Læringsutbytte

After completing the course, the students should have the following qualification regarding knowledge, skills, and general competence:

• Have knowledge about how biodiversity and species richness can be quantified
• Have knowledge about variation of species richness in Scandinavian mountains
• Be able to quantify relationships between species richness and measured environmental and variables
• Be able to perform numerical analyses of vegetation data
• Be able to interpret results of ordination analyses
• Be able to use plants as environmental variables by the use of plant indicator values

Innhold

The following topics will be covered:

• Present climate and temperature measurements
• Models of global climatic change
• Holocene vegetation and climate history
• Relation between forest limits and climate
• Phenology as an indicator of climate change
• Ecological changes in alpine areas as a result of climate change
• Methods in biodiversity research
• Measurement of biodiversity
• Variation in alpine biodiversity in relation to environmental variables
• Gradients in alpine plant diversity
• Use of numerical methods in vegetation ecology
• Changes in species richness and distribution patterns as a result recent of climate change

Arbeids- og læringsformer

Lectures, computing courses, seminars with student presentations and a mandatory report (essay). The computing courses are mandatory.

36 h lectures, 20 h with computing exercises.

Vurderingsformer

Group project (report), 25%; individual, written 4-hour final examination 75%

Det tas forbehold om mindre justeringer i planen.