ECOL596L

012758

This graduate reading seminar will explore current questions in tropical forest ecology and biogeochemistry, including: why are tropical forests are so diverse? Do new datasets from a network of large forest plots support or contradict theories of scaling in vegetation? Are intact tropical forests sequestering carbon due to excess atmospheric CO2 and does this balance the losses from anthropogenic deforestation? Will Amazonian tropical forests suffer large-scale die-back as a consequence of future climate change, and does evidence from the past climate changes provide evidence about the future? The course is structured around weekly readings, and instructor and student presentations and discussion of the readings. A final paper, in the form of a written review of scholarly literature in a topic corresponding to each student's presentation, is required.

GRD - Regular Grades A, B, C, D, E

Graduate