What is Earth System Science?

Earth System Science views the Earth as a system of interconnected "spheres", including atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, biosphere, cryosphere (ice), and even cosmosphere (everything beyond Earth). Material and energy cycle among these spheres and determine the way our environment behaves from the shortest to the longest time scales. Until several years ago, if you wanted to take some courses to help you understand how the Earth works you might have to take a geology course, an oceanography course and an atmospheric science course. The new field of Earth System Science recognizes that these different spheres are intimately related. For example, to understand the climate of the Earth, one must learn something about all the spheres listed above. In addition, Earth System Science emphasizes that humans have significant influence on nearly all the spheres by changing the rates and directions of material and energy flows among them. For example, because of fossil fuel burning, carbon is being mined from the geosphere and added to the atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere at unprecedented rates. Higher carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is the likely cause of the recent rise in global temperatures. Sometimes humans are referred to as a separate sphere, the "anthrosphere".

During the Earth Semester we will focus on three major areas that draw on knowledge about the major spheres of the Earth System and how they interact: the geology of the southwest US (Arizona and Southern California in particular), water in the southwest US and the global climate system. The thread with which we will tie these together is climate, and its regional and global manifestations. Over the semester we will build an understanding of some climate basics, like ocean and atmosphere circulation, preparing us to study the global climate system in the last module.

During the Sense of Place Module, our first focus will be the geologic history of the planet, especially as it is reflected in the geology of Arizona. In order to understand how this landscape came to be what it is today, we will study the tectonic processes below the Earth's surface that give rise to its general structure, and the surficial processes that shape it from above. We will see evidence of all the processes we study in the field, in Southern Arizona, and later in the semester on our Gulf of California and Anza-Borrego field trips. With this foundation, we will turn our attention to water in the southwest US. We will cover the basic hydrology of surface and groundwater in the southwest, the general circulation of the atmosphere, and some of the interactions of people with the water cycle in the southwest, including human impacts on water quantity and quality. We will apply this knowledge to field projects on the Biosphere 2 site.

In the Planetary Systems Module, our focus will be the global climate system. We will learn how climate is controlled on a variety of time scales, from billion-year to decadal. Interestingly, as we switch time scales, we will find that the important players controlling climate change as well. We will pay special attention to factors controlling atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, and the global carbon cycle. In the end, we will be able to evaluate human perturbation of the carbon cycle and climate system with an understanding of the complexity of the climate system and in the context of longer-term climate variability.

Lectures, Labs and Sections:

Lectures: The full class will meet Mondays from 2:00 – 2:50 for an introduction to important concepts for the week. These lectures will occur in the Upper Orientation Center (UOC). For the first module, the class will meet for lecture on Friday as well, from 2:00 – 2:50 in the UOC.

Labs: Tuesdays and Wednesdays at times below, unless otherwise noted:

Section C Tues. 1-2:45 Section M Weds. 1-2:45

Section S Tues. 3-4:45    Section G Weds. 3-4:45

Labs will be held either in the Rock Lab, the Lower Orient. Center, or in the field.

Discussion Sections: For the second module, Friday lectures will be replaced by discussion sections at times and places below:

Section S: Fridays 1-1:50, Faculty conference room

Section C: Fridays 1-1:50, Martin Education Building Conference Room

Section G: Fridays 2-2:50, Faculty conference room

Section M: Fridays 2-2:50, Martin Education Building Conference Room

Assignments: assignments are due in class on the day listed, unless there is no class, in which case they are due to faculty offices at 5 pm.

Late assignments will be docked 10% per day late, unless you are sick or discuss other extenuating circumstances with us before the due date.

see the Field Notebook Criteria sheet for field notebook grading details.

If you have already had coursework in the areas covered by this syllabus, and you score in the top 20% of the class on the pre-test, then you may choose the ESS advanced option. For this option, you will participate in all ESS lectures, labs and discussions, but will not turn in the following homework assignments: Global Tectonics, Systems, and Anza-Borrego essay. Instead, you will be expected to participate in a seminar to discuss primary readings about the areas we will visit on our field trips. The seminar will meet one hour per week during most weeks, and you will be asked to present some of your readings to the group, as well as help to prepare field guides for the rest of the class.

Earth Systems Sciences Reader (full citations at end of syllabus)

Kump, L.R., Kasting, J.F., and Crane, R.G., 1999, The Earth System. Prentice Hall., 351 pp. ISBN 0-13-177387-9

Winter, T.C., Harvey, J.W., Franke, O.L., and Alley, W.M., 1999, Groundwater and Surface Water: A Single Resource, USGS Circular 1139. (available for $5 deposit from Jenee Rowe)

Nations, D., and Stump, E., 1996, Geology of Arizona (second ed.), Kendall Hunt, 224 pp. ISBN 0-7872-2525-8

Chronic, H., 1983, Roadside geology of Arizona. Mountain Press. ISBN 0-87842-147-5

Global Negotiations Workshop