Society and Environment

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
An introduction to the unifying principles and fundamental concepts underlying our scientific understanding of the biosphere. Topics covered include the physical life support system on earth; nutrient cycles and factors regulating the chemical composition of water, air, and soil; the architecture and physiology of life; population biology and community ecology; human dependence on the biosphere; and the magnitude and consequences of human interventions in the biosphere.
The Biosphere: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2021 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2020 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session
This course explores the journey of the U.S. food supply from the farm to the family table. The ecology, management, and politics of farming under a global change scenario, the impact of our changing patterns of demand on food processing and retail, the opportunties and costs of exports, and the way different groups access, use, and consume food.
FROM FARM TO TABLE: FOOD SYSTEMS IN A CHANGING WORLD: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Basic biological and ecological principles discussed in relation to environmental disruptions. Human interactions with the environment; their meaning for animals and plants. Discussion of basic ecological processes as a basis for understanding environmental problems and formulating strategies for their solution.
Environmental Biology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
Relationship between human society and the natural environment; case studies of ecosystem maintenance and disruption. Issues of economic development, population, energy, resources, technology, and alternative systems.
Environmental Issues: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
This course challenges students to think about how individual and American consumer decisions affect forest ecosystems around the world. A survey course that highlights the consequences of different ways of thinking about the forest as a global ecosystem and as a source of goods like trees, water, wildlife, food, jobs, and services. The scientific tools and concepts that have guided management of the forest for the last 100 years, and the laws, rules, and informal institutions that have shaped use of the forests, are analyzed.
Americans and the Global Forest: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Introduction to the science underlying biological and physical environmental problems, including water and air quality, global change, energy, ecosystem services, introduced and endangered species, water supply, solid waste, human population, and interaction of technical, social, and political approaches to environmental management.
Introduction to Environmental Sciences: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
The course presents a diachronic perspective on human-fire interactions with local ecosystems in California that spans over 10,000 years. The course will provide an historical perspective on human-fire interactions at the landscape scale using a diverse range of data sources drawn from the fields of fire ecology, biology, history, anthropology, and archaeology. An important component includes examining how diverse cultures and ethnicity influenced how people perceived and used fire at the landscape scale in ancient, historical and modern times. The implications of these diverse fire practices and policies will be analyzed and the consequences they have had for transforming habitats and propagating catastrophic fires will be explored.
Fire: Past, Present and Future Interactions with the People and Ecosystems of California: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Freshman Seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics may vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to fifteen freshman.
Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
An introduction to the diversity and natural history of insects in natural and human environments. The course examines the wonder of insects, their interactions with the living world, and their contributions to and impacts on human society.
Insects and Human Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
An outline of the main facts and principles of biology as illustrated by insects, with special emphasis on their relations to plants and animals, including humans.
Natural History of Insects: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Fall 2013, Fall 2012
Regulation of populations of organisms, especially insects, through interactions with parasites, predators, pathogens, competitors. Discussion of examples from agricultural, forest, urban, and recreational environments.
Biological Control: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021
Introduction to California geography, environment, and society, past and future climates, and the potential impacts of 21st-century climate change on ecosystems and human well-being. Topics include fundamentals of climate science and the carbon cycle; relationships between human and natural systems, including water supplies, agriculture, public health, and biodiversity; and the science, law, and politics of possible solutions that can reduce the magnitude and impacts of climate change.
Climate Change and the Future of California: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session
An introduction to how culture affects the way we use and manage fire, wildland and urban forests, rangelands, parks and preserves, and croplands in America. The basic concepts and tools for evaluating the role of culture in resource use and management are introduced and used to examine the experience of American cultural groups in the development and management of western natural resources.
Introduction to Culture and Natural Resource Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2022
The purpose of this course is to examine Native American societies, political systems, and human-environment relationships within CA and the U.S. This survey of Native American history will provide context for modern issues in land and resource management and government-to-government relationships between tribes and local, state, and federal agencies. Special attention will be given to the CA region, as there are many aspects of CA that make it an exceptional or unique case within the larger US historical narrative. Recurring themes or core concepts discussed throughout the course will include climate change, cultural and environmental impacts from colonialism,Indigenous persistence, stewardship, cultural landscapes, and tribal sovereignty.
History of Native American Land, Colonialism, and Heritage Preservation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023
The purpose of this course is to examine Native American societies, political systems, and human-environment relationships within CA and the U.S. This survey of Native American history will provide context for modern issues in land and resource management and government-to-government relationships between tribes and local, state, and federal agencies. Special attention will be given to the CA region, as there are many aspects of CA that make it an exceptional or unique case within the larger US historical narrative. Recurring themes or core concepts discussed throughout the course will include climate change, cultural and environmental impacts from colonialism,Indigenous persistence, stewardship, cultural landscapes, and tribal sovereignty.
History of Native American Land, Colonialism, and Heritage Preservation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Introduction to U.S. environmental policy process focuses on history and evolution of political institutions, importance of property, federal and state roles in decision making, and challenges of environmental policy. Emphasis is on use of science in decision making, choices between regulations and incentives, and role of bureaucracy in resource policy. Case studies on natural resource management, risk management, environmental regulation, and environmental justice.
Environmental Policy, Administration, and Law: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session
Introduction to computer systems, data processing software for natural resources studies. Components of geographic information systems; concepts of surveying, mapping, and remote sensing as data sources; various methods of data processing and analysis including classification, map overlay, buffer analysis, topographic modeling, spatial interpolation, and map design with a GIS. Intensive hands-on practices with relevant computer software packages.
Introduction to Geographic Information Systems: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016
From interactive web maps to spatial data analysis, digital geographic data and information are becoming an important part of the data science landscape. Almost everything happens somewhere that can be mapped on the surface of the earth. In many cases the where matters as much to an analysis as the what and the why. Geospatial data analysis allows a researcher to consider location explicitly. This course provides an introduction to working with digital geographic data, or geospatial data. We will explore concepts of geospatial data representation, methods for acquisition, processing and analysis, and techniques for creating compelling geovisualizations. No prior knowledge is assumed or expected.

Exploring Geospatial Data: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016
Many of the greatest challenges we face today come from understanding and interacting with the natural world: from global climate change to the sudden collapse of fisheries and forests, from the spread of disease and invasive species to the unknown wealth of medical, cultural, and technological value we derive from nature. Advances in satellites and micro­sensors, computation, informatics and the Internet have made available unprecedented amounts of data about the natural world, and with it, new challenges of sifting, processing and synthesizing large and diverse sources of information. In this course, students will apply methods and understanding they gain in the Foundations course to real­world ecological and environmental data
Data Sciences in Ecology and the Environment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Introduction to the major, emphasizing each student's educational goals. Overview of ecological problems and contrasting approaches to solutions through institutional and community-based efforts. Required of all CRS sophomore majors and all entering off-campus transfer students to CRS major. Restricted to CRS majors. One field trip is normally required.
Introduction to Conservation and Resource Studies Major: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2024
Study of special topics that are not covered in depth in regular courses in the department.
