Biogeographical topics of global significance, including a consideration of measurement techniques, and both descriptive and mechanistic modeling. Topics may include: scale in biogeography, biodiversity, carbon geography, climate and vegetation, interannual variability in the biosphere, land cover, global biospheric responses to climate change, NASA's Mission to Planet Earth and Earth Observation System. The class focuses on both natural and athropogenic controls, impacts of biography on climate and ecosystem services and different methods in biogeography.