BT3280:03
Tropical Rainforest Ecology
| Townsville | HECS Band 2 |
33 hours lectures, 18 hours practicals, 6 days field work. Semester 2.
Staff: Dr R Congdon.
This subject covers aspects of the ecology of Australian closed forests and associated vegetation, including origins, classification and factors determining distribution and diversity, and responses to environmental stresses (including global climate change). Dynamic features of rainforest vegetation will be considered, including effects of disturbance, succession and gap-phase regeneration; nutrient cycling, nutrient and water conserving mechanisms; productivity, light climate and photosynthesis; herbivory and plant defence mechanisms; phenology and seasonality of rainforest plants.
Learning Objectives:
- to gain an understanding of the ecology of rainforests, with emphasis on Australian communities;
- to provide fundamental knowledge of how rainforest plants respond to the environments in which they live;
- to develop an appreciation of the factors which need to be considered in the conservation and management of rainforests;
- to gain experience in identifying rainforest plants and the basic techniques used to describe vegetation and soils;
- to undertake a small project designed to introduce students to research techniques in an area of personal interest, providing them with an indication of what is involved in honours or postgraduate research projects;
- to introduce students to current rainforest research being undertaken in the school.
Assessment by a three-hour examination (60%); project (30%); fieldwork and laboratory performance (10%).