Undergraduate Course: Plant Geography (PLSC10018)

Course Outline
School	School of Biological Sciences	College	College of Science and Engineering
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate)	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	10	ECTS Credits	5
Summary	Biologists have sought to explain the uneven distribution of organisms across the globe for over two centuries, a field of enquiry called biogeography. It is still a vital research area in a time when we need to be able to predict how organisms will react to anthropogenic environmental change. However, because of the complex interplay of contemporary ecology, earth history, organismal extinction and evolution, universal biogeographic explanations are still elusive. This course provides a background to the discipline of plant geography, including an account of its history, as well as explanations of the most modern biogeographic tools such as molecular clocks. This material is interspersed with key environments lectures, which discuss key species-rich environments that are studied at RBGE and the University of Edinburgh. These illuminate the theoretical material with real examples, and highlight conservation issues
Course description	Not entered

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2017/18, Available to all students (SV1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Semester 2
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 30, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 66 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Essays
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
1.History of plant geography 2.Basic outline of plate tectonics 3.Biogeographic techniques including vicariance (cladistic) biogeography, using phylogenies to test biogeographic hypotheses, molecular clock studies of divergence times 4.Knowledge of the floristic composition, ecology, biogeographic history and conservation issues relating to key species-rich plant environments