Environmental Plant Physiology
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| BIOS2122 | Biosciences | 2 | 10 | Autumn UK |
- Code
- BIOS2122
- School
- Biosciences
- Level
- 2
- Credits
- 10
- Semesters
- Autumn UK
Summary
Plant physiologists are the ‘engineers’ of botany, studying the physical and chemical mechanisms that drive plant growth and the adaptations that that underly resilience and survival. Specifically this module provides an understanding of the mechanisms that plants use to capture and efficiently utilise physical resources of solar energy, water and nutrients and how they do this in diverse and challenging global habitats, including both natural and agricultural systems. The adaptations to variation and perturbation (stress) of physical aspects of the plant environment are examined. Examples are given throughout of contemporary issues and challenges such as plant responses to climate change and abiotic stress physiology. A background context of growth and development is maintained throughout. The method of delivery includes lectures, practicals and group tutorials.
Week 1-2: Mechanisms of capture of light and CO2 for growth: whole plant regulation and feedback mechanisms.
Week 3-4: Capture of water from soil; how water moves through plants; the regulation of transpiration
Week 5-6: Environmental stress physiology and plant acclimation/adaptation. Drought, heat and light stress. Practical class on water use efficiency and photosynthesis with hands on measurements of stomatal properties.
Weeks 7-8: Nutrient uptake from soil. Nutrient efficiency and deficiency. Practical class on nitrogen use efficiency.
Weeks 9-10: Whole plant physiology: the canopy-environment interface. The role of hormones in regulation of physiological processes. Tutorial class on multi-species, cropping natural system with self-directed learning.
Weeks 11-12: Formative assessment with feedback. Integrated mechanisms of resource capture in the field and methods of measurement and phenotyping of plants in the field including remote sensing.
Target Students
This module should be of interest to any students taking a biology – related degree, especially those with an agricultural, environmental or crop science focus.This module is core for Plant Biology, and available to students in Biosciences and Life Sciences.
Classes
- One 3-hour tutorial
- One 4-hour practicum each week for 2 weeks
- One 3-hour lecture each week for 10 weeks
Assessment
- 40% Coursework 1: Practical write-up (1000 words max)
- 60% Exam 1 (2-hour): Essay style questions (choose 3 questions from total of 5)
- 60% Exam 1 (2-hour): Essay style questions (choose 3 questions from total of 5)
Assessed by end of autumn semester
Educational Aims
Plant physiology is a key discipline relevant to agricultural, environmental and plant sciences and this module is broad in scope and aims toenable the student to understand the key mechanisms of plant physiology that can inform across these subjects. The aim is to provide a single integrated plant physiology module that will link 1st, 2nd and 3rd year topics in plant, agricultural and environmental science that they currently cannot access.For example, it provides a useful initiation for 3rd year physiology modules ‘Plants and the light environment’ and 'Plant Ecophysiology' and it will be highly complementary to ‘Applied Crop Science’.Learning Outcomes
To understand the scope of the discipline of plant physiology and its relevance to changes in the physical environment.
To understand the mechanisms that plants utilise to capture the key physical resources of light, water and nutrients.
To understand how plants regulate the synthesis and distribution of fixed resources for growth and development.
To understand how stress factors affects physiological processes and the adaptations that enable resilience.
To understand ‘physiological resource use efficiency’ as it applies to natural and agricultural systems.
To understand that plant physiological mechanisms are needed to understand how plant communities will respond to climate change.