Approximately 1,000 years ago people in Southern Bohemia started building large shallow lakes to grow fish. To this day the fishery is thriving, and the anthropogenic landscape is preserved under the UNESCO’s “Man and Biosphere Programme”. These lakes will be the natural laboratory for this applied limnology course with the focus on (1) ecosystem and landscape level processes (eutrophication, nutrient cycles, primary productivity, oxygen regimes, hydrologic regimes), (2) population level processes (e.g. aquatic food webs), (3) fishery management, conservation and ecosystem services, and (4) unique history and culture within which the ancient anthropogenic ecosystem operates. The course will be based in experiential pedagogy with focus on hands-on field and laboratory measurements, data analysis and interpretation.

The Python coding language has been one of the world’s leading data analysis tools over the past few years and affords the opportunity to explore earth and environmental science data more efficiently, faster, and more in depth than Microsoft Excel. In this class, you will learn and develop a technical skill set that can be utilized in either industry or academia and explore data analysis via an earth and environmental science perspective.