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The carbon cycling and the functioning of managed and natural ecosystems are highly influenced by climate and climate change, and climate change is also likely to substantially change the interactions among agricultural and natural ecosystems. The human use of biomass for food, feed, fibre and fuel are substantially changing the global carbon cycle affecting greenhouse gas emissions.
The course aims to give the students an interdisciplinary understanding of carbon flows in ecosystems and the effects of climate on ecosystem processes. This will allow the students to evaluate and quantify effects of measures for reducing greenhouse gases from agriculture and to assess effects of climate change on managed and natural ecosystems.
After completion of the course, the students are expected to have attained the following competences:
The course focuses on carbon flows in natural and managed ecosystems (soils, plants and animals), including the effects of interactions between carbon and other nutrients, in particular nitrogen, on the internal regulations in plants (C and N metabolism) and net greenhouse gas emissions (CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O) from agricultural systems. An important aspect in this context is the quantification of greenhouse gas emissions and how these can be reduced. The course also deals with effect of climate variability and climate change on plants and ecosystems, and how acclimation and adaptation processes work in natural and managed ecosystems. An important starting point is the relationship between processes at different scales and how effects can be scaled up to regional and global estimates, but also how climate changes can be downscaled to regional and local effects. The course has both a regional and a global focus to ecosystems and ecosystem responses. However, a large part of the experimental and data analysis parts of the course will be based on examples from agricultural systems (including livestock) and natural ecosystems in Denmark. The following topics are covered in the course: drivers and mechanisms of climate change, photosynthesis and respiration in plants, stress physiology, carbon cycling in soils, carbon cycling from plants to global scale, responses of agricultural, terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to climate change, greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural systems (including livestock), measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture (including bioenergy), and modelling of greenhouse gas emissions from ecosystems and food systems.
Bachelor degree in biology, geology, geography, agriculture or similar education.
Course manager: Jørgen E. Olesen, research professor, AU-DJF. Experts in the individual areas will conduct the teaching.
The first part of the course will be based on lectures and exercises, where data analysis and modelling constitute major elements. The last part of the course will be partly project-based and connected to ongoing research activities at the AU-DJF and AU-DMU research centres. This project-based work will conducted in groups and may include field experiments, measurements, data analysis and modelling.
English/Danish, depending on international participation.
Taiz, L. & Zeiger, E. (2006). Plant Physiology. Fourth Edition.
An additional textbook will be selected to cover major parts of the subject area.
This will be supplemented with notes and review articles.
Oral examination based on the curriculum (weighting two thirds) and on the project report (weighting one third), which will be assesed jointly using the Danish 7-grade scale. The examination lasts 30 minutes. Students may choose to be examined in either Danish or English. Internal examiner. Internal examiner.
