This course consists of 8 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.

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. 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.

 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. 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.

 5. Spatial patterns in agriculture

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.

 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. The future of agriculture from other perspectives

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.