IMPRS-gBGC core course: Terrestrial Biosphere
 

Hierarchical theory and levels of organization of biological systems
- Intro to ecophysiology
- Ecosystem and Biospheric levels of organization

- What is biodiversity?
- Changes and threat on biodiversity
- Consequences of biodiversity loss

- Biodiversity experiments
- Biodiversity and ecosystem processes

Field trip to the Jena Experiment (ca. 2 1/2 h on site)
(how to get there: >> www.vmt-thueringen.de, start: Beutenberg Campus, stop: Jena, Zwätzen Brückenstr. or Jena-Zwätzen (Zug))

Meeting point is at the Jena Experiment
Make sure to wear weather-adapted, insensitive clothing.

Photosynthesis, respiration and phloem transport
- Intro
- Why are plants important?
- The currency of life and its economic motor – photosynthesis
(Background and history, light-dependent reactions, ATP, light-independent reactions, adaptations: C3, C4, CAM, Photorespiration)
- Life requires energy – respiration
(substrate-level phosphorylation, oxidative phosphorylation, alternative oxidase)
- Moving energy within the plant
(Phloem transport)

Measuring photosynthesis using Licor 6400
Estimation of GPP/NPP using a closed chamber approach
Measuring carbohydrates

Water transport, mineral nutrition and symbiotic interactions

Measuring plant water potential
Measuring stem respiration
Stem diameter measurements
Measuring sap flow

Pattern and process at landscape scales
- the physical template
- biotic processes
- disturbance
- tools, metrics and models

Large scale biodiversity and biogeography
- from plants to biomes and biodiversity
- exchange fluxes of the biosphere
- atmosphere-biosphere interactions
- the global biosphere

Lab exercise - geophysical modelling
(laptops needed)
(>> daisy world spreadsheet)

Biogeochemical cycles in general & models of BGC cycles
Traits as characteristics of plants (including their relevance for determining soil properties)

Mathematical representation of ecosystem models

Building a simple biogeochemical model in 3 steps of abstraction (visual representation, mathematical representation, working model)
for this part, please bring a laptop with a current version of R and RStudio installed. The model will be presented in a way that you can follow without knowing R.