6 EC
Semester 1, period 2
5132WOFE6Y
Different parts of the world are often characterized through classification into different biomes, based on the global climate zones. In the course World Food and Ecosystems we will take you through the most important biomes, their basic function and structure, and their role with respect to food supply. We will also zoom into how agriculture in turn has changed the outlook of our globe. You will also learn to apply remote sensing and digital data to understand the forms and processes acting within these biomes. All this information is used for a glance at the future, and potential impacts of environmental change on natural ecosystems and food supply.
Relevant material, predominately primary research articles, will be made available for individual lectures/practical
Practical instructions are provided for each module. For modules of L Jacobs, the instructions can be found here
Google Earth Pro, Google Earth Engine,R, ArcGis
| Activity | Hours |
| Laptopcollege | 32 |
| Tentamen | 3 |
| Self-study | 119 |
| lectures | 14 |
| Total | 168 (6EC x 28 uur) |
Het is sterk aanbevolen om deel te nemen aan alle geplande onderwijsactiviteiten. Door dit te doen, draag je actief bij aan de levendige leergemeenschap die we bij Future Planet Studies koesteren. Jouw bijdrage en aanwezigheid bepalen in grote mate de kwaliteit van de onderwijsactiviteiten en je kansen om het vak succesvol af te ronden. De aangewezen verplichte activiteiten spelen een cruciale rol bij het behalen van de cursusdoelstellingen en zijn essentieel voor je algehele voortgang. Door je in te schrijven voor deze cursus ga je akkoord met de regels omtrent aanwezigheid en stem je ermee in actief deel te nemen aan de verplichte activiteiten.
Attending all scheduled education activities is strongly advised. By doing so, you actively contribute to a lively learning community and significantly improve your chances of successfully completing the course. The designated mandatory activities play a crucial role in achieving the course objectives and are essential for your overall progress. By registering for this course, you are complying with the rules regarding attendance and agreeing to actively prepare for and participate in the mandatory activities.
Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):
Additional requirements for this course:
In the laptop seminars, coding concepts will be explained and applied. The quality of the tutorials heavily depends on active participation and interactions with educational staff are foreseen to facilitate the learning of essential coding concepts. Given the nature of these practicals, attendance is mandatory.
Except for unusual/unforeseen circumstances, the student may miss at most one of the eight laptop seminars. The graded quizzes belonging to the laptop seminars, which accounts for in total 24% of the final grade, should however always be filled in on canvas, even in case of absence. Quizzes are left open minimally until the end of the day (23.59 h) on which the seminar is scheduled. If the graded quiz is not submitted, then the associated grade will be zero.
Attendance will be taken for each laptop seminar.
| Item and weight | Details |
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Final grade | |
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0.4 (40%) Tentamen digitaal | |
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0.36 (36%) end project submission | |
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0.24 (24%) quizzes total | |
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Final grade after retake | |
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0.4 (40%) Hertentamen digitaal | |
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0.36 (36%) end project submission_retake | |
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0.24 (24%) quizzes total |
The final grade will be based on three parts:
1. the assignments in the laptop practicals (24%). These assigments (quizzes) cannot be retaken. Quizzes that are not filled in before the deadline will result in a grade of 1/10 (or equivalent) for that specific quiz.
2. the final exam (40%). A retake of the exam is possible.
3. the mini-project (36%): retakes are possible, and in the form of a new mini-project (new case-study)
In case of retakes, the final (partial) grade counts (even when this grade is lower than the originally achieved result).
If someone has to redo the course in the year after, the most recent grade of the mini-project and the total grade of the quizzes is still valid. Students can however chose to submit a new mini-project or retake the quizzes.
The combined grade of all graded components must be at least 5.5, while the individual grade of the exam and the mini-project must be higher than a 5.5. So only for the quizzes a result lower than 5.5 can be compensated.
