Module BIOL3381: PALAEOECOLOGY (P)

Department: Biological and Biomedical Sciences

BIOL3381: PALAEOECOLOGY (P)

Pre-requisites

Corequisites

Excluded Combinations

Aims

• To promote an appreciation of how the environment has changed in the recent geological past and of the impacts of these changes on organisms and ecosystems.

Content

• Palaeoenvironmental, palaecoecological and chronometric methods.
• Global environmental history of the last 5 million years.
• Orbital forcing of global and regional climate.
• Late-Quaternary interglacials.
• Interglacials vs interstadials.
• Rapid global environmental fluctuations during the last glacial cycle.
• The Holocene: The role of humans in Holocene vegetation change.
• Millennial environmental variability during the Holocene.
• Linking palaeoecology to ecology and conservation.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of this module each student should be able to: illustration how Quaternary environmental changes have impacted upon organisms and ecosystems.
• appreciate the nature of the interactions between environmental change and ecosystem components, and the relevance of different processes at different scales both in time and space.
• understand the prevailing hypotheses as to the mechanisms and ultimate causes of environmental change and the extent to which differed processes operate at different temporary and spatial scales.
• understand the principal techniques used to study Quaternary environments.
• have a practical knowledge of sediment sampling and palynology.

• To establish Quaternary chronologies and to investigate Quaternary palaeocology.

• extract, compile and review relevant scientific information from various sources and evaluate them critically.
• acquire, interpret and critically analyse experimental, clinical and field data and present the results effectively.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Taught Component: Teaching and learning in this component is primarily through the means of lectures and seminars, supplemented by practical classes and field excursion(s).
• During the practical classes students will gain skills that will enable them collectively to collect and analyse a set of palynological data and to critically assess these data in relation to published data.
• Additional skills will be acquired through the searching, retrieval and presentation of data.
• Knowledge, understanding and ability to retrieve and synthesise information will be assessed formatively through an oral presentation.
• Knowledge, understanding, ability to synthesise information and ability to critically assess and analyse information will be assessed summatively by means of a written examination.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment

Oral presentation to assess ability to retrieve, organise and synthesise and present information.