This course is available for upper division undergraduate science majors, and for graduate credit for all majors. The course examines the unprecedented loss of global biodiversity occurring today. Instruction includes classroom lectures, extensive reading from scientific literature, lab and computer exercises, field exercises, and field trips in Arizona and Mexico. Our students come from colleges and universities across the United States and around the world. The complex, interdependent and dynamic nature of the earth system is revealed most clearly by spending time in the field.
Rainfall infiltrates or runs off dependent upon the nature of the soil and topography.
The soil is formed by its history of water infiltration, vegetation growth and animal burrowing in the context of bedrock composition, the slope of the land and the overall balance between erosion and deposition. The vegetation, inturn, depends on the climate, the soil and the animals that move soil and seeds. All of these variables not only depend on current environmental conditions, but also on the past conditions that set the stage. The second session, Field School II, students practice monitoring and managing living systems using Biosphere 2 and nearby landscapes. Students may apply for one or both sessions.