Directed Group Study in ESPM: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Fall 2023
Berkeley Connect is a mentoring program, offered through various academic departments, that helps students build intellectual community. Over the course of a semester, enrolled students participate in regular small-group discussions facilitated by a graduate student mentor (following a faculty-directed curriculum), meet with their graduate student mentor for one-on-one academic advising, attend lectures and panel discussions featuring department faculty and alumni, and go on field trips to campus resources. Students are not required to be declared majors in order to participate.
Berkeley Connect: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Fall 2016, Spring 2016
Supervised independent study or research on topics relevant to department that are not covered in depth by other courses. Open to students in good standing who, in consultation with a faculty sponsor, present a proposal with clearly formulated objectives and means of implementation. Intended for exceptional students.
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Analysis of contrasting approaches to understanding and solving environmental and resource management problems. Case studies and hands-on problem solving that integrate concepts, principles, and practices from physical, biological, social, and economic disciplines. Their use in environmental policies and resource and management plans.
Environmental Problem Solving: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Introduction to basic methods used in environmental research by biological, physical, and social scientists; designed to teach skills necessary to conduct independent thesis research in the required senior seminar, 196A-196B/196L. Topics include development of research questions, sampling methods, experimental design, statistical analysis, scientific writing and graphics, and introductions to special techniques for characterizing environmental conditions and features. This course is the prerequisite to 196A.
Introduction to the Methods of Environmental Science: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Human societies have significant knowledge about environmental and social problems, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and chemical pollution, as well as the underlying causes. We have a growing sense of what could be done to make societies more sustainable and just. Yet there appear to be many obstacles and much inertia in progressing towards implementing deeper changes in complex social and economic systems, from the food system to chemical manufacturing to urban transportation. This course explores sustainability transitions as a way to work through the politics and practice of making significant changes in societies, economies, and political institutions.
The Politics and Practice of Sustainability Transitions: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2019
This course is designed to introduce students to the major sampling systems used in natural resources and ecology. It also introduces students to important sampling and measurement concepts in grassland, forest, wildlife, insect, soil, and water resources. May be taken without laboratory course 102BL.
Natural Resource Sampling: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2019
This laboratory course is designed to introduce students to the major sampling systems used in natural resources and ecology. Field data is collected with various important sampling designs and analyzed. Mean values and confidence intervals are constructed from the data collected in this course. This course must be taken in conjunction with lecture course 102B.
Laboratory in Natural Resource Sampling: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Presents concept and practical approaches to public and private natural resource management decision making. The focus is on goals, criteria, data, models, and technology for quantifying and communicating the consequences of planning options. A range of contemporary air, soil, wetland, rangeland, forest, social, economic, and ecosystem management problems is addressed.
Resource Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
This intermediate level course engages with both the politics and the design of climate and clean energy policy, with a focus on the United States. Key themes include political strategies to climate change, the choice of policy instruments, the role of various state actors and interest groups in policy making, the interaction of policy and low-carbon technology markets, and the US and global politics. The course combines the study of analytical concepts with in-depth case studies.
Climate and Energy Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
A survey of the principles and practices of conservation biology. Factors that affect the creation, destruction, and distribution of biological diversity at the level of the gene, species, and ecosystem are examined. Tools and management options derived from ecology and evolutionary biology that can recover or prevent the loss of biological diversity are explored.
Principles of Conservation Biology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2017, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
Models of population growth, chaos, life tables, and Leslie matrix theory. Harvesting and exploitation theory. Methods for analyzing population interactions, predation, competition. Fisheries, forest stands, and insect pest management. Genetic aspects of population management. Mathematical theory based on simple difference and ordinary differential equations. Use of simulation packages on microcomputers (previous experience with computers not required).
Modeling and Management of Biological Resources: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 10 Week Session, Summer 2023 10 Week Session, Summer 2022 10 Week Session
Introduction to silvicultural theory, forest operations, and utilization and manufacture of forest products. Evaluation of silviculture for managing forest stands for multiple objectives including regeneration, stand density control, forest growth, genetic improvement, and prescribed burning. Introduction to harvest and access systems, wood structure and quality, and manufacture of forest product. Field trips and lectures to local areas illustrating different approaches to forest problems.
Sierra Nevada Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 10 Week Session, Summer 2023 10 Week Session, Summer 2022 10 Week Session
This course teaches students how to use common forestry tools, maps, and various sampling methods to collect information about the forest environment. Thirty percent of the time is spent in the classroom learning about the techniques and working up field data. The remaining time is spent in the field applying these techniques in real world settings. Skills taught will include tree and plot measurement procedures, map reading, and simple field orienteering principles.
Forest Measurements: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 10 Week Session, Summer 2023 10 Week Session, Summer 2022 10 Week Session
Introduction to silvicultural theory, forest operations, and utilization and manufacture of forest products. Evaluation of silviculture for managing forest stands for multiple objectives including regeneration, stand density control, forest growth, genetic improvement, and prescribed burning. Introduction to harvest and access systems, wood structure and quality, and manufacture of forest product. Field trips and lectures to local areas illustrating different approaches to forest problems.
Silviculture and Utilization: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 10 Week Session, Summer 2023 10 Week Session, Summer 2022 10 Week Session
Develop skills in evaluating forests and developing management strategies to meet ownership objectives. Develop integrated forest management plan for 160 acre parcel. During first week, inventory and assess ecological condition of the assigned parcel. During second week, develop comprehensive integrated forest resource plan, integrating water, wood, wildlife, range, fisheries, and recreation. Oral reports in both an office and field setting required and written management plan.
Forest Management and Assessment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
(1) survey of museum resources, including strategies for accession, conservation, collecting and acquiring material, administration, and policies; (2) strategies for making collections digitally available (digitization, databasing, georeferencing, mapping); (3) tools and approaches for examining historical specimens (genomics, isotopes, ecology, morphology, etc); and (4) data integration and inference. The final third of the course will involve individual projects within a given museum.
Natural History Museums and Biodiversity Science: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2022
This course will introduce the history of key wildlife management and policy paradigms, such as parks and protected areas, threatened and endangered species protections, and state wildlife management. We will then explore in depth a number of species case studies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, a major laboratory for wildlife science, management and policy. The course will draw on lectures, readings, discussions, and guest perspectives. The course will help students majoring in related fields to prepare for careers in wildlife science and related conservation, management, and policy efforts; but students of any major should come away with a better
understanding of key issues facing iconic American wildlife species.
American Wildlife: Management and Policy in the 21st Century: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
In this class, students study the natural history and evolutionary biology of island terrestrial and freshwater organisms and their communities, and of marine organisms in the coral reef and lagoon systems. The students also learn about the geomorphology of volcanic islands, coral reefs, and reef islands. Features of island biogeography are illustrated with topics linked to subsequent field studies on the island of Mo’orea, French Polynesia. The course trains students as independent scientists, as students develop, conduct, and communicate independent research projects on a topic of their choice.
Biology and Geomorphology of Tropical Islands: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
Study of trees and associated woody species including their taxonomy and distribution, modes of shoot growth and diameter growth, and stem structure. Modes of stem structure and growth will be considered in relation to habitat and life cycles, and to suitability for timber value. Instruction in oral communication. Oral presentation required.
