Ecosystem functioning and services

The course aims at providing advanced knowledge of ecosystem ecology. The first part of the course aims at explaining the main mechanisms that govern ecosystems and regulate their functioning (such as state factors, interactive controls, fluxes and cycles), ecosystem dynamics and processes, boundaries, components, structures. The second part of the course provides knowledge on ecosystem services (ES), illustrating concepts, history, past and ongoing debates, and implementation (in research, policies, and decision-making); different types of ES are discussed, and the related key aspects are illustrated: coupled systems, ES bundles, synergies and trade-offs, biodiversity-mediates ES, ecosystem disservices, global change & ES, nature-based solutions and ecosystem restoration. Spatially explicit approaches to the study of ES are discussed and practiced in the classroom.

At the end of the course, students will be able to
- analyse an environment of their choice, highlighting its main ecological characteristics, its functioning, and the ecosystem services it provides
- describe relevant ecosystem services, identifying the associated environments and the main underpinning processes
- explain the differences and similarities between alternative approaches adopted in the field (e.g., ES vs. NCP, environmental economics vs. ecological economics)
- illustrate through a short technical report and/or a presentation the main state factors, interactive controls and ecosystem services that characterize an environment of their choice
- properly use some spatially explicit approaches to the study of ecosystem services