Seminar: Terrestrial Nitrogen and Carbon Cycling

Spring 2011 Seminar Course (GEOL 2920-V):
Terrestrial Nitrogen and Carbon Cycling

Course number: GEOL 2920-V
Course title: Terrestrial Nitrogen and Carbon Cycling
Instructors: Meredith G. Hastings (GEO/ECI), Jim Tang (MBL/GEO)

Proposed Meeting days/times: Mon, 1-1:50pm; Wed 1-2:50pm (GC029)
Prerequisites: BIOL 1480, GEOL 1130 or equivalent biogeochemistry course.
Instructor Permission Required for enrollment

Description: This seminar course will examine aboveground and
belowground processes in the context of the global nitrogen and carbon
cycles, and the impacts of both natural and anthropogenic
disturbances. The course will include overviews of the global
nitrogen and carbon cycles and their relationship to recent changes in
climate; discussion of processes such as nitrification,
denitrification, and N-fixation and their relationship to soil
properties and nitrogen addition; discussion of respiration,
photosynthesis, and decomposition; and the coupling of N and C cycles
in soils related to increasing air/soil temperatures and increasing N
deposition. This course will include an emphasis on emerging new
techniques to quantify N and C processes in the laboratory, field and
through modeling, and will include a field trip to Harvard Forest to
investigate current field studies.