In this course, we will study both. About two-thirds of the course will deal with ecology and the scientific causes and consequences of global change. During the other third of the course, we will examine policy, environmental management, and other methods for dealing with global change issues. By examining both, we will get a sense for how humans impact the environment and ways that humanity can lesson its impact on the environment. I hope this class provides you with an understanding of the major issues we face as well as encourages you to think of ways for solving environmental problems.
Future generations depend on our success.
Levels of biological organization Biology is now such a large discipline that nobody could ever study it all. This distinction is really important in biology, because different questions and problems arise at different levels of biological organization. For example, a lake ecosystem is characterized by the flow of energy and elements through food webs, fluctuating levels of light and oxygen, the cycling of elements between organisms and their environment, and relatively constant temperatures. Note that for these first three, there is no inherent spatial scale associated with them. For example, a rotting log, a lake, a corn field, and a city are all ecosystems.