Trees: Taxonomy, Growth, and Structures: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2021
This course will examine the consequences of environmental change on the levels and distribution of genetic diversity within species. Students will be introduced to methods of analysis and their application to organisms from a range of ecosystems. The fate of populations under rapid environmental change will be assessed in the light of dispersal and adaptation (genetic and epigenetic) potential. Students will learn to use population genetics freeware to evaluate molecular data.
Environmental Change Genetics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024
Students will learn the fundamentals of island and reef biology, geology, marine ecology and their inter-connectedness, as well as the physical and biological forces shaping and maintaining these ecosystems. The course will involve a significant amount of time in the field to expose students to the different island habitats and explore the ecosystem services provided by island habitats to local peoples and beyond. Students will interact directly with local people to learn about local perspectives on the value of these systems. This course is one of five co-requisite courses (ESPM 109A-E) that make up the study abroad program in Island Sustainability taught off campus on Moorea, French Polynesia, during the Spring semester.
Island and Coral Reef Resilience and Ecosystem Services: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024
This course is based at the Atitia Community Center adjacent to the Gump Station and on Tetiaroa. Students will learn about the history of the peopling of Oceania, and the waves of exploration and interaction that have shaped the Pacific. Students will be immersed into the way in which the first peoples of these islands understand and interact with their island homes, from a traditional to modern perspective, and with insights on human-environment interactions. Students will be presented with necessary historical and cultural context including basic language training, archeological field trips and interactions with local youth and elders at the Atitia Center and beyond to learn about local customs, traditions and attitude.
Polynesian Culture and Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024
An overview of the major issues facing biodiversity globally today including habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species and disease, and examine how these issues are affecting island nations with a focus on French Polynesia. This course will make extensive use of the Biocode Project database to examine biodiversity on Moorea, and discuss genetic resilience and conservation technologies. We will then explore local attitudes and perspectives about these issues and examine local biodiversity initiatives. This course is one of five co-requisite courses (ESPM 109A-E) that make up the study abroad program in Island Sustainability taught off campus on Moorea, French Polynesia, during the Spring semester.
Issues in Biodiversity: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024
Students will be given an overview of the state of the field, as well as an understanding of current theory and practice; including western approaches and indigenous environmental management of terrestrial and marine resources. Rahui, a traditional Polynesian marine conservation practice will be examined through interaction with local communities that use it. Students will also learn about EU, Pacific-wide and international funding and conservation management initiatives affecting the lives and environment of Polynesians and people worldwide.
Environmental Planning, Management, and Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024
The course will provide the fundamentals of data science across all disciplines and put them into practice on a project relevant to Island Sustainability. Exercises and group projects will hone oral, written, physical, and multimedia communication skills, with an emphasis on communicating for collaboration and outreach. Professional and ethical behavior will be emphasized in the context of Island Sustainability. Instruction will be primarily related to lecture material but will also cover issues related to conducting fieldwork, interacting with local/host communities, etc.
Data Science, Communication and Professionalism: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course focuses on natural factors of the environment that are fundamental to ecosystem management, land use planning and landscape design and their relationships to one another in different terrestrial ecosystems, from predominantly natural to predominantly anthropogenic. Lectures explore the key concepts on ecosystem structure, function and dynamics and discuss different types of ecological data, their interpretation and visualization that can aid in landscape research, planning and design workflow. Laboratory sections advance lecture topics by providing hands-on training in common types of ecosystem analyses using quantitative methods and geospatial tools.
Ecological Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course will develop principles of ecosystems ecology, emphasizing terrestrial ecosystems, and will consider how these principles apply to ecosystem recovery and to regional and global fluxes of carbon and nutrients.
Ecosystem Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Introduction to the ecology of microorganisms. Topics include the ecology and evolution of microbes and their relationship with each other and the environment. The role and function of microbes in several ecosystems is also discussed.
Microbial Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
We will teach students how to perform genome-resolved metagenomics. We will start with raw data in the form of DNA sequencing reads, assemble the data, reconstruct genomes for coexisting organisms, evaluate overall community composition (which organisms are present and at what abundance levels), predict metabolic capacities, calculate growth rates, and investigate changes in the community over time. Working in pairs, the students will analyze real, unpublished data, identify an interesting question and investigate it. Evaluation is based on a final presentation of research findings.
Microbial Metagenomic Data Analysis Lab: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020
Ecology of insects: interactions with the physical environment; structure and functioning of insect populations and communities; behavioral ecology of predator-prey interactions; plant-insect interactions; social insects; pollination biology; applied insect ecology.
Insect Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Introduction to wildlife ecology and its relationship to management programs. Includes population, community, and ecosystem levels of organization, followed by selected case studies.
Wildlife Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2011, Fall 2009
Coral reefs are biodiverse, productive, valuable ecosystems threatened by global change stressors.
Through group activities, lectures, and discussion, we will explore the biotic and abiotic components
of coral reefs, and the factors contributing to reef construction and decline over time and space. We
will address how symbioses influence reef health and function, and how a given set of species may
profoundly benefit or antagonize one another under different circumstances. We will examine the
major disturbances and threats to coral reefs and evaluate proposed solutions in terms of their
potential benefits, costs, unknowns, and feasibility.
Coral Reef Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2011, Fall 2010
Introduction to fish ecology, with particular emphasis on the identification and ecology of California's inland fishes. This course will expose students to the diversity of fishes found in California, emphasizing the physical (e.g., temperature, flow), biotic (e.g., predation, competition), and human-related (e.g., dams, fisheries) factors that affect the distribution, diversity, and abundance of these fishes.
Fish Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
Lakes, rivers, wetlands, and estuaries are biologically rich, dynamic, and among the most vital and the most vulnerable of Earth’s ecosystems. Lectures will introduce general topics including the natural history of freshwater biota and habitats, ecological interactions, and ecosystem linkages and dynamics. Broad principles will be illustrated with results from selected recent research publications. Factors affecting resilience or vulnerability of freshwater ecosystems to change will be examined. Course requirements: two exams and a short synthesis paper projecting the future states of a freshwater or estuarine ecosystem of the student's choice under plausible scenarios of local, regional, or global change.
Freshwater Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
An introduction to the ecology of selected grasslands, woodlands, and shrublands in the
western U.S. through a biogeographical survey of rangeland ecosystems. Selected plant
communities and their response to management, climate, and environmental factors, and the
effects of fire, grazing, and direct manipulation on ecological structure and function. Includes an
introduction to rangeland plants.
Grassland and Woodland Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2009, Spring 2008
Introduction to the ecology of terrestrial tropical ecosystems, with particular emphasis on neotropical forests. Explores unique aspects of tropical ecosystems, especially nutrient cycles, net primary productivity, biological diversity, forest structure and dynamics, disturbance ecology, and the natural history of key forest organisms. Basic ecology is integrated with discussion of human disturbances, restoration of tropical ecosystems, and the global importance of tropical forests.
Tropical Forest Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2019 First 6 Week Session, Fall 2018
An ecosystem approach to the study of urban gardens with an organic perspective. Topics include fundamentals of horticulture, soil properties and fertility, pest and disease management, and food perservation. Laboratories include methods in garden design, plant propagation, compost technique, soil preparation, irrigation systems, pest management, individual or group projects, demonstrations, and discussions. Enrollment may be limited.
