The Earth System

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Collect, analyse and understand data on environmental change using field, laboratory and computer techniques
• Be aware of the role and importance of evidence-based research
• Structure conceptual and empirical material pertaining to environmental change into a reasoned argument
• Abstract and synthesise environmental change information from a range of different sources
• Understand the terminology, nomenclature and classification systems commonly used in the study of environmental change
• Understand the past, present and future variability of changes in the global environment
• Marshal and retrieve data from library and internet resources;
• Plan and carry out an exacting piece of research on environmental change and produce a report to a high standard;
• Conduct research on environmental change using appropriate techniques, in a responsible and safe manner;
• Understand the relationships between physical and human agencies of environmental change;
• Assess the merits of contrasting theories and explanations of environmental change;
• Pursue knowledge in an in-depth, ordered and motivated way;
• Understand the nature of change in bio-physical environments and the evidence for it;
• Critically analyse literature in physical geography and environmental change;

There is now unprecedented popular and media interest in environmental change but the scientific underpinning of this interest is often sadly lacking. This unit examines how major climatic changes have affected the Earth and its people on a variety of time and spatial scales. The lectures firstly outline the key processes that underpin the Earth system, including atmospheric circulation, Earth’s energy balance, soil processes and ecosystem functioning. In subsequent lecturers we explore changes in Earth system processes over geological timescales. We cover the climatic changes of the Quaternary ice age (last 2.6 million years) and the last 10,000 years - the Holocene - dealing with proxy records of environmental change, how they are dated and assessed and the consequences of climatic change on the biosphere. We also explore the driving mechanisms that underpin long-term climate change, including orbital causes of climatic variation, before discussing the interactions of the climate system with ice sheets, the wider terrestrial hydrological cycle and oceans

Lectures, practical sessions, and may include seminar debate-style sessions.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.