GES3570

Quaternary ecology and ecosystem management

Professor Peter Kershaw

6 points
* 3 hours per week on average (2 lectures and 1 lecture and 3-hour practical in alternate weeks)
* First semester
* Clayton
* Prerequisites: 16 points of second-year physical geography, biology or earth sciences, or permission of the head of department

Objectives On the completion of this subject, students should demonstrate a familiarity with the range of palaeoecological techniques available for reconstructing environments of the recent past together with an ability to assess their relative merits and limitations; some expertise in palynology and other palaeoecological techniques and their application to palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and ecosystem management; an awareness of patterns and uncertainties in environmental change that both facilitate and constrain future environmental prediction; and an ability to produce a scientific paper based on a range of generated data and their analysis.

Synopsis This subject is concerned with the examination of a range of organisms whose remains contibute to the Quaternary fossil record and provide important evidence on the nature of change in communities and their environments. These organisms include plants, in the form of pollen, charcoal, macrofossils and tree rings, insects and large mammals which dominate or characterise terrestrial ecosystems, foraminifera which characterise oceanic palaeoenvironmental studies, and diatoms and corals which provide evidence of conditions within aquatic and coastal environments respectively. Results of studies are applied to the understanding of community dynamics including migration, phases of extinction, and the implications of human impact for the conservation and management of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. An original palaeoecological study will form the basis of field and laboratory work and will contribute to the solution of a particular environmental problem.

Assessment Written (2000 words): 40%
* Examinations (2 hours): 40%
* Practical work/laboratory work/fieldwork: 20%

Recommended texts

Bennett K Evolution and ecology: Pace of life CUP, 1997
Williams M A J Quaternary environments Edward Arnold, 1993