Advanced Biogeochemistry – GEOL371
Fall Semester 2014/2015
Instructor: Dr. Julia Perdrial, Office: 213C; Tel: (802) 656 0665; Email:[email protected]
Office hours: M&W 10.45-11:45 and by appointment;
Meeting Time: T 2:30-5:15; Credits: 3
Welcome to the advanced biogeochemistry seminar on watershed carbon cycling!
This course: In this seminar we will explore the latest cutting edge literature on watershed carbon cycling and
compile a publishable literature review as a group. The topic of this seminar will be introduced and no previous
knowledge is necessary, however you will get most out of it if your research is linked to either C cycling or
watershed processes. We will have shared reading assignments, group discussions, and peer to peer feedback on
writing with the goal to engage everybody during meeting times.
This is a writing intensive course: Albeit the enormous professional benefits that are received through writing it
is probably one of the most procrastinated tasks in academia (graduate studies included). Many graduate students
face challenges when writing, either because they struggle with time constraints, confidence or perfectionism. In
this seminar we will therefore explore strategies of overcoming classic reading and writing procrastination with the
goal of writing mindfully and productively.
You will not be expected to hand in a perfect first draft! In turn, we will work towards the two main graded writing
assignments (midterm and final) together with peer to peer feedback and substantive revision during meeting times.
Goal:
You will be able to combine your knowledge of specialized scientific literature on watershed C
cycling with improved skills in structured writing to produce a comprehensive, well-referenced and
easy-to-read section of a review article.
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Assessment: I will assess your learning in a variety of ways, including participation in paper discussions
(25% of the grade), three paper presentations (25% of the grade) and progress in writing (two assignments
contribute 50% to the final grade).
Rules:
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Missed classes may impact your participation grade, please let me know if you cannot make it to class.
Please turn in your assignments in time; I will decrease your grade by 10% if you turn it in late.
Please complete your reading.
Please mute cell phones during class and don’t text.
Adhere to the Code of Academic Integrity (no plagiarism, fabrication, collusion, and cheating).
Deliberate offense against the code will be forwarded to the Center for Student Ethics and Standards
(see http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmppg/ppg/student/acadintegrity.pdf for more information).
Student learning accommodations:
Any student with a documented disability interested in utilizing accommodations should contact ACCESS, the
office of Disability Services on campus.
ACCESS works with you to create reasonable and appropriate accommodations via an accommodation letter to
their professors as early as possible each semester.
Contact ACCESS: A170 Living/Learning Center - 802-656-7753 - [email protected].
Schedule (subject to changes):
Week 1:
Carbon in forested catchments
Mindfulness in writing
Week 2:
Forest C stocks and exchange
Begin writing before feeling ready
Week 3:
Linking Biogeochemistry and Hydrology
Dissolved organic vs. inorganic carbon
Writing ant the review process: let other do some of the work
Week 4:
Flow paths, events, soil-stream interactions
The review process of writing: let other do some of the work
Week 5:
Hot spots and hot moments: spatiotemporal variability
Workshop: drafting the midterm paper: catchment processes
Week 6:
Seasonal snow cover and soil freezing
Workshop: peer review of 1st draft and review plan
Week 7:
Dissolved organic matter and fluorescence spectroscopy
Midterm assignment due
Week 8:
In-stream processes, outgassing and nutrient spiraling
Week 9:
Riverine carbon
Week 10:
Floodplains and carbon budgets
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Week 11:
Floodplains and legacy sediments
Workshop: drafting the final paper: scaling of C cycling
Week 12:
The biogeochemistry of flooding, particulate and dissolved loads
Workshop: peer review of 1st draft and review plan
Week 13:
Thanks giving
Week 14:
Workshop: Peer review of full assignment, review plan
Week 15 Final assignment due
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