Current Courses

I am currently participating in several courses, including Vegetation and Ecology [Naturgrundlaget 2] (310041), Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation (310069), and I am the primary teacher in Plants in Populations, Communities and Ecosystems (250037) - see description below, which is also available from KU-LIFE’s web pages.

For other courses, see CV

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Plants in Populations, Communities and Ecosystems - 250037

Department of Agriculture and Ecology

Level                                     3rd year Bachelor / 1st year Masters

Duration                                One block

Credits                                   7.5 (ECTS)

Level of Course                      3rd year BSc / 1st year MSc

Examination                          Continuous Assessment

Description of Examination:    One presentation, one report (individual),

                                                three (best out of four) smaller written exams.

Weight:                                 Report 30%, Written exams 60%, Presentation 10%

                                             7-point scale, no second examiner

Requirement for Attendence    Participation in min. 75% of the individual course activities

                                                and participation in both all-day excursions

Block Placement                     Block 4

Week Structure:                     A

Language of Instruction          English

Optional Prerequisites             a basic ecology course (e.g. Naturressourcer og Økologi)

                                             a basic botany course (e.g. Danske Feltflora og Vegetation

                                                  or Kulturplanters Botanik)

                                             a basic statistics course (e.g. Matematik og databehandling)

Course Content

- Plant population ecology: dispersal, establishment, demography, density dependence, population growth, regulation and extinction, plant strategies

- Population interactions: competition, herbivory, parasitism and disease, allelopathy

- Plant community ecology: community structure, succession, species diversity, invasive plants, plant conservation

- Plant in ecosystems: primary production, world’s terrestrial vegetation type, global change

Teaching and learning Methods

Lectures, exercises and excursions, student presentations followed by student-led discussions, teacher-led discussions of articles, group work

Learning Outcome

Students in the course will become familiar with all the major questions and methods in modern plant ecology. These include knowledge of the factors that determine the abundance and distribution of plants, and how these factors can be investigated scientifically, and how current knowledge can be applied to solve applied problems. Students will obtain an understanding how modern ecological science is done with plants, starting with observation and natural history, description of patterns, building of models and theories, and making and testing of hypotheses.

Knowledge

- Understand and apply current “state of the art” scientific knowledge about the factors that determine the abundance and distribution of plants, including, abiotic factors such as climate and biotic factors such as competition, herbivory, parasitism.

- Be aware of the difference between scientific and ethical issues in management of plant populations and communities, and their overlap

Skills

- Describe plant populations and communities quantitatively

- Use plant ecological theories to develop and test hypotheses

- Apply ecological principles to solve applied problems in ecosystem management and plant production

- Judge alternative solutions to applied problems concerning plant populations and communities

- Use demographic methods to analyze the condition of plant populations

Competences

- Understand and criticize research in all major areas of plant ecology

- Develop hypotheses to explain the patterns in plant distribution and abundance

- Discuss both the scientific and ethical aspect of applied problems concerning plant populations and communities

Course Literature

-Gurevitch, J., Scheiner, S.M., & Fox, G.A. (2006) The ecology of Plants. 2nd Edition, Sinauer, Sunderland. USA. (text)

Course Coordinator

Jacob Weiner, jw@life.ku.dk, Department of Agriculture and Ecology/Section of Botany, Phone: 353-32822