Month	Date	Day	Topic	Reading Assignment * Highlighted papers in this column will be used for class discussion
August	23	Th	Overview & the ecosystem concept	Ch. 1
	28	T	Earth’s climate system	Ch. 2 (pp. 18-40); Schlesinger 2006
	30	Th	Biomes	Ch. 2 (pp. 41-45)
September	4	T	Geology, soil development, and nutrients	Ch. 3; Chadwick et el. 1999
	6	Th	Temporal dynamics of ecosystems	Ch. 13
	11	T	Ecosystem water balance	Ch. 4 (pp. 77-96); Burgess & Dawson 2004
	13	Th	Energy balance and carbon input	Ch. 4 (pp. 71-77); Ch. 5 (pp. 97-115)
	18	T	Photosynthesis and GPP	Ch. 5 (pp. 115-121); Reich et al. 1997
	20	Th	Respiration and NPP	Ch. 6
	25	T	Trophic dynamics	Ch. 11; Post 2002
	27	Th	Decomposition and origin of soil OM	Ch. 7
October	2	T	Nutrient use	Ch. 8; Norby et al., 2001
	4	Th	Nutrient cycling	Ch. 9
	9	T	Mid-term course evaluation and review
	11	Th	Mid-term Exam
	16	T	Community effects on ecosystem processes	Ch. 12
	18	Th	Ecosystem consequences of fire disturbances	Reserved reading in Biology Library; Wardle et al. 2003
	23	T	Comparisons of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems	Ch. 10
	25	Th	Biodiversity and ecosystem processes	Ch. 12 (pp. 274-277); Tilman et al. 2001;Hector & Bagchi. 2007
	30	T	Effects of pollution on ecosystems	Reserved reading in Biology Library
November	1	Th	Greenhouse warming and ecological responses	Mann et al. 2000; Walther et al. 2002
	6	T	Biotic feedback of climate change	Chapin et al. 2000 Foley et al. 2003
	8	Th	Global geochemical cycles	Ch. 15; DeLucia et al. 2005
	13	T	Human dominance and ecosystem management	Ch. 16
	15	Th	Term paper due
	20	T	THANKSGIVING BREAK
	22	Th	THANKSGIVING BREAK
	27	T	Term project presentations (groups 1-4)
	29	Th	Term project presentations (groups 5-8)
December	4	T	Term project presentations (groups 9-12)
	6	Th	Wrap-up and introduction to relevant courses