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| BIOL0518-1 | Biodiversity and ecology (including field training courses)
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| Duration : | 60h Th, 12d FW |
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| Credits/ECTS : |
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| Holder(s) : | Vincent Demoulin, Jean‑Pierre Thomé, Pierre Vandewalle |
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| Language : | Langue française |
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| Course contents : | This course would show to the students the integration between biodiversity and ecology. On the basis of the knowledge the students have from the 1st year of bachelor, the relations between the biodiversity aspects and the environmental characteristics will be studied.
The biodiversity and the ecological aspects wil be developped during practicals in the field in Britany and especially in the intertidal zone. Moreover, several studies in the field will be performed in Belgium to examine the animals and the vegetation in different countries. |
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| Course objective : | This course integrates the zoological and botanical aspects during the observations in the laboratory and in the field. |
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| Prerequisites : | Notions of biology, physic, chemistry and biochemistry |
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| Organization : | Theory: 60h through the first and second quarter either at the l'institut de Zoologie, 22 quai Van Beneden (Bât. I1), or et the l'Institut de Botanique au Sart Tilman (Bât. B22, P.70). Each teacher will provide approximatively 20 hours of theory.
The Botany part (Prof. V. Demoulin) deals with the associations and the plant distributions in the world with an emphasis on those found during the field courses.
The zoological diversity part (Prof. P. Vandewalle) includes the presentation of (1) the rules for nomenclature, (2) animal groups typical of the environments visited durng field courses, (3) the diversity of coastal environments in the area of St-Malo,(4) terrestrial and freshwater organisms of Belgium.
The introduction to general ecology (Prof. J.-P. Thomé) includes six chapters that deal with: the definition of an ecosystem and its constitutents, the role of ecological factors in population control, the notion of ecological niche, the structure of food chains, the notions of energy flux at the biosphere level, biogeochemical cycles and the impact of humans on biological equilibriums and of biogeochemical cycles in particular (eutrophication, green house effect, ozone, acid rains,...)
Practicals: practicals consist in field trips (7 days on the coast near St-Malo and 5 one-day trips in Belgium). |
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| Written notes : | For botany, documents will be distributed during the course.
For zoology and ecology, a syllabus will be provided with the main content of the course.
It is necessary to acquire "la Nouvelle Flore de la Belgique, du Grand Duché de Luxembourg, du Nord de la France et des régions voisines, 5ème édition, 2004, par J. Lambinon et al.". Access to nature guides is recommended but not mandatory. Numerous books will be available for consultation during practicals and field trips (floras, faunas, nature guides, geological maps,...) |
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| Assessment : | A pre-departure evaluation on the zoological and ecological aspects of the course can be organized.
Evaluation of the St-Malo field trip is organized on the last day of the trip. It only concerns the marine aspects of the field course et consists in the identification of organisms of the inter-tidal zone and a reflection on a question about diversity and ecology of the sites visited. This evaluation is final and will be automatically transposed in case a student presents a second session.
The final exam includes questions on theory, comments of animal - plant - landscape pictures. It also includes the comment of distribution maps and the identification of organisms observed during the field courses and of the main trees of Belgium. A small collection of invertebrates (35 objects) and a small herbarium (35 objects) will be prepared by the students and commented during the exam. These collections are pre-requisites to the presentation of the exam.
To pass students will need to obtain a minimal grade of 10/20 with at least 8/20 for each parts. In case a student needs to present the exam a second time, all parts for which he/she did not get at least 12/20 will have to be presented again. For students repeating their year, a global grade of at least 12/20 is necessary to be exempted of presenting the exam anew. The only partial exemptions possible are for the invertebrate collection and the herbarium in case the grade for these parts are of at least 12/20. |
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| Contacts : | see french part |
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