Department of Biology & Biochemistry, Unit Catalogue 2008/09 |
BB40106 Plant-animal interactions |
| Credits: 6 |
| Level: Masters |
| Semester: 1 |
| Assessment: ES 20%, EX 70%, SM 10% |
| Requisites: |
| Before taking this unit you must take BB10157 |
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Aims & Learning Objectives: To explore the biochemical, physiological, toxicological, ecological and evolutionary interactions between plants and animals, leading to an understanding of how these relationships have evolved and underpin present day biodiversity. After taking this course, the student should be able to: * Display an appreciation of the richness of interactions between plants and herbivores at the biochemical, physiological, and toxicological levels, and be able to illustrate these with named examples. * Describe the host-finding and food-selection mechanisms of a number of herbivores, relating these to the properties of the plants and the environments in which they are found. * Understand the feeding behaviour of herbivores in terms of optimal foraging and optimal digestion/nutrition strategies. * Describe examples of plant defensive mechanisms and herbivore strategies to overcome these; consider the evidence that natural selection acts on such traits. * Consider theory and evidence relating to co-evolutionary arms races between plants and herbivores. * Discuss other kinds of plant-animal interactions, including mutualisms connected with pollination, seed dispersal, and tritrophic interactions. * Display a critical appreciation of the experimental and field ecological methods used to study these phenomena. Content: The course will focus very largely on angiosperm plants and insects, although examples of other groups will be used as appropriate. The background to the subject will be presented in introductory lectures and reinforced by directed reading. Various examples of plant herbivore and other kinds of plant-animal interactions, taken from recent scientific literature, will be presented as topics in student led seminars. |