Urban Garden Ecosystems: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Examines in a holistic framework fundamental biological, technical, socio-economic, and political processes that govern agroecosystem productivity and stability. Management techniques and farming systems' designs that sustain longterm production are emphasized. One Saturday field trip and one optional field trip.
Agricultural Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course will introduce students to the study and management of soils as natural bodies, as media for plant
growth and as integral components of terrestrial ecosystems. It will present basic concepts of soil science
including: soil formation and classification, the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils, the role of
soil in supplying water and nutrients to plants and soil organisms, as well as applications of soil concepts in
farming or engineering. The course will also introduce the relationships of soils to environmental problems.
Science of Soils: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2021, Fall 2019
Development, morphology, and classification of soils as related to geology, environmental factors, and time. Soils as functioning parts of ecosystems; use of soils in archeological and paleoclimatic studies; anthropogenic effects on soil ecosystems.
Development and Classification of Soils: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023
This course examines the centrality of gender and intersectionality in understanding nature-society relations across time and space. During the first half of the semester, students will become familiar with key feminist theoretical approaches to studying environmental problems, including ecofeminism, feminist environmentalism, feminist critiques of science, feminist political ecology, and queer and more-than-human ecologies. In the remainder of the semester, students will apply the theories learned to explore contemporary feminist environmental movements and analyze key topics, such as resource politics, pollution and toxins, environmental and reproductive justice, climate change, and the ethics of care.
Gender and Environment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
The course will provide a historical background for the field of biogeography and the ecological foundations needed to understand the distribution and abundance of species and their changes over time. It will also discuss developing technologies (including genomic tools and environmental models) together with the availability of big data and increasingly sophisticated analytical tools to examine the relevance of the field to global change biology, conservation, and invasion biology, as well as sustainable food systems and ecosystem services.
Biogeography: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
An introduction to comparative animal behavior and behavioral physiology in an evolutionary context, including but not limited to analysis of behavior, genetics and development, learning, aggression, reproduction, adaptiveness, and physiological substrates.
Animal Behavior: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Spring 2018
Chemical mechanisms of reactions controlling the fate and mobility of nutrients and pollutants in soils. Role of soil minerals and humus in geochemical pathways of nutrient biovailability and pollutant detoxification. Chemical modeling of nutrient and pollutant soil chemistry. Applications to soil acidity and salinity.
Chemistry of Soils: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2020
This course describes how the physical environment (light, wind, temperature, humidity) of plants and soil affects the physiological status of plants and how plants affect their physical environment. Using experimental data and theory, it examines physical, biological, and chemical processes affecting transfer of momentum, energy, and material (water, CO2, atmospheric trace gases) between vegetation and the atmosphere. Plant biometeorology instrumentation and measurements are also discussed.
Biometeorology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2000, Fall 1999
This course examines major structural issues in the dominant food system, and
movements for food justice, food sovereignty and seed sovereignty organized by food
producers, workers, and consumers that have arisen to assert access to healthy food as a
human right. Through exploring how we are defining ‘healthy food’, and the spaces and
communities which have historically had more constrained access to this food and its
means of production, this class will work to familiarize students with food justice
activism in the Bay Area and beyond.
Food Justice: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
This course introduces the fundamental physical principles that are necessary to understand
the distribution and dynamics of water near the Earth's surface. A quantitative approach will provide
mathematical descriptions of hydrological phenomena that will be used for a variety of hydrological
applications to river flow hydraulics, flood frequency analysis, evapotranspiration from terrestrial
ecosystems, groundwater flow, and ecohydrological dynamics. The course will provide an introduction to
hydrological processes and data analysis. The purpose of the laboratory is to illustrate in an experimental
setting the principles and applications introduced in lecture.
Forest Hydrology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
A quantitative introduction to the hydrology of the terrestrial environment including lower atmosphere, watersheds, lakes, and streams. All aspects of the hydrologic cycle, including precipitation, infiltration, evapotranspiration, overland flow, streamflow, and groundwater flow. Chemistry and dating of groundwater and surface water. Development of quantitative insights through problem solving and use of simple models. This course requires one field experiment and several group computer lab assignments.
Terrestrial Hydrology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Introduction to the organisms that live in the soil and their activities in the soil ecosystem. Lectures will cover the physical and chemical properties of soils and the soil as a habitat for microorganisms, the diversity and ecology of soil microorganisms, and their activity in the context of biogeochemical cycling, plant-microbe interactions, global environmental change and bioremediation. Goals: To gain fundamental knowledge of the occurrence and activities of soil microorganisms and their influence on soil productivity and environmental quality as well as potential applications of soil microbiology.
Soil Microbiology and Biogeochemistry: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
Covers topics ranging from mythological ideas about spiders and their importance in traditional cultures and folklore, to diversity patterns, ecology, behavior, and general biology of spiders. In the laboratory section, students learn to identify local spiders and to prepare a collection.
Spider Biology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2018, Spring 2016
Distribution, dynamics, and use of water resources in the global environment. Water scarcity, water rights, and water wars. The terrestrial hydrologic cycle. Contemporary environmental issues in water resource management, including droughts, floods, saltwater intrusion, water contamination and remediation, river restoration, hydraulic fracturing, dams, and engineering of waterways. The role of water in ecosystem processes and geomorphology. How water resources are measured and monitored. Basic water resource calculations. Effects of climate change on water quantity, quality, and timing.
Water Resources and the Environment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Study of the influence of fire, insects, and diseases on species diversity, succession, and the survival of North American forests including the evolution of these interactions due to modern human policies of preservation and management and exploitation.
Fire, Insects, and Diseases in Forest Ecosystems: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2019
This course is designed to allow students to delve into the topic of migration in the contemporary world. Readings, discussions, and assignments will focus on 1) past and present immigration to California and beyond 2) the impact of immigration in relation to labor, health and the environment and 3) contemporary immigrant activism and organizing. A primary goal of the course is to utilize sociocultural theories to describe the experiences of immigrants in the U.S. Students will communicate what they are learning through discussions, weekly reading reflection, academic papers, and an Op-Ed. A variety of teaching methods will be employed including lectures, discussions and guest presentations (authors and indiviudals featured in books).
Migration in the Contemporary World: California and Beyond: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Academics, policy-makers, workers, communities, consumers, and business leaders are increasingly concerned about the environmental and social impacts of industry. A range of fields have emerged to respond to these concerns, seeking to redesign and re-align industrial systems and activities to be more ecologically and socially sound. This course explores internal firm capabilities (core functions, practices, technologies) and external pressures (governments, NGOs) to advance more sustainable industry. The course examines emerging production and consumption systems, introduces several methods for mapping and measuring the environmental and social impacts of industry, and evaluates recent strategies to advance more sustainable production.
Sustainable Industry: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
This course will cover broad topics in landscape ecology with the goal of answering the core questions of how patterns develop on landscapes, how these patterns relate to biotic and abiotic processes, and how these patterns and processes change through time. Lab exercises will focus on practical aspects of landscape ecological analysis using modern tools like remote sensing, GIS, population modeling, and landscape genetics.

