Note: This is not a full listing of courses offered by the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and related departments of the University. Refer to the appropriate school's bulletin for complete course listings and course descriptions.
Courses here are listed in order by course number. To see courses organized according to E&ESJ curriculum, return to E&ESJ Course of Study
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3 pts. D. Colodner.
Origin and evolution of planet earth provides basis for a discussion of factors necessary for a planet to spawn life and eventually a complex civilization. The present pollution problems of planet earth provide a focus for consideration of the extent to which the inhabitants of a planet can impact its environment.
3 pts.
Prerequisites: One year of college science or permission of the instructor. Alternate years. Exploration of forests in global change: historical and future perspectives. Resources, including biodiversity, medicinal/ethnobotany; conservation and management strategies; role in carbon cycle.
3 pts. M. Stute.
Prerequisite: ENS V 2100, physics, or permission of the instructor. Alternate years. Structure and properties of water and the hydrologic cycle, including atmospheric waters, lakes, rivers, glaciers, groundwater. Availability and demand for freshwater resources. Environmental problems associated with the contamination of drinking water. (Course Homepage.)
3 pts. P. Bower.
Prediction and avoidance of catastrophic events that originate in natural and technologic systems. Response strategies to minimize damage before, during, and after events such as floods, hurricanes and nuclear breakdowns. Environmental impact of war. Alternate years.
3 pts. Professor Wernick.
Industrial ecology examines how to reconfigure industrial activities so as to minimize the adverse environmental and material resource effects on the planet. Engineering applications of methodology of industrial ecology in the analysis of current processes and products and the selection or design of environmentally superior alternatives. Home assignments of illustrative quantitative problems.
3 pts. M. Anders, C. Scholtz.
Prerequisite: one semester of college-level calculus or physics or chemistry. Fee: $35. A concentrated introduction to the solid earth, its interior and near-surface geology. Intended for students with good backgrounds in the physical sciences but none in geology. Laboratory and field trips.
3 pts.
Engineering methods for the sustainable provision of materials to humanity. Anthropogenic effects on the Earth as a physical/chemical, biological, and socioeconomic system. Soil contamination and erosion, petroleum production and oil spills, mining of coal and minerals, waste disposal. Sustainability of energy reserves and mineral resources. Hydrologic cycle and pollution, groundwater, lakes, rivers and coastal habitats, oceanic environment. Global warming, greenhouse gases, aerosol emissions, regional pollutants and relationships to economic activity. Use of geographic information systems (GIS) and computers to assess environmental impact and determine corrective measures.
3 pts. Professor Versteeg.
Application of geophysical methods to noninvasive assessment of the near surface. First part consists of series of two-hour lectures of physics and math involved in instrumental methods and data acquisition and processing. In the field (nine field days) students plan surveys; collect and analyze geophysical data in teams; learn how to integrate geophysical data with invasive data, hydrological, geological, engineering, and contaminant transport models; and develop a comprehensive and justifiable model of the subsurface. Geophysical methods include GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar), conductivity, and magnetic and seismic methods. Field applications include infrastructure/environmental assessment, archeological studies, and high resolution geology. (Course Homepage.)
3 pts. A. Del Genio.
Prerequisite: advanced calculus and general physics, or the instructor's permission. Basic physical processes controlling atmospheric structure: thermodynamics; radiation physics and radiative transfer; principles of atmospheric dynamics; cloud processes; applications to Earth's atmospheric general circulation, climatic variations, and the atmospheres of the other planets. (Course Homepage.)
3 pts. R. Fairbanks, W. Broecker.
Given in alternate years. Prerequisite: the instructor's permission. Means of reconstructing quantitative chronologies of the Cenozoic climate decline, glacial oscillations, and Holocene climate fluctuations. Factors controlling global climate, causes of past climatic changes, and people's potential impact on the system.
3 pts. C. Small and J. Weissel.
Prerequisite: instructor's permission. Maximum enrollment: 20, depending on computing resources. Emphasizes student access to synoptic and time-sequential images of the earth required for a better understanding of the global environmental and resource problems facing society. (Course Homepage.)
4 pts. M. Gompper.
Prerequisites: EESC/ENVB G6110 or equivalent, or Conservation Biology. Microevolutionary and demographic processes characteristic of small populations, with emphasis on the conservation biology aspect of small populations. Intensive training in tools for modeling dynamics of small populations and assaying their genetic structure.
2 pts. M. Anders, D. Walker.
