Ecological Resilience: The Good, The Bad, and The Mindful
ENVS 369
Spring 2015
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
BIOL 369, E&ES 369 |
| Certificates: Environmental Studies, Informatics and Modeling, Environmental Studies |
This course will examine the concepts of resilience, fragility and adaptive cycles in the context of ecosystem and social-ecological-system (SES) structures. These concepts have been developed to explain abrupt and often surprising changes in complex ecosystems and SES that are prone to disturbances. We will also include non-hierarchical interactions among components of systems (termed panarchy) to compare the interactions and dependencies of ecological and human community systems. A systems approach will be applied to thinking about restoration ecology, community reconstruction, and adaptive management theory.
All of the terms--resilience, fragility, adaptation, restoration, reconstruction--are fraught with subjectivity and valuation. We will use mindfulness and meditation techniques (including breathing and yoga) to more objectively and dynamically engage in the subject matter, leaving behind prejudice or bias. Students will be expected to approach these techniques with an open mind and practice them throughout the semester. The objective is to provide students with a more comprehensive framework with which to gain deeper understanding and integration of the science with the social issues. |
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| Credit: 1.25 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
NSM ENVS |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: [E&ES197 or BIOL197] OR [BIOL182 or MB&B182] |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (BIOL)(E&ES)(ENVS-MN)(ENVS)(IDEA-Biomedical) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Allen, C. R., L. Gunderson, and A. Johnson. 2005. The use of discontinuities and functional groups to assess relative resilience in complex systems. Ecosystems 8(8):958-966.
Garmestani, A. S., C. R. Allen and L. Gunderson. 2009. Panarchy: Discontinuities Reveal Similarities in the DynamicSystem Structure of Ecological and Social Systems. Ecology and Society 14(1): 12pp.
Gunderson, L. 2010. Ecological and human community resilience response to natural disasters. Ecology and Society 15(2): 11pp.
Gunderson, L. H., S. R. Carpenter, C. Folke, P. Olsson, and G. D. Peterson. 2006. Water RATs (resilience, adaptability, and transformability) in lake and wetland social-ecological systems. Ecology and Society 11(1):16 pp.
Holling, C. S. 1973. Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annual review of Ecology and Systematics 4:1-24.
Holling, C. S. 1978. Adaptive environmental assessment and management. J. Wiley and Sons, London, UK.
Hughes, T. P., A. H. Baird, D. R. Bellwood, M. Card, S. R. Connolly, C. Folke, R. Grosberg, O. Hoegh-Guldberg, J. B. C. Jackson, J. Kleypas, J. M. Lough, P. Marshall, M. Nyström, S. R. Palumbi, J. M. Pandolfi, B. Rosen, and J. Roughgarden. 2003. Climate change, human impacts, and the resilience of coral reefs. Science 301:929-933.
Tilman, D. P., B. Reich, J. Knops, D. Wedin, T. Mielke, and C. Lehman. 2001. Diversity and productivity in a long-term grassland experiment. Science 294(5543):843-845.
Vale, L. J., and T. Campanella. 2005. The resilient city: how modern cities recover from disaster. Oxford University Press, New York, New York, USA.
Wallace, D., and R. Wallace. 2008. Urban systems during disasters: factors for resilience. Ecology and Society 13(1): 18pp.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Students will write and term paper and make one short (15 minute) and one long (1 hr) presentation. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
The mindfulness/meditation/yoga laboratory will be taught by Rabbi David Leipziger Teva and Dr. Amy Lynn Tate.
Students are expected to practice the yoga/mindfulness exercises throughout the semester. |
| Instructor(s): Chernoff,Barry Times: ..T.... 01:10PM-04:00PM; ....R.. 09:00AM-10:00AM; Location: ZLKA106; FAYERW; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 12 | | SR major: 5 | JR major: 5 | | |
| Seats Available: 3 | GRAD: 2 | SR non-major: 0 | JR non-major: 0 | SO: 0 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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