GEOBOTANY
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2021/2022
- Teacher
- RENATO GERDOL
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Secondo Semestre
- SSD
- BIO/03
Training objectives
- The main goal of the course is to provide a solid basis for understanding the mechanisms and principles affecting plant species distribution at different geographic scales. The course considers the historical and environmental factors shaping the present distribution of plant species. The course also deals with interactions between plants and environment and their effect on the distribution of plant species and commiunities.
The specific objectives of the course are:
• Knowing the concepts of geographic plant distribution: distributional areas and their relation to regional climate.
• Knowing the principles and mechanisms affecting the relationships between plants and environment.
• Learning modern techniques for analysing and typifying plant communities.
• Recognizing and interpreting vegetation patterns and plant communities, with examples from the Italian territory. Prerequisites
- Previous attending of the Plant diversity course is mandatory. Furthermore, good knowledge of Botany is required for a full understanding of this course. In particular, the student must know the main concepts and techniques of:
• Plant cell biology and plant morphology.
• Plant taxonomy.
• Principles of plant physiology.
Fundamentals of Physics, Chemistry and Geography are also required. Course programme
- The course consists in 60 hours of teaching activities, including both frontal lessons (36 hours) and practical activities (24 hours).
Theory
Chorology (10 hours).
Distributional ranges of plant species: principles and graphic presentation.
Distributional ranges: typology.
Climatic factors and historic factors as causes for interpreting the present distribution of plant species.
Plant ecology (12 hours).
Plant/environment interactions.
Habitat factors: climate, topography, soil and biotic interactions.
Ecological factors: light, temperature, water, pH and mineral nutrition.
Vegetation science (14 hours).
Principles of plant community analysis and typification.
Vegetation dynamics. Succession: from pioneer communities to the climax.
Regression as an effect of natural causes or human action.
Biomes of the World.
Italian vegetation: vegetation zones and elevation belts.
Practical activities
Introduction to the excursion (2 hours).
Field excursion: case studies of plant communities (12 hours).
Elaboration of the data collected during the excursion (4 hours). Didactic methods
- The teaching activites are organized as follows:
• Frontal lessons addressing theoretical aspects of Chorology, Plant ecology and Vegetation science.
• Introduction to the field excursion through a brief literature survey.
• Field excursion with examples of vegetation studies.
• Statistic elaboration of the data collected during the excursion. Learning assessment procedures
- The aim of the examination is to verify to what extent the learning objectives have been reached by the student. The exam consists in two parts.
• Oral discussion of theoretical topics.
• Discussion of the data collected during the excursion and their subsequent elaboration.
The minimum score to pass the exam is 18/30. In case of failure the exam can be repeated at any time.
The exam score is partitioned as follows: 20/30 to the discussion of theoreticl topics and 10/30 to the practical test. The exam is not positive if the student scores < 10/30 in the theoretical discussion or < 5/30 in the practical test. Reference texts
- The teacher’s handouts serve as a trace for selecting the items to be considered during the examination.
In-depth study can be based on the following textbooks (in Italian):
• "Geobotanica" in E. Strasburger: Trattato di Botanica, parte sistematica. Antonio Delfino Editore.
• Ubaldi D. Geobotanica e Fitosociologia. Ed. CLUEB.
• Gerdol R. (coordinatore), Stanisci A., Tomaselli M. La vegetazione delle montagne italiane. Comitato Scientifico Centrale, Club Alpino Italiano (C.A.I.).
Information about English textbooks can be given on request.