Field work on weekends in April and for two weeks in mid-May immediately following the end of examinations. Estimated expenses: $500. The principles and practice of deciphering geologic history through the observation of rocks in the field, map-making, construction of geological cross-sections, and written short reports.
6 pts. C. Peters.
Prerequisites: one previous ecology course and permission of the instructor. Introduction to ecological and environmental research in the tropics. The field portion of the course, help over winter break, takes place in a tropical location such as Costa Rica, Belize, Brazil, or Puerto Rico.
3 pts. M. Prinz.
Given in alternate years. Prerequisite: EESC W4701 or its equivalent. Mineralogy, petrology, and geochemistry of the primitive (chondritic) and differentiated meteorites that are the main sources of information about the origin and early history of the solar system and the differentiated planets. Study of collections at the American Museum of Natural History is included.
4 pts. N. Christie-Blick.
Prerequisite: introductory geology or the instructor's permission. Two required weekend field trips in September and October. Given in alternate years. Fee: $50. An overview of sediments and sedimentary rocks primarily for majors in geology and environmental science, and for graduate students in non-sedimentological disciplines. Lectures, labs, class discussions, and field trips are closely integrated with emphasis on processes, interpretation of the geological record, and practical applications.
3 pts. P. Olsen.
Prerequisite: EESC V1011-V1012, or the instructor's permission. Given in alternate years. History and philosophy of biostratigraphy; biological classification; the nature of living and fossil taxa; correlation and concepts of zones; the relation among evolution, biogeography, and correlation; biofacies concepts; review of important organisms; applications, including regional correlation, economic geology, and evolutionary studies.
3 pts. T. Takahashi, A. van Geen.
Prerequisite: EESC V1011-V1012 and W4113, or their equivalents, or the instructor's permission. Given in alternate years. A broad survey suitable for students majoring in earth and environmental sciences and mining engineering. Economic minerals, formation of mineral despoits, and environmental impacts of mining waste products.
3 pts. K. Griffin.
Prerequisite: general biology or instructor's permission. Plant organism responses to external environmental conditions and the physiological mechanisms of plants that enable these responses. An evolutionary approach will be taken to analyze the potential fitness of plants and plant survival based on adaptation to external environmental factors. Laboratory: two hours every two weeks at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. (Course Homepage.)
3 pts. J. Hays, W. Pitman, J. Simpson.
Prerequisite: High school math through algebra. An analysis of three areas that will present important problems for policymakers in the next century; energy resources, water resources, and climatic change. (Course Homepage.)
3 pts. J. Cracraft.
Prerequisites: Degree in biological sciences or permission of instructor. A detailed review of modern biogeography from both an ecological and evolutionary perspective. Island biogeography, speciation, extinction, centers of origin and dispersal, cladistic vicariance biogeography, endemism, environmental change, and earth history and conservation applications.
3 pts. D. Peteet.
Prerequisite: introductory biology or chemistry or instructor's permission. Enrollment limited to 20 students. Fee: $25. Laboratory analysis and field trips. Analysis of modern wetland dynamics and the important ecological, biogeochemical, and hydrological functions taking place in marshes, bogs, fens, and swamps, with a field emphasis. Wetlands as fossil repositories, the paleoenvironmental history they provide, and their role in the carbon cycle. Current wetland destruction, remediation attempts, and valuation.
3 pts. P. Froelich, H.J. Simpson.
Recommended preparation: a solid background in basic chemistry. Given in alternate years. Introduction to geochemical cycles involving the atmosphere, land, and biosphere; chemistry of precipitation, weathering reactions, rivers, lakes, estuaries, and groundwaters; stable isotope and radioactive tracers of transport processes in continental waters.
3 pts. R. Fairbanks.
Given in alternate years. The oceans have undergone changes in their chemistry, physical properties, productivity, and circulation patterns throughout geological time. Particularly over the past few million years, the oceans have responded dramatically to cyclicchanges in the earth's orbit. Tens of thousands of deep-sea cores and other archives provide remarkably detailed information on past ocean conditions. With the addition of radioactive clocks, rates of ocean change can be measured. These windows into alternate states or modes of ocean operation provide a new view of ocean dynamics. Examines in depth the geochemical tracers of modern and ancient oceans and the role of the oceans in modulating the earth's climate.
3 pts. Instructor to be announced.
Prerequisite: one year each of calculus and chemistry. Given in alternate years. Adaptation to the pelagic environment, ocean sampling, phytoplankton production, zooplankton feeding, marine bacteria, spatial variability and seasonal cycles. Special topics: marine optics, satellite oceanography, ecology of coral reefs, and the benthos.
