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Functional Plant Ecology: Keys to the Conservation and Restoration of Global Ecosystems in a Changing World

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Mondays, March 9 – May 11, 2026

10:30 AM – 12:00 PM ET

Hosted on Zoom

Register Here

Course Overview

Unsustainable human intervention in ecosystems, driven mainly by the demand for food, raw materials, and especially energy, has sparked an unprecedented environmental crisis. This crisis manifests as significant biodiversity loss, climate change and the disruption of ecosystem functions, which in turn leads to the loss of essential services that ecosystems provide to society (e.g. air, water, food, energy, medicines, genetic resources). Addressing this issue effectively demands a multidisciplinary approach.

This 10-week seminar will examine the major impacts of global change on ecosystem processes, making complex science accessible by starting with the basics of how plants adapt, and then scaling up to show how entire ecosystems function. Building on this foundation, the course will analyze critical issues such as climate warming and habitat fragmentation, using a variety of illustrative examples. Special attention will be dedicated to Andean tropical mountain ecosystems, such as montane cloud forests and tropical alpine vegetation (Páramos). The critical focus on these regions is because they are Earth’s highest biodiversity hotspots in terms of endemic species. Ultimately, the course bridges scientific knowledge with practical action. It will explain how this foundational understanding is not only useful but necessary for proposing and evaluating effective strategies for mitigation, conservation, and ecosystem restoration. Participants will gain the insight needed to critically assess modern environmental tools, such as carbon offset credits, understanding both their potential benefits and their limitations.

Seminar Leaders

Dr. Carlos Garcia-Nunez

Visiting Scholar

TRINITY COLLEGE

Carlos García Núñez, a visiting scholar at the Center for Urban and Global Studies, is sharing his passion and expertise on tropical ecology with the Trinity College community. At the University of Los Andes in Venezuela, García Núñez’s home institution, he and a group of colleagues research the intricate ecosystems in the Andes.

Martha Elena Ramirez Medina

Faculty of Sciences

UNIVERSITY OF LOS ANDES

Martha Elena Ramirez Medina is an ecologist with research expertise in tropical ecology, biodiversity, conservation, and restoration. She earned her MSc from the University of Los Andes in Venezuela and brings years of experience as an accomplished teacher, researcher, and author in her field.

Syllabus and Readings

Functional Plant Ecology SyllabusDownload

Course Schedule

MARCH 9

Week 1: Overview of ecology as a science and its importance for understanding the environmental crisis.

Hosted on Zoom

Suggested Readings:

  1. Krebs, Charles J. 2008. The ECOLOGICAL World View. CSIRO PUBLISHING, Australia. ISBN 978 1 84593 376 0. Reading pages 1-7.
  2. Yvonne M. Buckley, et al. 2024. The plant ecology of nature-based solutions for people, biodiversity and climate. Journal of Ecology 112:2424–2431. DOI: 10.1111/1365- 2745.14441. Reading pages 2424-2429.
  3. IPBES (2019): Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. S. Díaz, J. et. al. IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany. 56 pages. Reading pages 9-19.

march 16

Week 2: The main abiotic drivers of the global distribution of vegetation.

Hosted on Zoom

Suggested Readings:

  1. Alan Strahler. 2011. Introducing Physical Geography. John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 13978-0470-13486-3. Reading pages 4-11.
  2. Tara Jo Holmberg. 2026. General Ecology. CT State Community College Northwestern. LibreTexts.
    Reading Chapters:
    Chapter 2. The Physical Environment:
    – 2.2 Earth’s Energy Balance(pages 1-7);
    – 2.3 Soils (pages 1-9);
    – 2.6 Atmospheric and Ocean Circulation (pages 1- 10).
    Chapter 5. Terrestrial and aquatic communities:
    – 5.1.2 Terrestrial Biomes (pages 1-8).

march 23

Week 3: Processes at the organism level: Plant adaptations to major abiotic
factors.

Hosted on Zoom

Suggested Readings:

  1. Hans Lambers, Rafael S. Oliveira. 2019. Plant Physiological Ecology, 3rd edition, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. ISBN 978-3-030-29638-4. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29639-1. Reading pages 1-6.
  2. Matthew R. Fisher. 2017. Environmental Biology, Open Oregon Educational Resources, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Reading pages 53-55; 261.
  3. Ray F. Evert, Susan E. Eichhorn. 2013. Raven Biology of Plants, 8th edition, W. H. Freeman and Company Publishers, New York. ISBN-13: 978-1-4292-1961-7. Reading pages 708-722.

march 30

Week 4: Ecosystem-level processes – Biogeochemical cycles.

Hosted on Zoom

Suggested Readings:

  1. Matthew R. Fisher. 2017. Environmental Biology, Open Oregon Educational Resources, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Reading pages 71-79.
  2. Ernst-Detlef Schulze et al., 2019. Plant Ecology, 2nd edition, Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin, Germany. ISBN 978-3-662-56231-4. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-56233-8. Reading pages 529-533; 545-560.

april 6

Week 5: Climate change: evidence, causes, effects, scientific consensus.

