NPLK14009U Plants in Populations, Communities and Ecosystems

Plant ecology is the study of the interactions that determine the abundance and distribution of plants. While plant molecular biology and physiology describe the mechanisms and processes within plants, plant ecology studies interactions among individuals, populations, communities and ecosystems and how such interactions affect their well-being/performance, abundance and distribution. 

The solutions to many global challenges require an understanding of plant ecology. For example, food demand is increasing while weeds, insect pests and diseases continue to cause substantial yield losses. Many herbicides and pesticides are being phased out due to health and environmental concerns, and it is more important than ever to identify the ecological processes and dynamics that determine whether alternative management solutions are viable, and under which conditions, and for how long. Alternative approaches to plant production may, like previous, have unwanted effects on the environment, e.g. escape of transgenes conferring stress tolerance to neighboring crops and related species, which may in turn affect survival of the wild plant populations that constitute genetic resources for plant breeding. Wild plant populations may decline from increasing agriculture and urbanisation, but what determines their long-term probability of survival and what we can do about it? How does reduced biodiversity affect processes in the natural and human-dominated landscape, which may ultimately influence our well-being as humans?
 

The course will cover the following scientific topics:

- Plant population ecology: reproduction, dispersal, establishment, demography, factors and processes determining population size

- Biotic interactions: competition, herbivory, parasitism and disease, allelopathy, symbioses, mutualisms

- Evolutionary ecology: selection, inbreeding, genetic drift, population differentiation, ecotypes,  resistance evolution, speciation, life-history strategies

- Plant community ecology: community structure, succession, species diversity, invasive plants, plant conservation

The course relies on active participation of the students in discussions, experiments, exercises, and lectures, where we use ecological theory to understand basic and applied questions in plant ecology.