Teaching

Environmental change is occurring in unprecedented rates affecting the different spheres (atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, pedosphere, biosphere) and the feedbacks among them. In this course, we present environmental change pressures and discuss how they influence the spheres and their feedbacks based on selected biomes of the world.

In irregular intervals, we offer projects on ecosystem research integrating different subdisciplines of geography.

In irregular intervals, we offer trips to exciting locations (such as the Slovenian Alps, Switzerland etc.), where we investigate current environmental phenomens.

The Earth system has a constrained capacity to buffer forces and maintain a steady state. The thresholds which indicate an irreversible state change are coined „planetary boundaries“. Planetary boundaries were quantified for different forces. In this course, the following forces will be tackled: Biosphere integrity, land use, biogeochemical cycles, atmospheric aerosol loading, novel entities.

Globally biodiversity is declining, but how the decline might affect the functioning of ecosystems remains controversially discussed. This debate is tackled for different ecosystem compartments.

In this course, we present ongoing work in the workgroup geocology (bachelor, master, PhD theses) complemented by talks of general interest (scientific writing, pitfalls in laboratory work etc.).

Focus of this course is on the analysis of complex ecosystem interactions by means of state-of-the methodological approaches.