The following is a selection of interesting external courses. 

Data Analysis Tools in Ecology

Date: January 30-February 10, 2012, Dep. Life Sciences – University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
Link to the course: http://www.sense.nl/articles/events/6942

Innovation for Sustainability: Linking Science to Practice

Date: February 13-17, 2012, Location to be announced
Link to the course: http://www.sense.nl/articles/events/6943

How to turn science into a story?

Date: March 7-8, 2012, Location Helsingin yliopisto, Finland
Link to the course: http://www.sense.nl/articles/events/7083

PhD course: Hazardous chemicals in the environment

Date: May 7, 2012, Aarhus University, Department of Bioscience, Silkeborg, Denmark
Link to the course: http://www.sense.nl/articles/6817

Summer School in Individual- and Agent-Based Modelling 2012

Date: June 7-15, 2012, Bad Schandau, Germany
Link to the course: http://www.sense.nl/articles/events/7061

Find PhD Courses, Winter and Summer Schools in Europe at ShortCoursesPortal.eu

More cooperation between government and business is the only road ahead to save the climate, according to former UN Climate Chief Yvo de Boer. He spoke at a Nordic Council seminar in Oslo on January 24, where he urged the Nordic countries to take the lead towards a global climate solution.

Increasing pressure on land demands a careful assessment of competing activities in land-use planning. Cost-benefit analysis is increasingly used in planning processes to select the land-use plan that delivers the highest net social benefits.

Most species in an ecosystem could help supply essential ecosystem services, according to a recent study. Researchers found that 84% of species in the grassland ecosystems they studied contributed towards at least one ecosystem service. Losing any of these species would therefore degrade the ecosystem services such an environment could provide.

New research has explored how well different governance systems can achieve desirable conservation outcomes. Results confirmed the importance of adaptive management, which relies on regular monitoring to enable ‘learning through doing’ to refine actions, and suggested that leadership using expert knowledge was also significant in successful governance.

Recently, a study entitled "Plant species richness and ecosystem multifunctionality in global drylands," was published in the journal ScienceDaily. An international team of researchers at Rey Juan Carlos University, finished this global empirical study that suggests that preservation of plant biodiversity is crucial to buffer negative effects of climate change and desertification in drylands.

Overall concentrations of some persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in soil have declined, according to research conducted in Norway and the UK. The researchers suggest that there has been a reduced influence of primary sources of some POPs on soils for these two countries in recent years.

University of California, Davis, researchers William Casey and James Rustad have proposed a radical new way of thinking about the chemical reactions between water and metal oxides, the most common minerals on Earth. Their work appears in the current issue of the journal Nature Materials.

Climate change is having a more profound effect on alpine vegetation than at first anticipated, according to a study carried out by an international group of researchers and published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Using statistical analysis methods to examine rainfall extremes in India, a team of researchers has made a discovery that resolves an ongoing debate in published findings and offers new insights.

Many of the particles in the atmosphere are produced by the natural world, and it is possible that plants have in recent decades reduced the effects of the greenhouse gases to which human activity has given rise. One consequence of this is that the climate may be more sensitive to emissions caused by human activity than we have previously believed.

All research clusters are now online on the SENSE Moodle website. Each cluster has its own group page in the SENSE Moodle environment.

Read more at: http://www.sense.nl/articles/6833

Date: February 7, 2012
Location: Conference Centre "De Werelt", Lunteren
Duration: all day.

Information about the planning and the two-day event programme of NAEM.
Deadlines:
23 January: submission posters presentation
30 January: please register as soon as possible (late registration will cost an additional € 20,-)

Date: June 1, 2012
Location: Kos, Greece
Duration: all day.

Earth System and Climate Models are complex mathematical tools developed to help scientists improve understanding of the natural environment around us. These scientifically and computationally advanced models and methods allow scientists to investigate the behaviour of climate processes and phenomena on a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. These models can also help scientists to assess the impact of human activities on the Earth system through climate scenario projections. Simulation results can assist societal and economic decision-making, from public weather forecasting, to resource management and natural disaster risk analysis.

Date: July 1, 2012
Location: Venice, Italy
Duration: all day.

The 2012 Summer School will take place from the 1st to the 7th of July at the VIU campus on the Island of San Servolo, in Venice, located just in front of St. Mark's Square. The theme of this Summer School is Management of International Water.

Date: September 18, 2012
Location: Berlin, Germany
Duration: all day.

The University of Oldenburg and the Institute for Ecological Economy Research offers a 3-days Workshop on Barriers of Adaptation to Climate Change in September 2012.

