Current course offerings

Please Note: Course profiles marked as not available may still be in development.

Course description

This course will explore the ecological strategies that animals and plants adopt to acquire resources, grow, survive and reproduce. It will provide students with an appreciation of the structural variation within and among species, how this variation affects the function of organisms, and the corresponding ecological and evolutionary consequences. It will examine parallels between animals and plants, as well as the key functional differences that have led to the animal and plant sub-disciplines of functional ecology.Key topics will include: - Trade-offs and life history theories - The common currency of functional traits to enable comparison - How traits are measured and how well they capture the key dimensions of functional variation - Applications of functional ecology to the real world (invasion, conservation and restoration applications). This course includes a four day field trip. Additional costs are payable.

Archived offerings