FRESHWATER ECOLOGY
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2015/2016
- Teacher
- ELISA ANNA FANO
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- BIO/07
Training objectives
- The course is addressed to students showing interest in environmental themes. It aims at providing the following skills: knowledge of the main freshwater ecological systems, understanding of their working principles, of the possible modifications induced by human activities, and of management strategies.
The students will be guided towards the understanding of the main concepts about freshwater ecosystems, and the identification of their main environmental emergencies in order to understand how to manage and recover a damaged freshwater ecosystem. Prerequisites
- No preliminary course is required but the students must have knowledge of physics, mathematics and chemistry (at the high school level). Basic knowledge of biology is also required, in order to be able to understand the concepts related to the animal, vegetal and microbial components of the ecosystems. The students must have attended the Ecology class
Course programme
- After a short introduction (2 hours) on the history of the field, the class is divided in three main parts.
The first one focuses on Lentic Ecosystems (lakes etc.)(16 hours).
They will be analysed from the morphological, chemical and biological point of view, exploring their main ecosystem services, their evolution, their thermodynamic behaviour and their main anthropic modifications (i.e. eutrophication and acidification). Will follow an overview on the situation in Italy and Europe on the basis of the leading researches in the field, focusing more deeply on a few case studies.
The second part (16 hours) focuses on Lotic Ecosystems (rivers etc.)
They will be analysed from the morphological, chemical and biological point of view, exploring their main ecosystem services (mainly decomposition of organic materials), their evolution, their thermodynamic behaviour and their main anthropic modifications (i.e. chemical and thermic pollution, regulation). Will follow an overview on the situation in Italy and Europe on the basis of the leading researches in the field, focusing more deeply on a few case studies.
The third part (6 hours)focuses on Wetlands, their ecologic role and ecosystem services for the society, and their conservation, with an overview on their geographical distribution in Italy.
There will be one day (8 hours) of fieldwork under the supervision of the professor and other tutors. The fieldwork involves biological sampling (macrozoobenthos, plankton, fishes), and morphological, chemical and physical analyses. The samples will be then analysed in the class from both a biological and a chemical perspective. Didactic methods
- 6 CFU (48 hours, at least 10 of them of lab or field work). Weekly classes must be attended. Students, if they wish, can contribute preparing and showing power-point presentations on subjects of interest.
Learning assessment procedures
- At the end of the course there will be the possibility to take the exam either as written or oral examination. After that it will be only possible to take the exam as oral examination.
Written examination: multiple choice test with 28 questions (1 point each), and 2 open questions (maximum 4 points each). Wrong answers are not assigned to a negative value. The total is then corrected by the maximum number of points and the mark is given from 0 to 30. The exam is passed with a mark over 18/30. A mark between 10 and 17 leads to a necessary oral examination. A mark lower than 10 show that the exam has not be passed, and the oral examination can only be taken after some time.
Oral examination: three questions, the first one can be chosen by the student. The mark is given from 0 to 30, and the exam is passed with a mark over 18/30. Reference texts
- Fenoglio, Bo – Lineamenti di Ecologia Fluviale. Città Studi Edizioni 2009
Bettinetti, Crosa, Galassi – Ecologia delle acque interne. Città Studi Edizioni 2007
Bertoni – Laghi e Scienza, Introduzione alla Limnologia. Aracne Editrice 2006
The professor will provide the power-point slides used during classes, and, if needed, relevant scientific articles in English.
