Last modified: 25 Mar 2016 11:34
How and why are plant communities formed, sustained and lost?
The focus is on plant communities, especially interactions among species and with the non-living environment. Main themes are: populations, life histories and strategies, describing communities, community interactions, and changing communities.
Delivery is by lectures, seminars, computer labs, experimental work and field trips.
There is a strong emphasis on quantitative techniques, including ordination, sampling vegetation and the analysis of data sets.
During the course, you will develop skills in enquiry, field techniques, data exploration and team working.
| Study Type | Undergraduate | Level | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Term | Second Term | Credit Points | 15 credits (7.5 ECTS credits) |
| Campus | None. | Sustained Study | No |
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Plants interact in a whole range of ways and there's a lot going on in plant communities. Some of it happens on time-scales that make it hard for us to study them. Some of it happens in places where it is hard for us to study (e.g. underground). It can often be hard to quantify interactions between plants so we have to use innovative approaches and detective work to understand what is happening. Plants are essential to all life and provide food to the next tier of organisms.
To avoid overlap with the Plant-Animal Interactions course, we do not cover herbivory. However, we will be looking at a range of plant interactions, population dynamics, strategies, patterns of diversity. We will also look at how we can quantify plant communities and analyse the patterns in plant distribution. Weather permitting we will do some fieldtrips to quantify plant communities in the real world; you will also get the opportunity to undertake an experimental manipulation on an artificial grassland community.This course runs in weeks 31-35, and is scheduled in Thread 2, so may have contact hours in any or all of these times: Mondays, 14-18; Tuesday, all day; Friday, 14-18. If this is an optional course, there may also be contact hours on Wednesdays, 9-11.
Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.
1st Attempt: Written exam (60%) and continuous assessment (40%). Continuous assessment is based on a review essay and a data analysis report (each contributes to half of the continuous assessment mark). Resit: Written exam and resubmission of any failed coursework.
A strong emphasis will be made throughout the course on informal verbal feedback during seminar and workshop sessions.
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