GEOG 239 - Neotropical Landscapes

Cross-Listed as LATI 239

The Neotropical realm refers to the biogeographic region that includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and South America’s temperate zone. These areas provide a range of services-both locally and globally–including water sources, climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation. They are also home to various human populations and support the livelihood of local and global human populations. This course provides students a basic understanding of the most important biophysical and social characteristics of the dominant landscapes of the Neotropics. Among others, these include tropical rain forests, Andean páramos, tropical dry forests, wetlands, deserts and temperate forests of southern South America. For each of these landscapes, we will analyze the key climatological, biogeographical and ecological processes and also study the peoples that live in them including indigenous communities, afro-descendants, and mestizos. Finally, using examples of these areas, we also analyze human-environment interactions including land change processes, biodiversity, resource and cultural conservation, and climate change impacts. Alternate years. (4 Credits)