Splash Biography

In the past 10,000 years since humans settled down and became farmers and builders, we’ve fundamentally altered or removed many plants and animals’ natural habitats. We’ve changed and created new different kinds of living things, from shaping the course of evolution in species ranging from moths to sea urchins, to creating an elaborate variety of domesticated plants and animals for our use, to designing new life forms through genetic modification and gene editing technologies. And we’ve created new ecosystems–from cities like ours to mats of plastic debris floating in the Pacific Ocean–in which some hardy animals, plants, and bacteria, like rats and pigeons, have thrived. Ecologists and geologists studying life on Earth and how human society has affected it call this new era of Earth history the “Anthropocene.” In this class, we’ll learn all about the Anthropocene and how research in ecology and conservation biology can help us understand what we are doing to our natural environment and how to protect important biodiversity and resources.