The Phytosociology module will introduce students to the concept of the nature of plant communities through the research of the structure and flora composition of plant communities and the systematic through the creation of a hierarchical system of classification of plant communities.
Having successfully completed the module, students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
1. Vegetation description methods
- Plant community concept
- Plant community classification
- Phytosociological method
- Apply subjective classification methods in vegetation description
- Apply Braun-Blanquet approach
- Apply computerised methods
- Use natural and forced classifications of vegetation data
- Use Characteristics of methods of numerical classification
- Use hierarchical classification
- Use non-hierarchical classification
- Describe vegetation on physiognomic, floristic and plant functional types criteria
- Design a phytosociology research topic
- Test plant associations using a chi square (χ2) test.
- Analyze plant communities using softwares including R, MINITAB, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), Multi-Variate Statistical Package MVSP, and TWINSPAN program(Two-Way Indicator Species Analysis)
- Work independently and in groups with minimal supervision to a set deadline
- Synthesize genetics and evolution information from bibliographic resources and prepare an oral presentation.
- Write and present reports from assigned structured activities
This module will provide students with an understanding of the function of plant meristems and their role in plant primary and secondary growth. In addition, the students will be introduced to plant flowering and reproduction, seedling formation, and various aspects of plant growth regulation controls including environment, photoperiodism, hormones, phytochromes.
Having successfully completed the module, students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- Plant meristems and their role in plant growth
- Plant primary and secondary growth of vegetative organs
- Plant flowering and reproduction,
- Germination and development of seedlings
- Plant growth response and regulation