Landscape Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course will provide a comparative overview of virus life cycles and strategies viruses use to infect and replicate in hosts. We will discuss virus structure and classification and the molecular basis of viral reproduction, evolution, assembly, and virus-host interactions. Common features used during virus replication and host cellular responses to infection will be covered. Topics also included are common and emerging virus diseases, their control, and factors affecting their spread.
Introduction to Comparative Virology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2019, Fall 2017
This course will provide a practical exploration of how to engage effectively with contemporary environmental issues using discussion of scientific and philosophical texts, activities, and group work. We will evaluate how different worldviews influence how humans relate to the natural world and how our own worldview shapes our way of engaging in environmental problem solving.
THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE SELF: AN ECO PRACTICUM: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022
The Genetics of Amphibian Declines Lab is a course-based
research experience (CURE) where students conduct team-based original research projects.
Contemporary loss of amphibian biodiversity is due in large part to the impacts of emerging
infectious disease. We will study these pathogens of amphibians in local Bay Area field sites.
Students will be guided through all stages of the scientific research process from reading the
primary literature and forming hypotheses to designing experiments, collecting and analyzing
data, and presenting results. Students will learn collaborative research skills and contribute new
biological knowledge to the field of amphibian disease ecology.
Genetics of Amphibian Declines CURE: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
A comprehensive course on the biology of terrestrial and aquatic insects, their morphology, physiology, behavior, taxonomy, and ecology. The lab covers the identification and classification of insect orders and common families, insect collecting and sampling methods, and includes a required insect collection project. Course includes an overnight field trip to a research property.
General Entomology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025
Insects as a group make up more than 50% of all described species of living organisms
and insects impact all aspects of our daily lives. This course intends to introduce students to insect
biology and various areas of research in entomology at a detailed level. This will be done in lectures and
readings that focus on the biology, ecology, morphology, physiology, natural history, and taxonomy of
insects.
General Entomology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2020 Second 6 Week Session
Climate Change Solutions course consists of 18 original video lectures from 23 UC researchers and academics. Students watch assigned lectures in advance, then come to class for rich discussions facilitated by the instructor. Content emphasizes both climate knowledge and solutions across a wide range of academic disciplines, and enables students to use showcase their learning in a capstone project.
Climate Change Solutions: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Insects display an incredibly rich array of behaviors, including extravagant displays, rituals, deception, sociality, and slavery. In some cases, these behaviors are innate, but in other cases individual insects can actively learn and modify their future behaviors based on real-life experiences. This course will focus on the development, structure, and function of insect behaviors, using examples from classic and recent publications. We will examine the evolution of insect behavior, how these behaviors play a role in the ecology of the organisms that express them, and explore various modes of communication that allow insects to judge their environment and respond appropriately.
Insect Behavior: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Insects display an incredibly rich array of behaviors, including extravagant displays, rituals, deception, sociality, and slavery. In some cases, these behaviors are innate, but in other cases individual insects can actively learn and modify their future behaviors based on real-life experiences. This course will focus on the development, structure, and function of insect behaviors, using examples from classic and recent publications. We will examine the evolution of insect behavior, how these behaviors play a role in the ecology of the organisms that express them, and explore various modes of communication that allow insects to judge their environment and respond appropriately.
Insect Behavior: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
A survey of the unique physiological mechanisms of insects, including the analysis of physiological systems at the cellular-molecular level. The roles of the nervous and endocrine systems in coordinating physiological processes are emphasized.
Insect Physiology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course introduces identification methods and techniques for collection and preparation of specimens and associated biological data, field observation, and recording and interpretation of arthropod behavior, relationships to habitats, and plant-arthropod interactions.
Field Entomology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Chemical composition of pesticides and related compounds, their mode of action, resistance mechanisms, and methods of evaluating their safety and activity.
Pesticide Chemistry and Toxicology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024
This course centers the body as a key analytic to understanding the more-than-human world. The sick, injured, and disabled body is a central and reoccurring theme within environmental scholarship, as is its opposite, the healthy, robust, and fit body. In this class we will explore the sociopolitical and ethical relationships between altered bodily capacity, vulnerability, dependency, and systems of violence to nature and people, while attending to the sometimes troubling ways conversations around ecological health and fitness are informed by social inequality
Bodies, Difference, and the Environment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Special topics in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. Topics may vary from semester to semester.
Special Topics in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
Society and the natural environment are vitally linked in a number of ways. Environmental
problems such as pollution and natural resource depletion are not only problems for society,
affecting the way we live our lives; they are also problems of society—the result of patterns of
social organization and social practices. In this course we will explore some various issues,
concepts, and processes pertaining to the diverse approaches to understanding the relationship
between human society, culture, and the environment.
Society, Environment, and Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Summer 2024 8 Week Session, Spring 2024
The course will focus on understanding how anthropogenic changes to the global environment (e.g., climate change, habitat destruction, global trade) impact organisms. We will evaluate responses to global change in a wide diversity of organisms (from microbes to mammals) and ecosystems (from arctic to temperate to tropical). We will also explore conservation and mitigation strategies in the face of global change. Discussions will draw on recent primary research and case studies.
Global Change Biology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Ecology is a scientific discipline that focuses on the interactions between organisms and their
environment. This class will provide an overview of core concepts and applications, and will also provide practice with writing, small-group work, critical thinking, and data analysis.
The class will specifically cover principles of population ecology, illustrated with examples from marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats. It will consider the roles of physical and biological processes in structuring natural communities. Observational, experimental, and theoretical approaches will be discussed. Topics will include quantitative approaches relying on algebra, visual analysis of graphs, and elementary calculus.
Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 1999, Spring 1998
Landscape genetics is an interdisciplinary field that integrates principles from population genetics and landscape ecology to investigate how environmental factors influence genetic variation. This course will examine how landscape heterogeneity affects microevolutionary processes, including gene flow, drift, and selection. We will also explore how landscape genetics can be applied to conservation and land management and the role of genetic diversity in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function. Lab exercises will focus on applying spatial analysis to genomic data to quantify the impacts of landscape features on population dynamics and to gain a deeper understanding of the intricate relationship between genetics and the environment.
Landscape Genetics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 10 Week Session, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Sociology and political ecology of agro-food systems; explores the nexus of agriculture, society, the environment; analysis of agro-food systems and social and environmental movements; examination of alternative agricultural initiatives--(i.e. fair trade, food justice/food sovereignty, organic farming, urban agriculture).
Sociology and Political Ecology of Agro-Food Systems: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2022, Spring 2020
Communication is central to the lives of most, if not all animals. How and why animals communicate is thus central to understanding the ecology, behavior, neurobiology, and evolution of animal systems. This course will focus on understanding the basic principles driving the communication system of a species, drawing together topics ranging from the physical properties of the environment, physiology of sensory systems, animal behavior and ecology, using examples from classic and recent publications.
