1. Instrumentation for Biological Environment
This course deals with the broad topic of sensors that measure the properties of the lower boundary layer of the atmosphere and the underlying surfaces, both vegetation and soils. State variables, like temperature and pressure, and process-related variables, like temperature gradient or vapor pressure gradient, are of interest. The analysis of measurements may follow a modeling approach or a statistical approach. Calibration, maintenance, communication of data, and quality control are also important to instrumentation.

2. Climate of Continents
This course introduces an interdisciplinary framework to understand the interaction between terrestrial ecosystems and climate change. It reviews basic meteorological, hydrological and ecological concepts to examine the physical, chemical and biological processes by which terrestrial ecosystems affect and are affected by climate. The coupling between climate and vegetation is explored at spatial scales from plant cells to global vegetation geography and at timescales of near instantaneous to millennia. It also considers how human alterations to land become important for climate change.

3. Plant Environmental Physiology
This course emphasizes that the growth, reproduction and geographical distribution of plants are profoundly influenced by their physiological ecology: the interaction with the surrounding physical, chemical and biological environments. Lectures begin with the primary processes of carbon metabolism and transport, plant-water relations, and energy balance. After considering individual leaves and whole plants, these physiological processes are then scaled up to the level of the canopy and ultimately to the level of ecosystems and global environmental processes.

4. Agricultural Climatology
A microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. This course provides understanding on the microclimate by observations made above grassy fields or areas of crops and below forest canopies and by assessments to the complex and subtle interactions between vegetation and the heat, radiation, and water balances of the air and soil.

5. Climate Smart Agriculture
Understanding and assessment of plant growth, development and yield as affected by climate change and variation at the rural landscape scale is a prerequisite to the climate smart agriculture. This course introduces theoretical backgrounds and implementation techniques for weather risk management in a catchment for climate smart agriculture.

6. Spatial Informatics
Geospatial assessments are a critical component of land management planning and regulatory decision-making. This course identifies and articulates current and emerging information needs of those involved with the assessment of terrestrial ecosystems through exploring the potential of remote-sensing/GIS technologies. Lectures emphasize the need for landscape-scale analysis by using current development of remote-ensing/GIS applications.

7. Experimental Design
This course is concerned with managing data and making inferences and forecasts in the face of uncertainty of terrestrial ecosystems. Lectures explain the latest statistical methods that are being used to describe, analyze, test and forecast ecosystem data. The course is designed for advanced students to understand and communicate what their data sets have to say, and make sense of the scientific literature in ecology, climatology, and related disciplines.

8. Modeling in Agriculture
This course presents an up-to-date review of advances in the mathematical modeling of agricultural systems. It covers a broad spectrum of problems and applications based on internet and communications technology, as well as methodological approaches based on the integration of different simulation and data management tools. Using real-world cases, each lecture presents a detailed solution of a problem in a particular field. This course demonstrates that regardless of the nature of the problem and the application domain, modeling is a central and important activity in the process of developing
agricultural systems.