22SP_BI101A-SM-Explorations in Biology

In this class we review the structure of the course, some impressive statistics about Alabama's biodiversity, and why biodiversity is important for sustaining the ecosystem services on which we depend.  We'll have a conversation about these topics during the first virtual class.

Living  on Earth within a sustainable capacity.

In this class you will learn the fundamentals of how ecosystems function.   We'll pay particular attention to the flow of energy and nutrients through ecosystems. 

Much of the study of ecology focuses on population growth.  A population is a group of organisms of the same species that can interbreed with one another.  Populations of all species on Earth grow in similar ways.  We'll learn about population growth by studying the history of human population growth.  Rapid human population growth is the root cause of the environmental and many social problems we face.

We'll do a quick overview of total global biodiversity, then begin exploring the many ways that species interact with one another in ecosystems.  By the end of this class, you should have a better appreciation of how complex ecosystems are, and why population declines and extinctions do great harm to ecosystems.  

Up to this point we've learned about ecosystems, how populations change, and how communities of organisms within ecosystems interact and shape the ecosystem.  In this class we examine how the Earth's climate systems create a diversity of ecological zones, or biomes, on the planet.  We'll also take a look at how Alabama's climate is shaped by global climate patterns. 

In this class we'll wrap up the first unit by exploring the many ways that humanity values biodiversity.  In the process, we'll revisit the ecosystem services concept and learn more about how biodiversity supports ecosystem services.   We'll finish with examining a continuum of world views that represent different ways of valuing ecosystems and species. 

In this class we'll cover the very basics of how life on earth stores the "recipe" for creating and sustaining life.  We'll also learn about how this information is passed on to the next generation, and what causes mistakes in the recipe and what are the consequences. 

In this class we'll explore microevolution - change in allele (and/or gene) frequency over time.  Natural selection is one of 5 mechanisms that cause microevolution.  We'll mostly study it, but also learn about the other four. In addition, we'll learn about the historical origins of the idea of natural selection, and some of the controversies and misunderstandings about evolutionary change. 

Macroevolution, literally is evolution at the big scale.  By big, we mean over long periods of time.  We'll look at how microevolutionary change can lead to the emergence of new species. 

What does geology have to do with biodiversity and evolution?  SO MUCH!  Today we'll explore the fundamentals of geology, which allows us to launch into a journey through Alabama's history beginning at the very beginning of Earth's history. 

In this class we pull it all together.   Geology.  Evolution.  Biodiversity.  Here we connect the dots to learn why Alabama has so many species. 

An exploration of what is causing the 6th mass extinction event on the planet. 

An introduction to fundamentals about climate change, including greenhouse effect, and the evidence that Earth is changing due to human impact on the atmosphere. 

In this class we review the science behind CC, the process of producing science, how scientific "truth" can be challenged with new science, and alternate hypotheses for explaining global warming.   We also address the misinformation campaign to debunk climate science.

In this unit we'll cover the creation and use of climate models to make predictions about how the climate will respond depending on whether, how quickly, and how much we work to reduce the severity of climate change. 

Examination of the impacts Climate Change is having in the Southeast and an introduction to the  Paris Accord, an international agreement to address Climate Change.

For the next two classes we'll focus exclusively on sea level rise (SLR).  There are two sections.  This is section 1.  

Section 2 of our 2 part exploration of sea level rise.  This time we get to the solutions.