Animal Communication: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Many of the greatest challenges we face today come from understanding and interacting with the natural world: from global climate change to the sudden collapse of fisheries and forests, from the spread of disease and invasive species to the unknown wealth of medical, cultural, and technological value we derive from nature. Advances in satellites and micro-sensors, computation, informatics and the Internet have made available unprecedented amounts of data about the natural world, and with it, new challenges of sifting, processing and synthesizing large and diverse sources of information. In this course, students will learn and apply fundamental computing, statistics and modeling concepts to a series of real-world ecological and environment
Data Science in Global Change Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Most of the world's lands and seas occur outside of protected ares, so this course examines biodiversity conservation in "working landscapes" like farms, ranches, and urban areas. Students will study fundamental concepts in ecology and conservation biology, and evaluate case studies to assess how conservation approaches have evolved and which are working. Students will gain skills in evaluating and summarizing scientific literature, and in-depth knowledge of conservation in practice.
Biodiversity Conservation in Working Landscapes: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session
History of the American environment and the ways in which different cultural groups have perceived, used, managed, and conserved it from colonial times to the present. Cultures include American Indians and European and African Americans. Natural resources development includes gathering-hunting-fishing; farming, mining, ranching, forestry, and urbanization. Changes in attitudes and behaviors toward nature and past and present conservation and environmental movements are also examined. Readings are from primary source documents supplemented by recent essays.

American Environmental and Cultural History: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2021 Second 6 Week Session
A cross-cultural comparison of human environments as physical, socio-economic, and technocultural ecosystems with special emphasis on the role of beliefs, attitudes, ideologies, and behavior. An examination of contemporary environmental literature and the philosophies embodied therein.
Environmental Philosophy and Ethics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2022
Animals have long been the subject of human inquiry. As historian Harriet Ritvo writes, “Learned attention to the animal is far from new." However, in recent decades social movements, artists, and scholars have focused more frequently, and perhaps more urgently, on what Derrida called “the question of the animal.” In this course we will look to how centering the animal challenges human exceptionalism, anthropocentrism, and traditional critical discourse. Tracing the ways work in animal studies denaturalizes hierarchical taxonomies, defines key concepts such as human and animal, and articulates boundaries between species, this course will follow the various political, relational, ethical and imaginative implications of thinking with animals.
Thinking With Animals: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2019, Fall 2017, Fall 2016
Exploration of the ethical dilemmas arising from recent advances in
the biological sciences: genetic engineering, sociobiology, health care
delivery, behavior modification, patients'; rights, social or private
control of research.
Bioethics and Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
Introduces students to intersections between health, medicine, society,
and environment through medical and environmental anthropology,
political ecology, medical geography, and the social studies of science,
technology and the natural environment. Readings, discussions, and
assignments will explore the sociocultural, political economic, and
environmental aspects of illness, care, disease, biomedicine, and
health (in)equity.
Health, Medicine, Society and Environment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Introduces students to intersections between health, medicine, society,
and environment through medical and environmental anthropology,
political ecology, medical geography, and the social studies of science,
technology and the natural environment. Readings, discussions, and
assignments will explore the sociocultural, political economic, and
environmental aspects of illness, care, disease, biomedicine, and
health (in)equity.
Health, Medicine, Society and Environment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Overview of the field of environmental justice, analyzing the implications of race, class, labor, and equity on environmental degradation and regulation. Environmental justice movements and struggles within poor and people of color communities in the U.S., including: African Americans, Latino Americans, and Native American Indians. Frameworks and methods for analyzing race, class, and labor. Cases of environmental injustice, community and government responses, and future strategies for achieving environmental and labor justice.
Environmental Justice: Race, Class, Equity, and the Environment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020
The objectives of the course are 1) review the GIS workflow (acquisition, representation, validation, analysis, and output), 2) to understand the issues surrounding, and algorithms used in a particular GIS application, 3) to learn about advanced topics in geospatial science across environmental and social sciences, and 4) to develop an operational GIS project in a chosen area.
GIS and Environmental Science: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021
Comparative analysis of policy systems governing natural resource development in the rural Third World. Emphasis on organization and function of agricultural and mineral development, with particular consideration of rural hunger, resource availability, technology, and patterns of international aid.
International Rural Development Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
The health effects of environmental alterations caused by development programs and other human activities in both developing and developed areas. Case studies will contextualize methodological information and incorporate a global perspective on environmentally mediated diseases in diverse populations. Topics include water management; population change; toxics; energy development; air pollution; climate change; chemical use, etc.
Environmental Health and Development: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020
Analysis of environmental problems in an international context with a focus on political and economic processes, resource access, and representations of nature. Discussion of the ways in which film, literature, and the news media reflect and influence environmental politics. Approaches to policy analysis arising from recent social theory.
Political Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2024, Fall 2021
The dynamics of international politics are examined over the last 25 years. Attention is paid to different perspectives in global environmental politics, the actors involved, how well international agreements address the problems they are supposed to solve, and the main debates in the field, including trade-environmental conflicts, security, and environmental justice issues. Issues covered vary, but may include climate change, biodiversity, population, and toxics.
International Environmental Politics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2021 Second 6 Week Session
The dynamics of international politics are examined over the last 25 years. Attention is paid to different perspectives in global environmental politics, the actors involved, how well international agreements address the problems they are supposed to solve, and the main debates in the field, including trade-environmental conflicts, security, and environmental justice issues. Issues covered vary, but may include climate change, biodiversity, population, and toxics.
International Environmental Politics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
The focus is the (unsolved) puzzle of the contemporary carbon cycle. Why is the concentration of atmospheric CO2 changing at the rate observed? What are the terrestrial and oceanic processes that add and remove carbon from the atmosphere? What are the carbon management strategies under discussion? How can emission protocols be verified? Students are encouraged to gain hands-on experience with the available data, and learn modeling skills to evaluate hypotheses of carbon sources and sinks.
Carbon Cycle Dynamics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2019
This class provides an introduction to the use of environmental geophysical methods and data integration approaches to quantify critical zone properties and interactions across compartments, from within the bedrock through the vegetative canopy.
Critical Zone Characterization using Geophysical Methods: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Fall 2013, Spring 2010
The course will introduce junior/senior undergraduate students to the basic physical concepts of remote sensing as they relate to different earth surface processes. It will introduce students to a variety of recently developed ground, airborne, and satellite instruments and their applications to monitor and analyze environmental processes. These include active (e.g., Lidar), and passive (radiometers) sensors, optical (e.g., Landsat, MODIS), microwave (e.g., SMAP), and gravitational (e.g., GRACE) satellites.
Remote Sensing of the Environment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020
The course will introduce junior/senior undergraduate students to the basic physical concepts of remote sensing as they relate to different earth surface processes. It will introduce students to a variety of recently developed ground, airborne, and satellite instruments and their applications to monitor and analyze environmental processes. These include active (e.g., Lidar), and passive (radiometers) sensors, optical (e.g., Landsat, MODIS), microwave (e.g., SMAP), and gravitational (e.g., GRACE) satellites.
Remote Sensing of the Environment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
Introduces concepts and methods for practical analysis of data from ecology and related disciplines. Topics include data summaries, distributions, and probability; comparison of data groups using t-tests and analysis of variance; comparison of multi-factor groups using analysis of variance; evaluation of continuous relationships between variables using regression and correlation; and a glimpse at more advanced topics. In computer laboratories, students put concepts into practice and interpret results.
