SD4125 Biocultural diversity: understanding ecosystem change in the Anthropocene

Academic year

2024 to 2025 Semester 2

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 10

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Availability restrictions

All modules in SD operate a ballot system

Planned timetable

tbc

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr A L Davies

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr Althea Davies

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

What is it like to live during the sixth mass extinction? In the Anthropocene we struggle to halt the biodiversity crisis and restore ‘healthy’ ecosystems, while recognising that ‘pristine’ habitats are vanishingly rare. We also struggle to see slow processes like species extinction, yet need to accommodate change in order to support ecosystem resilience. This interdisciplinary module explores how contemporary ecologies differ from long-term ecosystem dynamics to assess how human impacts in the Anthropocene are affecting conservation and restoration. It combines concepts and case studies from ecology, conservation, palaeoecology, historical ecology and social science to explore how humans have transformed biodiversity and are adapting to the disequilibrium dynamics that we have created, with a focus on how temporal thinking – looking back to understand legacies and forward to envisage plausible future scenarios - can inform ecosystem management and conservation in the Anthropocene.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

BEFORE TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST ( PASS GG2014 AND PASS SD2100 ) OR ( PASS SD2006 AND PASS SD2100 )

Assessment pattern

Coursework - 100%

Re-assessment

Coursework - 100%

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

3 hour lecture/seminar (x9 weeks)

Scheduled learning hours

32

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

260

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • Appreciate how ecological concepts can be used to assess to the extent to which Anthropocene ecosystems and conservation challenges are novel and unprecedented.
  • Understand and articulate the challenges facing society and conservation, notably when and why we can conserve the familiar and when we need to rethink our expectations and values.
  • Develop students’ skills in interdisciplinary data literacy and approaches to explore environmental geography issues, by applying ecological concepts to evaluate human impacts.
  • Demonstrate awareness of the complexities of communicating and integrating ecosystem timescales into shorter-term conservation and management policy and practice.