Ecosystems and ecosystem services

Teaching Responsibility

LJMU Schools involved in Delivery:

LJMU Partner Taught

Learning Methods

Lecture

Practical

Seminar

Module Offerings

7506CATSCI-APR-PAR

Aims

a) Gain a critical appreciation of the key roles played by species, populations and healthy ecosystems in provision of essential tangible and intangible services to human society, as well as the need to ensure ecological integrity on appropriate scales;

b) Develop a comprehensive understanding of the environmental impacts of sourcing, management, wise use and reuse of natural resources where appropriate in order to function within resource, ecological and societal constraints, and the lessons to be learned from nature in resource design and processing;

c) Show critical awareness of the varied impacts of land use on environmental quality, biodiversity and ecosystem service provision;

d) Recognise the inherent lack of sustainability in modern, centralised food production and the necessity for ecologically-designed agriculture;

e) Critically evaluate the overriding roles of climate change and industrial expansion in imposing progressive change in ecosystem and resource management, and the imperative for sustainable adaptation.

Learning Outcomes

Have a critical understanding of the ecological and biodiversity foundations of ecosystem functioning and the necessity for ecosystem integrity for provision of services to society, with reference to the published literature.

Show mastery in the comprehensive understanding of the increasing problems caused by direct and indirect societal impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity for the continued provision of ecosystem services.

Develop critical arguments to analyse the ecological and ecosystem service provision implications of current and future policy for the built environment and offer effective or innovative ecological solutions to the problems of sustainability and adaptation.

Develop critical responses to evidence from the peer-reviewed literature and primary or secondary data critically evaluate the potential impacts of climate change and biodiversity losses on both current and future ecosystem service provision within an adaptation transformation context.

Module Content

Outline Syllabus:
Ecosystem processes and services, global climate and resource regulation, land use and sustainable agriculture; contaminated land; water security; sustainable waste and sanitation management; floodplain strategies and Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS); resource production, all within the context of sustainability and climate change mitigation and adaptation planning.

Additional Information:
Indicative references:

Barker T & Fisher J (2019) Ecosystem health as the basis for human health’, published with revisions as Chapter 19 in: Selendy J.M.H (editor), Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Changing Environment: Challenges, Interventions and Preventive Measures. Second edition, Wiley-Blackwell and Horizon International

Dasgupta, P. (2021) The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review. (London: HM Treasury). Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/final-report-the-economics-of-biodiversity-the-dasgupta- review

Diaz S., et al., (2019) Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the need for transformative change. Science 366, 6741.

Giller, K.E., Hijbeek, R., Andersson, J.A. and Sumberg, J. (2021) Regenerative Agriculture: An agronomic perspective. Outlook on Agriculture, 1 – 13. DOI: 10.1177/0030727021998063. Available online: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0030727021998063

Kallis G., Gómez-Baggethun E. & Zografos C. (2013). To value or not to value? That is not the question. Ecological Economics 94 97-105.

Wilkinson D.M. (2007) Fundamental Processes in Ecology. An Earth Systems Approach. OUP.

Course Catalogue