Introduction to Ecological Data Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2019, Spring 2017, Fall 2014
Surveys major designs and analyses for biological field and laborabory studies. Topics include data distributions; regression; analysis of variance; fixed and random effects; blocking, split plots, and repeated measures; maximum likelihood; Generalized Linear Models; basic computer programming. Relies on math to interpret and manipulate equations supported by computer simulations. Examples include population, ecosystem, behavioral, and evolutionary ecology.
Design and Analysis of Ecological Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2021, Fall 2020
In this course we will learn how to analyze time-series data using real-world examples from
ecology and environmental sciences. We will study how to mathematically describe a time
series, and test hypotheses about the underlying processes generating the observed patterns.
We will cover univariate and multivariate state-space models, with an incursion into statistical
forecasting and analyses in the frequency domain (e.g., Discrete Fast Fourier Transform).
Applied Time Series Analysis for Ecology and Environmental Sciences: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Students design and conduct a senior thesis project, which requires identifying a testable question or problem, designing and executing a research protocol, analyzing data, deriving conclusions, and presenting the research in a scientific paper and an oral presentation. Lectures and assignments exphasize research design, data analysis, scientific writing, and scientific communication.
Senior Research Seminar in Environmental Sciences: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Students design and conduct a senior thesis project, which requires identifying a testable question or problem, designing and executing a research protocol, analyzing data, deriving conclusions, and presenting the research in a scientific paper and an oral presentation. Lectures and assignments exphasize research design, data analysis, scientific writing, and scientific communication.
Senior Research Seminar in Environmental Sciences: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2020, Fall 2019, Spring 2019
Independent laboratory or field research in support of the required senior seminar project.
Senior Research Laboratory in Environmental Sciences: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
ESPM H175A and H175B are honors courses that eligible Environmental Sciences students may substitute for ESPM 175A and 175B. Students design and conduct a senior thesis project, which requires identifying a research question or problem, designing and executing a research protocol, analyzing data, deriving conclusions, and presenting the research in a scientific paper and an oral presentation.Lectures and assignments emphasize research design, data analysis, scientific writing, and scientific communication.
Senior Research Seminar in Environmental Sciences: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015
ESPM H175A and H175B are honors courses that eligible Environmental Sciences students may substitute for ESPM 175A and 175B. Students design and conduct a senior thesis project, which requires identifying a research question or problem, designing and executing a research protocol, analyzing data, deriving conclusions, and presenting the research in a scientific paper and an oral presentation. Lectures and assignments emphasize research design, data analysis, scientific writing, and scientific communication.
Senior Research Seminar in Environmental Sciences: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
ESPM H175L is an honors course that eligible Environmental Sciences students may substitute for ESPM 175L. Independent laboratory or field research in support of the required senior seminar project.
Senior Research Laboratory in Environmental Sciences: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025
Cars, power plants, deforestation, and other human sources pump greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere, causing anthropogenic climate change, which has driven two animal species
extinct and caused tree mortality, wildfire increases, sea level rise, ocean acidification, and
other impacts. Scientific research shows that the world can cut carbon pollution to avoid the
most severe risks. This course aims to teach (1) the science of anthropogenic climate change,
(2) applications to biodiversity conservation in national parks and other protected areas, (3)
carbon solutions. Students will produce a climate change assessment for a protected area of
their choice. The course welcomes students interested in advancing meaningful action on
climate change.
Climate Change, Ecosystems, and Solutions: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Climate change is transforming our world in ways we are only
beginning to understand, and in many ways we cannot yet imagine.
The emerging theoretical and practical lenses of social and
environmental justice (EJ) provide tools with which to examine and
understand this new world. Using literature, media, and engaged field
experiences, this course brings together the scholarship, scientific and
engineering innovation, policy, literature and media, and activism
around the interacting themes of climate change and social justice.
CLIMATE JUSTICE: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2021 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2020 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2019
In this class we will study basic principles of environmental sustainability from the perspective of water and food security, and apply them to human use of land and land based resources. An analysis of major mechanisms of land degradation and of the major technological advances that are expected to burst food production worldwide will be used as the basis for a discussion on the extent to which the Earth can sustainably feed humanity.
Sustainable Water and Food Security: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course offers an introduction to spatial data analysis. It integrates ArcGIS analysis with spatial statistical analysis for the study of pattern and process applicable to a wide variety of fields. Major topics covered include: spatial sampling, processing data with ARC Info, exploratory GIS analysis, spatial decomposition, spatial point patterns and Ripley's K function, spatial autocorrelation, geostatistics, spatially weighted regression, spatial autoregression, generalized linear models and generalized linear mixed models.
GIS and Environmental Spatial Data Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Spring 2010, Spring 2009
Framed around the topic of sustainability, the course engages students from different science majors to apply the content knowledge from their discipline to build curriculum pieces for presentation in high school classrooms. Students develop pedagogical content knowledge and relate teaching theory to practice. Additional topics covered include classroom management and leadership, lesson planning, presentation skills, and readings in science education.
Environmental Science Education Practicum: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016
In the environmental and biological sciences, one of the biggest challenges in transitioning from student to researcher is learning how to measure something without an off-the-shelf device. This course will provide the theoretical background and the practice of building a Gas Chromatograph (GC) system for environmental research. The first semester is for students who seek to develop fundamental skills in instrumental development and design. The second semester (c179b) is only open to those who have taken this first semester course and will entail the construction of a working gas chromatograph system. This class will be especially useful for students who wish to pursue research following graduation.
GC-Maker Lab I: Skills and Theory: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017
In the environmental and biological sciences, one of the biggest challenges in transitioning from student to researcher is learning how to measure something without an off-the-shelf device. This course will involve the actual building a gas chromatograph (GC) system for environmental research. In addition, we will provide the option of building a mini datalogging sensor for measuring basic environmental parameters using the Arduino platform. This course offered in the spring semester is only open to those who have taken this first semester course (c179A), which covers the fundamental skills required to undertake this project. This class is designed for upper division undergraduates to early graduate students.
GC-Maker Lab II: Instrument development: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
This course is an introduction to air pollution and the chemistry of earth's atmosphere. We will focus on the fundamental natural processes controlling trace gas and aerosol concentrations in the atmosphere, and how anthropogenic activity has affected those processes at the local, regional, and global scales. Specific topics include stratospheric ozone depletion, increasing concentrations of green house gasses, smog, and changes in the oxidation capacity of the troposphere.
Air Pollution: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2021, Spring 2019
Fundamentals of wildland fire including fire behavior modeling, fire history methods, prescribed fire techniques, fire ecology, fire management, fire in the urban-wildland intermix, wildland fire, and ecosystem sustainability. Laboratories on inventory methods, fire history, modeling of fire behavior and risk, and prescribed burning.