3 pts. A. Gordon.
Recommended preparation: a sound background in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Physical properties of sea water, water masses, and their distribution, sea-air interaction influence on the ocean structure, basic ocean circulation pattern, relation of diffusion and advection with respect to distribution of ocean properties, and introduction to ocean dynamics.
3 pts. R.F. Anderson and J. Lynch-Stieglitz.
Given in alternate years. Recommended preparation: a solid background in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Factors controlling the average concentration and distribution of dissolved chemical species within the sea. Application of tracer and natural radioisotope methods to large-scale mixing of the ocean, to the geological record preserved in marine sediments, to the role of ocean processes in the global carbon cycle, and to biogeochemical processes influencing the distribution and fate of major and minor elements in the ocean.
3 pts. D. Hayes.
Prerequisite: calculus through Mathematics V1202, and physics through Physics C1402. The structure of the earth as inferred from geophysical investigation. Gravity, isostasy, earthquake seismology, seismicity, seismic refraction and reflection methods, geomagnetism, marine geophysics, tides, GPS, and satellite altimetry.
3 pts. W. Pitman, W. Ryan.
Given in alternate years. Prerequisite: Physical geology. Plate tectonics and its application to the study of continents, the ocean floor, past climate, biodiversity, and other planets and moons in the solar system.
3 pts. W. Menke, P.Richards, L.Sykes.
Prerequisite: elementary college physics and mathematics (including calculus). Given in alternate years. Basic methods of seismogram analysis. Classification of seismic waves and elementary theory of body waves and normal modes. Elementary aspects of seismic prospecting, earthquake source theory, instrumentation, discrimination between explosions and earthquakes, inversion of seismic data to infer earth structure, earthquake engineering, estimation of seismic risk, and earthquake prediction. Laboratory: two hours every two weeks at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
3 pts. W. Field.
Field trips and laboratory to be arranged. Prerequisite: introductory geology. Laboratory fee: $15. Structure and change in coastlines and continental shelves, with attention to ocean waves and currents, coastal erosion, and sedimentation.
1 pt. Staff.
Current topics in the Earth sciences.
3 pts. R. DeSalle and B. Hahn.
Prerequisites: Priority given to first-year students in EEB or Conservation Biology Certificate program. Lecture course covering principal topics of evolutionary biology from genetics, genome organization, population and quantitative genetics, the history of evolutionary theory, systematics, speciation and species concepts, co-evolution, and biogeography.
3 pts. M. Gompper and K. Griffin.
Prerequisites: Priority given to first-year students in EEB or Conservation Biology Certificate program. Lecture course covering principle topics in behavioral, population, and community ecology, and sociobiology from an evolutionary perspective with emphasis on conservation applications.
3 pts. N. Christie-Blick.
Offered infrequently (every three to four years). Field exercises undertaken on three weekends or an equivalent time over spring break. Prerequisite: EESC W4223 or its equivalent or the instructor's permission. Processes of sedimentation and their geologic record.
3 pts. N. Christie-Blick.
Offered infrequently (every three to four years). Prerequisite: EESC W4223 and EESC W4411 or their equivalents, or the instructor's permission. Processes of basin development in a plate-tectonic framework, with reference to well studied examples.
3 pts.
Satisfies the Environmental Health Sciences core requirement for the M.P.H. degree. An introduction to preventive health practices with an emphasis on environmental factors. Review of basic public health concepts as they relate to disease causation and prevention. Toxicology, especially carcinogenesis, is stressed. In cooperation with Population and Family Health, tropical diseases and the implications of population growth are discussed. Available techniques of preventive practices, such as controlling the quality of air, water, and consumer products, are described for both the workplace and the general environment. Lectures are followed by discussion groups. Examinations, papers, and presentation.
3 pts. M. Pinedo-V‡squez.
CERC-NYU-WCS joint course. Prerequisites: Preference given to graduate students in EEB or Anthropology. The assumptions upon which community-based conservation and development projects are based, their successes and shortcomings within the context of history and the environment. Experienced guest lecturers.
3 pts. W.S. Broecker.
Four aspects of the Earth's carbon cycle are considered: how it operated just prior to the Industrial Revolution; the fossil fuel CO2 perturbation; changes during glacial time; and the long-term planetary control system. Emphasis on information obtained from measurements of 13C and 14C.
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Updated July 2, 2008