Objectives 1 and 2 are addressed the written examination and quizzes
Objective 3 is addressed through the mini-project
Via canvas
- Quizzes linked to the laptop practicals are graded individually
- mini-project is graded individually
The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl
This course consists of 7 lectures and 8 practicals. The lectures cover topics that delve in deeper in several spheres/dimensions of world food- and ecosystems. The practical sessions 1-6 are directly linked to these theoretical lectures and are intended to deepen your understanding and get acquainted with/comfortable with handling (big) geospatial datasets. In the last two practical sessions you'll have the opportunity to already start working on the mini-project. The mini-project is an individual exercise where you apply the knowledge and skills built in the previous practical sessions to a concrete geographic question on the nexus of world food- and ecosystems. The table below shows you for each session, practical or theoretical, where to find the course material, what to prepare, and any assignments that apply.
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Week |
Tuesday |
Tuesday |
Friday |
Friday |
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44 |
Lecture 1: Pattern and Process in Food- and Ecosystems
Course Material: slides on canvas Module 1, textbook under background information module |
Practical 1: Github 1: understanding patterns
Course Material: https://liesjacobs.github.io/worldfoodecosystems2023/ Preparation: follow instructions ‘preparation for the course’ in link above Assignment Due: Quiz in module 1 |
Lecture 2: Soil diversity and Plant adaptation + Spatial patterns in Agriculture
Course material: slides and literature on canvas Module 2 |
Practical 2: Soil diversity and Plant adaptation
Course Material: slides and literature on canvas Module 2 Preparation: read literature Fao 2014, Hengl 2014, Hengl 2017, Monfreda 2000 Assignment Due: Quiz in module 2 |
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45 |
Lecture 3: Patterns in Geodiversity
Course Material: slides and literature on canvas Module 3
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Practical 3: geodiversity
Course Material: slides and literature on canvas Module 3 Preparation: read literature Schrodt et al. 2019 and Seijmonsbergen et al. 2018 Assignment Due: Quiz in module 3 |
(scheduled course on Wednesday will not take place)
Course Material: slides and literature on canvas Module 5 |
Practical 4: spatial patterns in Agriculture
Course Material: slides and literature on canvas Module 4 Preparation: read literature Land and Jarvis 2007, VanWart et al. 2013, Zabel et al. 2014, Metzger et al. 2012 Assignment Due: Quiz in module 4 |
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46 |
Lecture 5: Patterns in Biodiversity
Course Material: slides on canvas Module 5, textbook under background information module |
Practical 5: Github 2: Biodiversity
Course Material: https://liesjacobs.github.io/worldfoodecosystems2023/ Preparation: follow instructions ‘preparation for the course’ in link above Assignment Due: Quiz in module 5 |
Lecture 6: Human impact on World food and ecosystems
Course Material: slides on canvas Module 6, textbook under background information module |
Practical 6 Github 3: Human impact
Course Material: https://liesjacobs.github.io/worldfoodecosystems2023/ Assignment Due: Quiz in module 6 |
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47 |
Lecture 7: challenges in WFE in the next decades
Course Material: slides on canvas Module 7, textbook under background information module |
Practical 7: handing out assignments start working on mini-project under guidance in computer laboratory |
Lecture 8: Guest lecture |
Practical 8: continuing work on assignment |
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48 |
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TENTAMEN: 29 November |
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49 |
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Feedback Tentamen: 5 december |
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50 |
HANDING IN OF MINI-PROJECT: 22 December |
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1. Introduction in spatial patterns and processes describing biomes + introduction to digital geodata
In the first lecture, you will get an overview of the topics of the coming sessions, as well as practical information for the course. You will also be introduced to global biomes. The first laptop practical introduces digital data sources: you will learn how to work with big geospatial data in manageable steps: the first practical we will explore the functionalities of google earth engine.
