem-level nutrient cycles.


(5) To become familiar with the basic tools (methodological approaches and analytical techniques) used to study biogeochemical cycling in a variety of different ecosystem types.
 

• one in-term exam worth 100 pts.
• final exam worth 100 pts.
• assignments/reports (4-5?) worth 100 pts. total

Total of 300 possible pts.