0 or 3 credits
Fall 2025 Lecture Upper Division
Urbanization is on the rise, transforming natural ecosystems into coupled human-natural ecosystems that encompass complex, novel functional and structural characteristics shaped by people and the inherent environment. Through local field trips and readings of the primary scientific literature, we examine the unique characteristics of coupled human-natural ecosystems. The course is designed to be broadly accessible to students from a variety of backgrounds, interests, and majors who are interested in environmental science and engineering and emphasizes the importance of incorporating an ecological perspective in environmental engineering and natural resource management. This course covers fundamental principles of ecology as applied in urban and other coupled human-natural systems with emphasis on the impact of modern industrial society on ecosystem structure and function. Organizing themes addressed in this class include macroscale processes, systems thinking, and topics related to urban systems.
Learning Outcomes1Describe and diagram flows of matter and energy in coupled human and natural systems.
2Discuss how drivers in each cycle change across an urban-rural gradient.
3Describe the changes to natural ecosystems imposed by urbanization and other forms of global change (climate change, altered biogeochemical cycling, invasive species, mass extinction, etc.).
4Compare and contrast urban and rural ecosystem structure and function, including diversity and distribution of organisms, landcover types, and ecosystem services.
5Discuss provisioning of ecosystem services in urban and rural ecosystems; compare and contrast green vs grey infrastructure; identify areas of traditionally grey infrastructure that have the potential to integrate green infrastructure.
Restrictions
made by Purdue students.