2. Soil diversity and plant adaptations
This lecture focuses on global patterns in soil diversity, which determine the natural fertility and agricultural potential. You will also learn that plant strategies and adaptations differ between biomes. Classical examples are C3, C4 and CAM photosynthesis, but plants can also play with light and dark reactions, and morphological differences in leaves, stems, flowers and roots. In the laptop practical, you will further work on global distribution patterns of different plant traits, identifying and explaining the relationships between diversity in plant traits and human use. You will further explore, identify and explain differences in soil characteristics across biomes, including relationships between soil diversity and agriculture, with maps derived from soil grids and other sources.
3. Spatial patterns in geodiversity
Here, you will learn about geodiversity, including the diversity of the geosphere, and the natural range of geological (rocks, minerals, fossils), geomorphological (landforms, topography, physical processes), soil and hydrological features. In the laptop practical, you will explore, identify and explain geodiversity across biomes including agricultural landscapes at multiple scales, using information from Google Earth Pro, thematic web-services and selected literature. You will discuss the relations between geodiversity and human impact from examples.
4. Spatial patterns in agriculture (will be taught right after lecture 2)
You will learn why certain types of food are growing and cultivated where they are. Where do we find production of coffee? Where do the cereals come from? Why is rice not growing in France? Why is maize cultivated almost everywhere? Why is dairy farming so common in the Netherlands? In the practical, you will use data from different sources to explore, identify and explain why certain crops and animals are cultivated in particular biomes.
5. Biodiversity and ecosystems
You will learn about global patterns in biodiversity, as well as theories which may explain the latitudinal and altitudinal gradients. You will also learn about the effect of land use changes. The theories include gradients in primary production, ecological heterogeneity, evolutionary processes and hypotheses such as the 'museum' vs. the 'cradle'. In the laptop practical, you will work on biodiversity patterns.
6. Human impact on world food and ecosystems
In this session, we will discuss how humans have been impacted, but also impact their environment. We'll discuss how humans impact other lifeforms, through direct intervention and by reducing/damaging their habitat. Finally, we will also address how humans have influenced the abiotic environment.
7. Future scenarios and challenges of food production and environmental protection
By now, it has become clear that harmonizing the needs of our growing population with environmental protection needs is not trivial. In this course we will look at what would happen under a business as usual and what alternatives for food production over the next decades might be.
8. Guest lecture
In this course, we will invite guest-speaker(s) to discuss from their discipline potential future pathways of food production in the next decades.
Examination
In the written examination, we will test your knowledge of the biomes and underlying processes and forms with a number of multiple choice and open questions. These questions will be related to not only lecture and quiz material, but also independent reading material that you are expected to read before lectures. Be aware that you should start preparing for the examination as early as possible and not leave it to the end.
Mini-project. The second part of the course consists of a mini-project carried out individually. The goal of the mini-project is to build an analytical framework and methodology to analyze a geographic question on the nexus of world food- and ecosystems and to discuss the results using the tools we have seen in class. A list with questions to tackle will be made available and questions will be assigned in practical 7. How these questions will be assigned (and what you can do to get a topic you like) will be communicated during the first theoretical session. The template for the submission will be posted under Module 7 on Canvas.
The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.
We vinden het belangrijk dat je je op de UvA en bij Future Planet Studies veilig voelt. Krijg je onverhoopt te maken met ongewenst gedrag of voel je je onveilig, dan kun je terecht bij verschillende personen. Je melding wordt altijd vertrouwelijk behandeld. Kijk op onze website voor meer informatie over waar en bij wie je terecht kunt.
It is important that everyone feels safe at the UvA and Future Planet Studies. We are committed to provide social safety and we offer various forms of support for people experiencing inappropriate or unsafe situations. Consult the UvA website or Future Planet Studies Canvas page for more information and contact info.
In order to provide students some insight how we use the feedback of student evaluations to enhance the quality of education, we decided to include the table below in all course guides.
based on the feedback of students in 2022 we have made following alterations to the course:
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