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Instructors: Prof. Dr. Udo Schickhoff
Event type:
Lecture
Displayed in timetable as:
Hours per week:
2
Credits:
3,0
Language of instruction:
English
Min. | Max. participants:
8 | 50
Comments/contents:
For centuries and millennia humans have used and exploited Earth’s landscapes and ecosystems and have considerably reshaped and transformed terrestrial and marine systems. This lecture will focus on anthropogenic alteration of vegetation and landscapes in the ecozones of the world including impacts of climate change. Population growth has been accompanied by the development of mechanized agriculture and urban-industrial societies, and increasing use of marginal lands. This has greatly increased the demand for natural resources, resulting in a loss of forest cover, desertification and various other forms of land degradation. Due to human impact, entire vegetation types and ecosystems disappear with severe consequences for important processes in the geobiosphere such as carbon and nitrogen cycling. Using a ecozonal approach, the state of the world’s vegetation and the state of Earth’s ecosystems will be examined focusing on implications of land use and land cover change as well as of climate change.
Learning objectives:
This lecture will provide in-depth insights into climate and land use-induced environmental changes and pressures on natural resources, ecosystem functions and services in ecozones of the world.
Literature:
Relevant sources will be communicated in each lecture unit.
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