SimuText Nutrients Chapter Outline & Learning Objectives (2/08)
Topics Covered:
 What are nutrients?
 Importance of N, P, C and S
 Introduction to the basics of nutrient cycling in ecosystems and landscapes
 Energy flow vs. nutrient cycling
 Types of nutrient input and output
 Primary processes in nitrogen cycling
 Movement of water through ecosystems and its relation to nutrient cycling
 Comparison of nutrient cycling in terrestrial vs. aquatic ecosystems
 Impacts of anthropogenic disturbance on nutrient cycling:
o Deforestation
o Acid rain
o Greenhouse gas emission
 Nutrient cycling at multiple spatial scales
 Introduction to global nutrient cycles
Section Learning Objectives
At the end of Section 1, students should be able to:
 Explain what nutrients are and why they are important
 Explain the basic concepts of nutrient cycling in ecosystems
 Describe the relationship between the flow of energy and cycling of nutrients
 Describe the different types of nutrient inputs and outputs
At the end of Section 2, students should be able to:
 Distinguish between the different processes in nitrogen cycling
 Explain how ambient temperature affects nitrogen fixation
 Interpret the chemical pathways involved in the primary processes of nitrogen cycling
 Describe how water moves through a terrestrial ecosystem and how that movement
affects the movement of nitrogen
 Contrast nutrient cycling in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems
 Describe how clearcutting affects nitrogen cycling in a forest ecosystem
At the end of Section 3, students should be able to:
 Explain how anthropogenic sources of nitrogen and sulfur cause acid rain
 Explain how acid rain impacts nitrogen and phosphorus cycling
 Contrast the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles
 Describe how changes to the global carbon cycle are causing the greenhouse effect
 Describe the major pools in global nutrient cycles
At the end of Section 4, students should be able to:
 Explain how disturbances in one ecosystem / part of a watershed can affect nutrient
budgets in another ecosystem / part of the same watershed
 Design a simple experiment to investigate how disturbance in an forest located
upstream can affect nutrient budget in a lake