Course description

Global change is a topic of great concern but what does it really mean for plants and plant communities? Change includes increasing temperatures, decreasing rainfall, rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, degrading soils, excess of nutrients, salt, heavy metals or man-made chemicals. Change can mean altered presence of herbivores, pests and pathogens, or competition with aggressive weeds. To manage plants and their communities in a changing world, it is instrumental to understand how plants adapt to change. In this course, you will investigate how plants fare in ecosystems, currently and in the future. You will explore the processes that govern plant communities. Collaborating with government scientists and using an advanced web-interface to provide information, you will gain first-hand experience with field visits and data collection for hypothesis-driven research in south-east Queensland. Participants choose on-demand lectures and discussions and partake in small group activities to gain the skills essential for plant and ecosystem science sought after by employers and foundation for postgraduate studies.

Archived offerings