BA Geography with International Study

Aims

• To appreciate the significance of the Mediterranean region for understanding the impacts of environmental change

• To provide a detailed understanding of the nature, causes and impacts of Mediterranean environmental change during the Quaternary

• To assess, critically, the evidence for environmental change preserved in a range of Mediterranean environments

• To consider Quaternary environments and landscape dynamics in the Mediterranean region within the broader context of long-term changes in global geography

• To appreciate the significance of the Mediterranean region for understanding the impacts of environmental change

• To provide a detailed understanding of the nature, causes and impacts of Mediterranean environmental change during the Quaternary

• To assess, critically, the evidence for environmental change preserved in a range of Mediterranean environments

• To consider Quaternary environments and landscape dynamics in the Mediterranean region within the broader context of long-term changes in global geography

On completion of this course students should be able to:

• Critically evaluate the main ideas which seek to explain the causes of Mediterranean landscape change during the Quaternary;

• Appreciate the diversity and complexity of long-term records of environmental and landscape change and their contribution to our understanding of Quaternary environments;

• Understand the major linkages between long-term climate change (including abrupt climate change) and the response of ecosystems and landscapes with reference to case studies from the Mediterranean region. 

Course Outline (the lecture order is subject to change and the order will be confirmed early in Semester 2):

- Mediterranean Quaternary Landscapes: An Introduction
- The Mediterranean marine record
- Explosive volcanism in the Mediterranean
- Long vegetation records in the Mediterranean region

- Little Ice Age and Modern Mediterranean Glaciers

- Pleistocene Mediterranean Glaciations
- Mass movements (landslides and rock avalanches) in the Mediterranean mountains
- Pleistocene rivers in the Mediterranean

- The last glacial cycle in the Mediterranean

- Revision session and feedback

Teaching will comprise a weekly 2 hour lecture with a 1 hour seminar.

The course will be delivered via lectures and seminar discussions with a wide range of case studies. The style will be interactive with class discussion, consolidation sessions and revision exercises. The web pages for the Quaternary Environments and Geoarchaeology research group provide a valuable list of online resources: http://www.seed.manchester.ac.uk/subjects/geography/research/research-groups/qeg/

Understanding context of global climate change; climate science; geomorphology; sedimentology; geological hazards; data analysis; critical thinking

Knowledge from this course is directly relevant for positions at a wide range of institutions in the private and public sector, including: major sand and gravel aggregate companies; environmental consultancies; major global consultancies (in climate risk departments); in the water resources sector; the oil and mineral sector; education at a range of levels.   

Feedback will be provided in the following ways:

• verbal feedback through discussion in lecture classes and seminars
• verbal feedback on any course unit issue through consultation hours or by appointment;
• detailed written feedback on coursework

Woodward, J.C. (2009) (Editor) The Physical Geography of the Mediterranean. Oxford, OUP.

Hughes, P.D. & Woodward, J.C. (2017) (Editors) Quaternary Glaciation in the Mediterranean Mountains. Geological Society of London. Available online here: http://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/433/1

Recommended reading will be provided for each topic via Blackboard from a range of sources including: Geology, Science, Nature, Journal of Quaternary Science, Quaternary Research, Quaternary Science Reviews, Global and Planetary Change, and others

You might like to do this course if you enjoyed the following:

Year 1:

Ice Age Britain

Environmental Processes and Change: The Global System

Year 2:

Quaternary Climates and Landscapes

Environmental Change and the Human Past

Geomorphology

Research Design and Overseas Field Courses (Morocco & Pyrenees)