Courses and Theses
Below you find an overview of currently available Bachelor and Master theses and courses taught by the chair of Ecosystem Management. For more information on the courses please check the Course Catalogue.
Open Bachelor and Master theses
Supervisor and contact: Florian Knaus; Co-supervisor: Tobias Roth, Hintermann Weber / BDM Schweiz
Swiss Nature Parks have been established in 2008 and try to combine nature and landscape conservation, rural development and education/awareness raising. Many parks have been confronted with the question, whether their activities have led to any significant improvements in their area, a question that is not easy to answer. In this master thesis we want to shift the focus on the national level and assess the biodiversity impact of the Swiss Nature Parks by using the BDM data gathered every 5 years in a systematic monitoring scheme over Switzerland. Main tasks are 1) to conceptualize the assessment by defining an approach to identify reference areas to the parks; 2) to run a comparison of the most current BDM data ("are Swiss Nature Parks indeed more valuable in terms of biodiversity than similar areas without a label"); 3) to run a comparison of the development of biodiversity indicators over the past 20 years, if possible by comparing developments pre and post park label receival.
Supervisor and contact: Dötterl Sebastian; Co-supervisor: Florian Knaus, UNESCO Biosphäre Entlebuch
Böden sind die grössten Speicher von Kohlenstoff auf der Erde. Im Zuge der Anstrengungen nach Netto-Null sollen alle Potentiale, speziell auch diejenigen in der Landwirtschaft ausgeschöpft werden. Im Entlebuch, einer stark landwirtschaftlich geprägten Region der Voralpen (Kanton LU) ist die Landnutzung generell sehr intensiv und praktisch alles ist Grasland. Für dieses landwirtschaftliche System sollen zwei Kernfragen beantwortet werden: 1) Wie ist der Kohlenstoffgehalt in verschiedenen Böden (geographisch verteilt und auch verteilt nach Landnutzungsintensität)?Diese Frage soll mit Feld- und Laborarbeit beantwortet werden. 2) Mit welchen Anpassungen in der Landnutzung könnte in den verschiedenen «Boden- oder Landnutzungstypen» mehr C eingelagert werden? Diese Frage wird experimentell oder theoretisch beantwortet.
Bachelor Courses
Course coordinator: Jaboury Ghazoul and L. Bialic-Murphy; course 701-0371-00L
Conservation and restoration are interdisciplinary sciences that nonetheless are founded on fundamental ecological concepts. The course will explore theoretical underpinnings of conservation and restoration science that inform planning and implementation, and consequent outcomes. New concepts and emerging technologies will be explored, alongside case studies that inform discussions.
Course coordinator: Jaboury Ghazoul, Anne Giger Dray; course 701-0324-00L
Tropical rain forests, the world's most biodiverse habits, suffer from habitat loss, fragmentation, and climate change. Their continued degradation will impact future climate, global biodiversity, and livelihoods of billions of people. We will explore the structure, dynamics, and ecological functions of rain forests to provide the scientific foundation for their conservation and restoration.
Course coordinator: Florian Knaus; course 701-0310-00L
In this course, the students explore the theoretical foundations, conceptual models and practical implementations of conservation activities both in Switzerland and internationally. Based on case studies, they are introduced to different views, values and ideals inherent in these activities.
Course coordinator: Jaboury Ghazoul and Adelaide Sanders; course 701-0034-21L
This first-year Bachelor course allows students in small groups to develop their own research question, design and carry out data collection in the field and finally analyse and contextualise their results.
Course coordinator: Giacomo Vaccario, Anne Drayand Maaike Goedkoop; course 701-0034-24 P
The course focuses on developing system dynamic models for socio-technical transitions. With the practical case of upscaling the use of wood for construction, students will interact with stakeholders of the wood supply chain and model 1) their relations, 2) emerging non-linear dynamics (e.g., feedbacks and tipping points), and 3) trade-offs between economic, societal, and environmental benefits.
Master Courses
Course coordinator: Jaboury Ghazoul; course 701-0019-00L
The rise of the environmental sciences, and theincreasing importance of the environment in society and governance, has beendramatic and rapid. Issues in the environmental sciences are now so broad andimportant that they reach into all aspects of society, from food and land use, to water management, energy use, economics, culture and health. With suchbreadth it is easy to lose sight of the foundational ideas, texts, people and movements that pushed the environment up the social and political agenda. The course provides students with opportunities to read, discuss, evaluate and interpret key texts that have shaped the environmental movement and, more specifically, the environmental sciences.
Course coordinator: Florian Knaus; course 701-1453-00L
The course provides methods and tools for ecological evaluations in nature conservation and landscape planning. It deals with census methods, sampling designs, ecological indices and criteria evaluating ecological data. Objectivty and accuracy of vailable methods and tools are critically appraised. Birds and plants are used as main example guiding through different case studies.
Course coordinator: Jaboury Ghazoul and Anne Giger Dray; course 701-1631-00L
Failure of traditional management has stimulated ecosystem management approaches that emphasise functionality of human-dominated systems, ecological processes and services, diverse spatial and temporal scales, and multiple stakeholder interests. This course explores ecosystem approaches to management and asks: is it realistic, how can it be achieved, and what are the barriers to its uptake?
Course coordinator: Florian Knaus; course 701-1456-00L
This course introduces students to an unfamiliar socio-ecological system that combines high depopulation rates and corruption with extraordinary cultural and biological diversity under high threat of loss. This system is explored with local stakeholders and in the field, analysed and measures identified that support both conservation and development goals.
Course coordinator: Jaboury Ghazoul; course 701-1446-00L
This course will explore how conservation and restoration is being implemented in the Highlands of Scotland, what conflicts across landscape and resources arise, and how such conflicts might be resolved. By visiting projects and locations, and by interviewing experts and practitioners, students will evaluate how restoration goals might be implemented across a range of social and environmental priorities. For more impressions there are two videos below.
