Global Change Biology is one of the most challenging research fields driven by the necessity of mankind to adapt to the environment changing by the impact of civilization. This course will trace major global evolutionary trends in the biosphere from its origin to the present time. The changes in biological systems in the course of evolution have the potential to affect the physical and climate systems of Earth. In particular, we will survey the biological implications of anthropogenic changes to the biosphere, with the emphasis on the responses of plants and ecosystems. Global change factors considered will include rising atmospheric CO₂, depletion of stratospheric ozone, alterations to the global nitrogen cycle, and global climate change. Understanding “global change” entails understanding how biotic and physical systems are interconnected in complex feedback loops. Human activities are causing multiple simultaneous changes; predicting the consequence of all of those interacting changes is vastly more difficult than predicting the effects of any one change in isolation, and often requires a more holistic, interdisciplinary approach to science. The course will complement and extend the existing courses by involving biospheric, palaeobiological, and molecular approaches to investigating global changes, and will provide students with the theory and with knowledge of experimental techniques applied in the global change research including particulars of the biosphere evolution and anthropogenic impacts. The students will get skills to understand concrete problems of past and current environmental changes using modern modeling approaches and comprehensive experimental techniques.