Ecology and Ecosystems Science in relation to Environmental Economics
Course content
This course provides students of environmental and natural resource economics with advanced knowledge on natural and environmental sciences as basis for economic valuation of ecosystem services, and different technological and nature-based solutions. It also targets other students interested in interdisciplinary work involving natural and human sciences.
Through lectures, exercises, excursions, and group project work, the students will be introduced to theory, concepts, system functioning, quantification methods, examples, and practical cases within the field of ecosystems and environmental sciences, with examples of relevance to environmental and natural resource economics.
The course focuses on the following topics:
- Introduction to ecosystems and environmental sciences, including history, theory, scientific methodology and concepts, namely the ecosystem services conceptual framework.
- Ecosystem structures and processes, including carbon and nutrient cycling, energy and water balances, and biological diversity.
- Ecosystem provisioning, regulating and supporting services and how to quantify these, e.g., by use of experiments, monitoring, models, and system analysis, such as life-cycle assessments.
- The impacts on ecosystems and their services of human activities, and nature-based and technological solutions to promote desirable effects, or mitigate or avoid undesirable impacts.
- Economic and policy context, including cases on the use of natural science knowledge for economic valuation, or optimization of regulatory designs, and information on relevant international and national governance and legislative frameworks.
Examples of addressed environmental problems include climate change and release of greenhouse gasses, eutrophication, extreme rainfall events, water scarcity, and environmental pollution. Examples of addressed activities include land use and land use change, water abstraction, fertilization, and intensive biomass feedstock production. Examples of addressed solutions include afforestation and re-wetting, bioremediation, chemical soil cleaning, sustainable drainage systems, renewable energy generation, and biomass conversion for the bioeconomy.
The course focuses mainly on cases from temperate ecosystems, but group project work provides the students with the opportunity to apply their knowledge to cases in any part of the world, where a variety of nature-based and technological solutions can be relevant, also other than those taught in the course.
MSc Programme in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
The aim is to give the student an in-depth understanding of the ecology of various land uses, such as forestry, agriculture and grassland, and the impact of a range of human activities, and nature-based and technological solutions on ecosystems, their services and the environment.
After completing the course, the student should be able to:
Knowledge
- Understand and describe structures, functions, and processes of ecosystems and what controls them, e.g., biogeochemical cycles, soil processes, hydrological cycles, population dynamics, succession, and ecological disturbance.
- Describe the ecosystem service conceptual framework and explain its use in environmental management and natural resource economics.
- Understand and explain significant ecological and environmental challenges at global, regional and local scales and the links to human activities.
- Understand and explain important nature-based and technological approaches to improve ecosystem service provisioning or to mitigate or avoid undesirable impacts.
Skills
- Analyze and assess, in specific geographical locations:
- How human activities and natural disturbances interact to affect structures, functions and processes of ecosystems.
- How nature-based and technological solutions can help solving ecological and environmental challenges.
- Select a suitable approach and literature to make such analyses and assessments.
Competences
- Identify a range of alternative solutions to specific ecological and environmental challenges, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of each through scientifically sound reasoning.
- Critically read, understand and apply literature from natural sciences to assess quantitative and qualitative impacts on ecosystem services and the environment.
- Collaborate responsibly and effectively in multidisciplinary and multicultural groups.
- Effectively communicate ecological and environmental challenges and their potential solutions in written and oral form, e.g., in case studies.
The teaching includes lectures, interactive discussions in class, theoretical and practical exercises, excursions, mandatory written assignments, oral presentations and peer feedback.
- Chapin, F.S., Matson, P.A., Vitousek, P.: Principles of terrestrial ecosystem ecology, 2nd edition, Springer, 2012, 529pp.
- Scientific papers and reports.
Interest in ecosystems, environmental and natural resource
science and management and its application in environment and
natural resource economics.
Academic qualifications equivalent to a BSc degree is
recommended.
- ECTS
- 15 ECTS
- Type of assessment
-
Oral exam on basis of previous submission, 25 min.
- Type of assessment details
- Three group assignments submitted (two reports and one poster)
prior to the exam week.
The examination is composed of two separate parts:
1) A question related to the curriculum, which forms the basis for half of the oral exam
2) One of three submitted project assignments (the two reports and the poster).
The assignments are not graded but the topic of the assignment forms the basis for the other half of the oral exam.
The student will have 30 min preparation time after drawing the question and report. - Aid
- All aids allowed
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- External censorship
- Re-exam
-
The re-examination form is identical to that of the ordinary examination.
The student must have the three written assignments submitted no later than two weeks before the re-examination.
Criteria for exam assessment
See learning outcomes
Single subject courses (day)
- Category
- Hours
- Lectures
- 100
- Preparation
- 240
- Theory exercises
- 50
- Excursions
- 22
- English
- 412
Kursusinformation
- Language
- English
- Course number
- NIGK13008U
- ECTS
- 15 ECTS
- Programme level
- Full Degree Master
- Duration
-
2 blocks
- Placement
- Block 1 And Block 2
- Schedulegroup
-
C And C
- Capacity
- No limitation – unless you register in the late-registration period (BSc and MSc) or as a credit or single subject student.
- Studyboard
- Study Board of Natural Resources, Environment and Animal Science
Contracting department
- Department of Geoscience and Natural Resource Management
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Science
Course Coordinators
- Inge Stupak (3-6c7670436c6a71316e7831676e)
- Lars Vesterdal (2-6e78426b6970306d7730666d)
- Morten Ingerslev (3-70726c436c6a71316e7831676e)
Teacher
Lars Vesterdal
Morten Ingerslev
Inge Stupak
Sebastian Kepfer Rojas
Per Gundersen
Niclas Scott Bentsen
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