MATH 1212 - Climate, Sea Ice, and Life in Extreme Environments

Polar sea ice forms a critical component of the climate system, and is home to a rich array of life, from microbes living inside the ice to megafauna like penguins and polar bears. The precipitous, rapid decline of sea ice impacts earth's climate and its polar marine ecosystems with cascading effects felt far beyond the polar regions. The course will cover the basic mathematics of climate and ecosystems and then focus on modeling physical and biological processes in sea ice, and how life in extreme environments is responding to climate change. Some of the math that will be developed includes differential equations, random walks, fractal geometry, and percolation theory.