This is a required core course for first semester students in the MS program in NRE.  It covers a wide range of topics in ecology, biogeochemistry, and global change.  It introduces these topics for students new to the field while also providing a review for students who have had some prior instruction in these areas.  It covers basic ecological concepts and processes including energetics, ecophysiology (respiration and photosynthesis), evolution, population and community processes, trophic interactions, and ecosystems.  It links these ecological processes with biogeochemistry including C and N cycling at local to regional and global scales. The course introduces students to the hierarchy of ecosystems, landscapes, and biomes, drawing examples from a wide range of habitats including rivers, lakes, wetlands, forests, tundra, deserts, and human-dominated systems.  The course includes an introduction to several important aspects of global change, placing these in a broad ecological and biogeochemical context.  These include climate change, ocean acidification, eutrophication, agricultural expansion, land use change, and loss of biodiversity.  A major feature of the course is a computer lab in Stella dynamic systems modeling, teaching systems modeling as a means of synthesis, reinforcement, and critical thinking about the topics presented in lecture and readings.