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ENVE340: Environmental Change
This unit investigates environmental records to understand how landscapes respond to climate change. This unit considers historical climate changes and environmental response, and how the prehistoric record from sediment, tree rings, ice cores and landforms can be used to reconstruct past environments to gain an understanding of how the earth system evolves. These records are then related to evidence of environmental change seen in the local Australian landscape, and investigated during field excursions, including a week long field trip during the mid-semester break. This unit provides case studies of how these reconstructions have influenced our current understanding of how landscapes evolve. Examples include: how ancient DNA analysis of frozen sediments provides evidence of human interaction with woolly mammoths in the Arctic; reconstructions of how environmental change in Indonesia shaped the evolution of early humans; and how climatic change during the past hundred thousand years affected sediment transport and drainage systems in the Murray Darling basin. This unit also discusses how evidence of change in the local region can inform land management practices with the onset of climate change. All students must attend the mid-semester field trip from 16 to 21 April.
| Credit Points: | 3 |
| Contact Hours: | 6 |
| When Offered: | D1 - Day; Offered in the first half-year |
| Staff Contact(s): | Dr Paul Hesse, Dr Kira Westaway |
| Prerequisites: | |
| Corequisites: | |
| NCCW(s): | GEOS399, ENVE337 |
| Unit Designation(s): | |
| Assessed As: | Graded |
| Offered By: | Department of Environment and Geography |
Timetable Information
For unit timetable information please visit the Timetables@Macquarie Website .