Date: January 26, 2012
Location: Haagse Hogeschool, Johanna Westerdijkplein 75, Den Haag
Duration: 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Dit symposium staat in het teken van de Natuurverkenning 2010-2040 en de rol en plaats van de natuur in Nederland, nu en in de toekomst.

Date: February 6, 2012
Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Duration: all day.

The workshop is dedicated to "Glaciers, Snow Melt and Runoff in the Himalayas" aims at bringing together regional and international researchers, government administration and donor agencies to discuss the current state of cryospheric and glacio-hydrologic research in the wider Hindu Kush – Himalayan region.

Date: February 8, 2012
Location: Casa400, Eerste Ringdijkstraat 4, Amsterdam
Duration: 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Amsterdam Green Metropole is het platform voor ondernemers met duurzame producten of diensten die hun markt gaan veroveren.

Date: March 29, 2012
Location: Trippenhuis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Duration: all day.

The aim of this symposium is to present recent progress with respect to the understanding of the bacterial catalytic and survival capacities under conditions of stress and the environmental factors governing those responses, and how this knowledge may aid in the design of bioremediation strategies, especially bioaugmentation. Eight international renowned experts will present keynote lectures.

Date: April 22, 2012
Location: Vienna, Austria
Duration: all day.

The EGU General Assembly 2012 will bring together geoscientists from all over the world into one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences. Especially for young scientists, it is the aim of the EGU to provide a forum where they can present their work and discuss their ideas with experts in all fields of geosciences. The EGU is looking forward to cordially welcoming you in Vienna.

Date: May 7, 2012
Location: Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Duration: all day.

World-wide, humanity faces conflicts as to how to preserve our biological heritage and yet AT the same time promote sustainable economic activity. Special pressures are faced by many developing countries. The UNESCO MAN AND BIOSPHERE PROGRAM (MAB) with its 580 + Biosphere Reserves offers models as to how these goals can be attained.

Date: May 7, 2012
Location: Conference Centre: Meeting Plaza, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Duration: all day.

The NATO Committee on Science for Peace and Security (SPS) will organise its 32nd International Technical Meeting on Air Pollution Modelling and its Application in the Dutch city of Utrecht.

Date: May 21, 2012
Location: Dresden, Germany
Duration: all day.

A cross-disciplinary dialogue on sustainable development of regional resources.

Date: June 20, 2012
Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazill
Duration: all day.

In 2012 the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) or 'Rio+20' will take place in Rio de Janeiro. Also referred to as the Rio+20 Earth Summit, due to the initial conference held in Rio in 1992, the objectives of the Summit are: to secure renewed political commitment to sustainable development; to assess progress towards internationally agreed goals on sustainable development and to address new and emerging challenges.

Date: July 31, 2012
Location: Portland, United States
Duration: all day.

The Ecosystem Services Partnership invites you to the 5th annual ESP conference. Don't miss your chance to interact and exchange ideas with practitioners, educators, policy-makers, researchers, and many others. Be part of working-groups producing outcomes ranging from journal articles, white papers, book chapters (if enough we can put together a book out of this conference), grant proposals, database structures, websites, and much more.

Date: August 6, 2012
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Duration: all day.

The International Association for Urban Climate (IAUC) and the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Board of the Urban Environment (BUE) invite you to the joint 8th International Conference on Urban Climate (ICUC8) and AMS 10th Symposium on the Urban Environment.

Date: September 4, 2012
Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Duration: all day.

Use of land and resources is central to people’s relationship with their environment. This international conference will explore how landscape ecology can help guide sustainable use of land and the services it provides to society.

PhD position (3 years) in a project: 'Tracking carbon dynamic patterns and climate forcing through post-glacial peatland development history by combining modern flux measurements and palaeoecological information'. PhD student position is available at University of Helsinki, Finland starting in spring 2012. Project is funded by the University of Helsinki.

The Gund Institute at the University of Vermont (UVM) seeks a Research Coordinator to support our interdisciplinary research and education efforts.

The department of Ecological Science, section Animal Ecology, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands has a PhD position available for the project: "Community responses to extreme weather events"

Positions available at the Lund University and at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).

Lecturer in Climate Change Adaptation, 4 year fixed term contract, available from April 2012.

The newly created Department of Integrated Water Systems and Governance at the UNESCO-IHE Institute is looking for an academic leader of this group.

Within the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education Department, the Water Governance (WG) Chair Group has the following vacancy: Lecturer in Urban Water Governance.

EARS is een in aardobservatie gespecialiseerd ingenieursbureau in Delft. Wij hebben water- en klimaatdiensten ontwikkeld op het gebied van droogte monitoring, oogstvoorspelling, rivierafvoer- voorspelling en gewasverzekeringen. Wij zoeken per 1 maart 2012 een Agro Meteoroloog / Productie Ecoloog.