Hosted on Zoom

Suggested Readings:

  1. IPCC, 2023: Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 184 pp., doi: 10.59327/IPCC/AR6-9789291691647. Reading pages 3-11.
  2. Ernst-Detlef Schulze, et al., 2019. Plant Ecology, 2nd edition, Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin, Germany. ISBN 978-3-662-56231-4. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-56233-8. Reading pages 865-868; 876-887.

april 13

Week 6: Deforestation and habitat fragmentation: effects on biodiversity and
ecosystem functioning.

Hosted on Zoom

Suggested Readings:

  1. Ernst-Detlef Schulze, et al., 2019. Plant Ecology, 2nd edition, Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin, Germany. ISBN 978-3-662-56231-4. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-56233-8. Reading pages 868-876; 887-891.
  2. Nick M. Haddad et al. 2015. Habitat fragmentation and its lasting impact on Earth’s ecosystems. Science Advances 1, e1500052. DOI:10.1126/sciadv.1500052. Reading pages 1-9.
  3. FAO. 2022. The State of the World’s Forests. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. ISSN 1020-5705 (print); ISSN 2521-7542 (online). Reading pages 1-3.

april 20

Week 7: Biodiversity (concepts, scales, types), Conservation Biology as the
applied ecology of endangered species and ecosystems, conservation practices.

Hosted on Zoom

Suggested Readings:

  1. Ernst-Detlef Schulze, et al., 2019. Plant Ecology, 2nd edition, Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin, Germany. ISBN 978-3-662-56231-4. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-56233-8. Reading pages 744-748; 754-761.
  2. Navjot S Sodhi, Paul R Ehrlich. 2010. Conservation Biology for All. Oxford University Press, New York. ISBN 978–0–19–955423–2 (Hbk.). Reading pages 7-16; 199-208.

april 27

Week 8: Restoration ecology as a science for understanding and aiding the
recovery of degraded ecosystems.

Hosted on Zoom

Suggested Readings:

  1. Margaret A Palmer, et al., 2016. Foundations of Restoration Ecology, 2nd edition, Island Press Washington, DC 20036. Reading pages 3-6.
  2. Richard J Hobbs, Viki A Cramer. 2008. Restoration Ecology: Interventionist Approaches for Restoring and Maintaining Ecosystem Function in the Face of Rapid Environmental Change. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 33:39–61. doi:10.1146/annurev.environ.33.020107.113631. Reading pages 39-54.
  3. Nelson, C.R., et al. 2024. Standards of practice to guide ecosystem restoration – A contribution to the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030. Rome, FAO, Washington, DC, SER & Gland, Switzerland, IUCN CEM. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc9106en. Reading pages 1-8.
  4. Robin L. Chazdon. 2008. Beyond Deforestation: Restoring Forests and Ecosystem Services on Degraded Lands. Science 320, 1458. DOI: 10.1126/science.1155365. Reading pages 1458-1460.

may 4

Week 9: Andean ecosystems in Venezuela, South America, as a case study.

Hosted on Zoom

Suggested Readings:

  1. Fermin Rada, Aura Azócar & Carlos García-Núñez (2019): Plant functional diversity in tropical Andean páramos, Plant Ecology & Diversity, DOI:10.1080/17550874.2019.1674396. Reading pages 1-2; 9-12.
  2. Carlos García-Núñez, Fermin Rada and Michele Ataroff. 2025. Cloud forests in the Venezuelan Andes: A review of functional characteristics at ecosystem and plant scale. Conservation of Andean Forests. Nicola Clerici (Ed.). Springer Nature, Switzerland AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-80805-0_2. Reading pages 31-34; 44-47.
  3. Carlos García-Núñez, et al., 2025. A multi-scale ecological approach for the conservation and restoration of Venezuelan Andean cloud forests. Conservation of Andean Forests. Nicola Clerici (Ed.). Springer Nature, Switzerland AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-80805-0_6. Reading pages 127- 131; 145-150.

MAY 11

Week 10: Final considerations: International agreements as a roadmap for implementing measures that will help us to address global change.

Hosted on Zoom

Suggested Readings:

  1. United Nations Environment Programme (2025). Global Environment Outlook 7: A future we choose – Why investing in Earth now can lead to a trillion-dollar benefit for all. Nairobi. https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/49014. Reading pages 9-20.
  2. Sandra Díaz et al. 2019. Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the need for transformative change. Science366,eaax3100. DOI:10.1126/science.aax3100. Reading pages 1-8.

Certificates of Satisfactory Completion

Participants who attend 8 out of 10 complete seminar sessions are eligible to receive a Certificate of Satisfactory Completion signed by the Dean of The New School for Social Research.

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