BIRD,PLANT &LAND-USE DYNAMICS

Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 16 students. One year of college-level science. Primarily for Environmental Majors, Concentrators and Minors. This class looks at the response of wildlife (birds and plants) to climate change and land-use issues from the end of the last glaciation to the present. Case study topics are: (1) land-use and climate change over time: a paleoenvironmental perspective, (2) environmental transformations: impact of invasive plants and birds and pathogens on local environments and (3) migration of Neotropical songbirds between their wintering and breeding grounds: land-use, crisis and conservation. We visit wildlife refuges along a rural-suburban-urban gradient in order to observe and measure the role refuges play in conservation.  Format: lecture, student presentations, short labs, data collection/analysis and field trips (some on a weekend day in April in place of the week day meeting).

• W 1:10 p.m.-3:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Terryanne Maenza-Gmelch
  CULPA: 14 h-index: 5 Info
• 3 points

Urban Ecosystems

URBAN ECOSYSTEMS

Urban Ecosystems will cover scientific principles, concepts, and methodologies required to understand complex systems and the natural and social-ecological relationships at work in cities. You will learn the basics of ecological process and patterns of ecosystems especially applied in cities, understand how humans interact with and impact ecological processes and patterns in cities, and explore approaches for dealing with current and future urban challenges. Format: Lecture, discussion, small group work, field trips

• TR 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• Instructor: Elizabeth Cook
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 11 Info
• 3 points

Volcanoes and the Environment

VOLCANOES AND THE ENVIRON

This course seeks to impart students with knowledge of volcanic eruptions on Earth and the effects on the environment as a whole. The course will focus on the physical mechanisms responsible for eruptions, the effects eruptions have on humans and other living organisms, as well as the environment. The course will investigate how eruptions have contributed to global climate change. The course will also look at the positive effects volcanoes have had on Earth, such as providing nutrient rich soils for growing crops and providing renewable geothermal energy--a cleaner energy resource. Format: lecture, field trip, data collection and analysis, student presentations.

• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Sedelia Rodriguez
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 3 points

Bermuda: Case Studies in Environmental S

Bermuda: Env Susdev

This course focuses on the ecology, geology, and sustainability of Bermuda. Students will explore the local flora, fauna, geology and hydrology of various habitats in the context of environmental change brought on by issues such as rising global temperatures, invasive species, and development.  Students will also look into sustainability issues, such as energy, drinking water, solid waste, and wastewater issues, some of which the country addresses in unique ways. The course will also contrast some of these topics with those in the NYC area and other subtropical and tropical islands.

Classes will meet during the spring semester at Barnard in preparation for a field trip to Bermuda for five days during spring break. 

Students and faculty will use the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) field station for both lodging and laboratory facilities.  BIOS will provide bus and boat-based transportation.  

The excursions to caves, volcanic and pink sand beaches, outcrops, rare plant habitats and bird conservation areas in addition to engagement with the local experts at BIOS will provide an authentic opportunity to study the natural history of and environmental threats to an offshore island compared to our local environment in NYC.  

Students will take detailed field notes in Bermuda. After returning from the trip, they will focus on one or two aspects of the field trip and research related issues in depth. Topics will include:  transportation, energy acquisition, electricity generation, wind energy, solar power, carbon capture and storage, drinking water, waste management, sewage treatment and disposal, biological conservation, ecological restoration, social & environmental justice, economy, and food supply. Students are also encouraged to compare issues in Bermuda with NYC and other islands. 

The final products of the semester will be a detailed field journal, a mini research project  with an annotated bibliography and a poster summarizing the results.

• W 8:40 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
• 3 points

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

Process-oriented introduction to the law and its use in environmental policy and decision-making. Origins and structure of the U.S. legal system. Emphasis on litigation process and specific cases that elucidate the common law and toxic torts, environmental administrative law, and environmental regulation through application and testing of statutory law in the courts. Emphasis also on the development of legal literacy, research skills, and writing.

• F 8:40 a.m.-11:10 a.m.
• Instructor: Dana Neacsu
  h-index: 8 Info
• 3 points

BIG DATA WITH PYTHON

Big Data is changing how we interact with and understand the environment. Yet analyzing Big Data requires new tools and methods. Students will learn to use Python programming to analyze and visualize large environmental and earths systems data sets in ways that Excel is not equipped to do. This will include both time series and spatial analyses with programming occurring interactively during class and assignments designed to strengthen methods and results. Students will learn to write code in Python, plot, map, sub-select, clean, organize, and perform statistical analyses on large global scale data sets, using the data in analysis, and take any data set no matter how large or complicated.

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Brian Mailloux
  CULPA: 10 h-index: 36 Info
• 3 points

ENVIR SCIENCE SENIOR SEM II

Guided, independent, in-depth research culminating in the senior thesis in the spring. Includes discussion about scientific presentations and posters, data analysis, library research methods and scientific writing. Students review work in progress and share results through oral reports. Weekly seminar to review work in progress and share results through oral and written reports. Prerequisite to EESC W3901.

• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• 3 points