BZ2410:03
Adaptations to the Environment
| Cairns | HECS Band 2 |
26 hours lectures, 30 hours practicals, 3 days fieldwork. Semester 2.
Staff: Dr P Franks.
Provides a basic overview of the interactions between organisms and their physical environment; examples of ecophysiology of selected organisms; interrelationship between physiological functions and ecology and distribution of plants and animals.
Major topics: physiology of growth, reproduction and storage; adaptations to special environments; water requirements and water conservation; physiology of temperature regulation in conditions of heat and cold; responses to nutrient supply and light availability.
Learning Objectives:
- to introduce students to mechanisms and processes used by organisms to tolerate and optimise constraints imposed by the physical environment;
- to appreciate the important environmental parameters that influence organisms;
- to appreciate the major adaptive responses of organisms to different environments.
Assessment by theory examination (60%); laboratory and field reports (40%).