Fire Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2020
The purpose of the course is to provide students with basic knowledge of how to plan for and conduct forest treatments. It is meant as a companion to silviculture, which is the planning out and scheduling of treatments in order to meet defined objectives in forests. As such, Forest Operations does not focus on the reason for conducting treatments but rather how they are done. Topics include the types of equipment that are used in thinning, harvesting, prescribed fire, and vegetation management. The administrative requirements involved with planning operations (e.g. permit acquisition and contracts) are covered, as are principles of road maintenance and road abandonment. Two weekend field trips are required. A prescribed fire will be planned
Forest Operations Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Introduces students to concepts and quantitative tools needed for the sustainable management and planning of multi-use forest ecosystems. Topics covered include: forest regulation; estimation of ecological, economic, and social values; construction of dynamic forest models; methods for optimal decision-making; development of forest management plans; and ethics of natural resource management. Application to current issues in temperate and tropical forest management are discussed. Quantitative, analytical, and communication skills are emphasized. Oral presentation required.
Forest Ecosystem Management and Planning: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Introduces students to concepts and quantitative tools needed for the sustainable management of multi-use forest ecosystems. Topics covered include: estimation of ecological, economic, and social values: construction of dynamic forest models, methods for optimal decision-making, and development of forest management plans. Application to current issues in temperate and tropical forest management are discussed. Quantitative, analytical, and communication skills are emphasized. Oral presentation required.
Forest Ecosystem Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2009, Fall 2008
Agroforestry principles and systems in use worldwide are examined, with emphasis on contemporary temperate agroforestry system design and management. Economic, biologic, social, and political conditions for successful agroforestry systems are analyzed. Some laboratory sessions will be field trips that will extend beyond the scheduled lab time.
Agroforestry Systems: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
Concepts and applications of silviculture for the establishment, growth, composition, and quality of forest trees and stands. Silviculture is presented as a tool to meet multiple resource and ecosystem management objectives related to wildlife habitat, watershed resources, forest health, or timber production. Two weekend field trips will be scheduled in lieu of several laboratories.
Applied Forest Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
California’s woodlands, grasslands, and shrublands provide abundant environmental benefits including extensive wildlife habitat. Most is used for ranching and managed through grazing animals. Ecosystem stewardship and ecological dynamics meet in rangeland management, including new institutional arrangements for conservation and restoration, management for carbon sequestration, and Indigenous partnerships. Origins of grazing animals and methods for assessing management outcomes.
Grassland and Woodland Management and Conservation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2013, Spring 2012
This course covers ecological theories that inform the practice of ecological restoration, with particular focus on local (Bay Area) restoration and linkages with social, political, and economic factors. Laboratories focus on assessment techniques and cumulate with formulation of a restoration management plan. Laboratories will be based at the Richmond Field Station, served by campus shuttle.
Restoration Ecology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2013, Spring 2012
Seminar format with presentation and discussion by each student, with long term paper requirement. Examination in depth of current issues in wildlife management.
Case Histories in Wildlife Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course examines the complex, coupled and heterogeneous interactions that occur among organisms, humans, and the urban environment. We will emphasize foundational concepts in urban ecology spanning the organismal, population, community, and ecosystem levels, with special focus on the role of social-ecological dynamics in shaping the emergent properties of urban biological systems. We will also discuss how such interactions lead to rapid evolutionary change in cities and discuss what that means for urban biodiversity and conservation. Finally, we will address how cities regionally and globally have similar and dissimilar properties, and how we can apply urban ecological principles to urban planning, design, conservation, wildlife manage.
Urban Ecology and Evolution: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2017, Fall 2010
Interdisciplinary study of issues for advanced students. Designed to develop skills in critical analysis of specific issues. Different topics will be available each semester reflecting faculty and student interest. Major research project required.
Seminar in Environmental Issues: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2011, Spring 2007, Fall 2004
The American forest will be examined in terms of its ecology, history, and representations in paintings, photographs, and literary essays. This examination seeks to understand the American forest in its scientific and economic parameters, as well as the historic, social, and ideological dimensions which have contributed to the evolution of our present attitudes toward the forest.
The American Forest: Its Ecology, History, and Representation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2020, Spring 2019, Fall 2018
Seminar in which students consider how modern biotechnological approaches, including recombinant DNA methods, can be used to recognize and solve problems in the area of conservation, habitat and endangered species preservation, agriculture and environmental pollution. Students will also develop and present case studies of environmental problems solving using modern molecular methods.
Molecular Approaches to Environmental Problem Solving: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2011, Fall 2010
Theory and practice of translating ecological knowledge, environmental issues, and values into educational forms for all age levels and all facets of society, including schools. Concentrated experience in participatory education.
Environmental Education: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Seminar in which students synthesize their knowledge, skills, and interests into a holistic perspective. A one-hour oral presentation in the area of interest and a senior thesis synthesizing the area of interest are required. Required final semester for all CRS majors.
Senior Seminar in Conservation and Resource Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Fall 2019, Spring 2019
Senior capstone project in the student's primary area of concentration and presentation to the ESPM Society and Environment faculty and majors. Required of all graduating seniors in the ESPM and Society and Environment major. Students who have completed ESPM 195, H196, or 197 may substitute that course for ESPM 194B.
Capstone Course in Society and Environment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2021, Fall 2020
Supervised independent research specific to aspects of ESPM, followed by a written report.
It is recommended that students conduct 3-4 units of research for at least one semester prior to enrolling in ESPM 195 in their senior year.

Senior Thesis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Fall 2016
Supervised independent honors research specific to aspects of environmental science, policy, and management, followed by a written report to department. Submission of no more than 300 words required for approval.
Honors Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Fall 2021
Supervised experience in off-campus organizations relevant to specific aspects of environmental science, policy, and management. Regular individual meetings with faculty sponsor and written reports required.
Field Study in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024
The goal of this class is for you to directly apply the knowledge you have gained through your food and agriculture-related coursework in a real world setting. As such, the primary emphasis of the class is completing a 70-hour community-based internship with a food and agriculture organization, typically (but not exclusively) in the Bay Area. You may elect to participate in internships with an established community partner or an organization of your own choosing. Class time will be devoted to guiding and supporting your internship and will emphasize individual check-ins, group discussion, and activities designed to underscore the basic principles of community engagement.
Community Engagement in Agri-Food Systems: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
Group study of special topics in environmental science, policy, and management that are not covered in depth in regular courses in the department.
Directed Group Studies for Advanced Undergraduates: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Fall 2023
Berkeley Connect is a mentoring program, offered through various academic departments, that helps students build intellectual community. Over the course of a semester, enrolled students participate in regular small-group discussions facilitated by a graduate student mentor (following a faculty-directed curriculum), meet with their graduate student mentor for one-on-one academic advising, attend lectures and panel discussions featuring department faculty and alumni, and go on field trips to campus resources. Students are not required to be declared majors in order to participate.

Berkeley Connect: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2021, Spring 2021
Enrollment restrictions apply; see the Courses and Curricula section of this catalog. Supervised independent study and research specific to aspects of environmental science, policy, and management.
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
The Sponsored Projects for Undergraduate Research (SPUR) program helps students get involved in research projects with world renowned faculty and staff researchers in the Rausser College of Natural Resource
Sponsored Projects for Undergraduate Research (SPUR): Read More [+]