Biosphere
ES2S Biosphere ES2003 is offered to all first year students in the Asian School of the Environment. It is open to exchange and students from other departments upon request. The aim of the course is to gain a basic understanding of ecological concepts related to Earth Systems Science. The highlight of the course is our annual field trip to a local Singapore park to make ecological observations to answer hypothesis-driven questions.
Global Change Ecology
Global Change Ecology ES3306/ES7024 is designed for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in the Asian School of the Environment, other departments at NTU and exchange students from NUS and abroad. The course focuses on how global change drivers are expected to affect tropical forests and showcases recent findings of large-scale manipulation experiments across the tropics. Lectures provide background information regarding ecological impacts of global change drivers and tutorials offer the opportunity for students to present the latest research on the topic of the week. The second half of the semester is a Course-based [Under]gradUate Research Experience (CURE), where the students develop a research hypotheses and experimental design of the project, collect and analyse data which they present and write-up in a report.
The 2022 Global Change Ecology class designed a seedling experiment with a factorial heat * drought experimental design. They measured seedling performance and leaf gas exchange to determine interactive effects of increased temperature and decreased water supply. The photos below show seedlings exposed to the treatment conditions after 3 weeks! Can you tell which seedlings received the drought + heat treatment? Experiments like this show the potential effects of global climate change with increasing temperatures and frequency of drought events in tropical forest regions, where seedlings like those below do not have strong adaptations to handle these harsh conditions.
Kelly M Andersen 