BIO326 Vegetation and Disturbance Management (16)
CSU Discipline Area: Biological Sciences (BILSC)
Duration: One session
Abstract:
One of the key ways that land managers can conserve biodiversity is by managing vegetation and ecological disturbances. This subject builds on an existing knowledge in ecological science and covers a range of real-world issues about vegetation and disturbance management. Topics include global warming, fire and grazing, landscape ecology, environmental weeds, enhancing degraded vegetation and monitoring plant populations. A residential school field trip and field work projects provide practical field skills and apply the course material to real-world situations. The subject contains a total estimated workload of 320 hours.
+ Subject Availability Modes and Locations
| Session 1 | |
|---|---|
| Internal | Albury-Wodonga |
| Distance * | Albury-Wodonga |
*This subject offering contains a residential school. Please view following information for further details.
Continuing students should consult the SAL for current offering details: BIO326
Where differences exist between the Handbook and the SAL, the SAL should be taken as containing the correct subject offering details.
Assumed Knowledge:
Enrolment restrictions:
This subject replaces two existing subjects, BIO362 and BIO365 and students cannot enrol in the new subject if they have completed either or both of the existing subjects.
Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this subject, students should:
be able to:
- describe how global warming will affect natural processes, ecosystems and species;
- describe the important influence of ecological disturbances on vegetation dynamics;
- explain how single fires and fire regimes affect plant populations and native ecosystems;
- discuss the historical impacts of introduced grazing animals on the Australian flora;
- discuss the nature of the environmental weed problem in Australia including their impact, identification and management;
- assess the importance of addressing ecological processes that act at landscape scales, rather than just local, site scales;
- strategically plan vegetation enhancement activities; and
- apply field experience in monitoring changes in plant populations and vegetation structure.
Syllabus:
The subject will cover the following topics:
1. Global warming and natural ecosystems
2. Introduction to disturbance ecology and management
3. Fire behaviour, ecology and management
4. Grazing ecology and management
5. Landscapes, fragmentation and corridors
6. The ecology and management of environmental weeds
7. Enhancing degraded vegetation
8. Field methods for monitoring vegetation changes
Residential School
This subject contains a compulsory 4 day residential school.
The residential school includes introductory lectures on the CSU campus (day 1), two days of vegetation sampling field work in a nearby forest (days 2 & 3), and a final day in which all field data are collated and entered into spreadsheets (day 4).
Residential school field trip and resultant assignment:
- provides field experience in vegetation surveys and monitoring;
- provides experience and training in data collation and analysis using Excel spreadsheets; and
- provides experience and training in writing scientific reports.
The information contained in the 2013 CSU Handbook was accurate at the date of publication: 24 April 2013. The University reserves the right to vary the information at any time without notice.