Subject description
The subject deals with most important methodological approaches used to study the response of 1) individual plants and 2) terrestrial ecosystems to main, mainly abiotic environmental factors. The introduced methods are evaluated with respect to their objectivity, temporal and spatial representativity and applicability.
On the plant level different physiological and biochemical methods, aimed to study the response to light-, water- and nutrient-availability and to air-, soil- and water pollutants, are presented. These methods reveal the action of environmental factors on the level of photosynthesis, respiration, growth, leaf area, water potential, the content of pigments, antioxidants, and other primary and secondary metabolites.
On the ecosystemic level, methods used in the studies of fluxes of matter and energy in the ecosystems and methods aimed to study the effects of different envrionmental factors on these fluxes, are presented. Here, the subject focuses on evaluation of 1) different components of the carbon cycle (gross and net primary production, ecosystem respiration, net ecosystem production, soil respiration and its components, decomposition), 2) water balance (evaporation and transpiration, drain off, interception, soil water availability) and 3) the balance of mineral nutrients (atmospheric deposition, leaching N2 fixation, denitrification).
Methods presented in detail include: gas exchange measurements based on the use of IRGAs, HPLC and spectrophotometric analyses of plant samples; micrometeorological methods (eddy covariance), chamber-techniques used to measure fluxes of gases in the field, stable isotope techniques (carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen); sap-flow techniques, leaf area index measurements (ceptometers, hemispheric photography); vegetation indexes and other biometric procedures.
The subject is taught in programs
Objectives and competences
Aims of the class: to make the student familiar with scientific research work in the field of the ecophysiology of plants and ecosystem ecology and to introduce avaliable research methods which can be used in this work.
Teaching and learning methods
With lectures and lab exercises students are introduecd to basics of different methods. Later they use selected methods in their project work, which can be performed in the field or under controlled conditions (lab, greenhouse). They present the results of the project.
Expected study results
Knowledge and understanding:
The student gets to know basic methods used in ecophysiology and the ecology of terrestrial ecosystems; their applicability, advantages and disadvantages.
He/she is able to select appropriate methods for a given research problem/question and can critically evaluate their objectivity, repeatibility and applicability. He/she is able to apply these methods when studying responses on plant or ecosystem level, both in experimental and environmental conditions. Student can plan research work, he/she is able to make synthesis and analyses of broad spectra of knolwdges from the field of plant ecophysiology, ecosystem ecology and related fields of science.
Basic sources and literature
Reigosa Roger M. J. 2001. Handbook of Plant Ecophysiology Techniques. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 452 s., ISBN 0-7923-7053-8
Sánchez-Moreiras, A. M., Reigosa, M. J. 2018. Advances in Plant Ecophysiology Techniques. Springer, 497 s., ISBN 978-3-319-93232-3.
von Willert D.J., Matyssek R., Herppich W. 1995. Experimentelle Pflanzenökologie – Grundlagen und Anwendungen. Gerog Thieme Verlag Stuttgart, New York, 344s., ISBN 3-13-134401-6
Larcher, W. 2002. Physiological Plant Ecology. Ecophysiology and Stress Physiology of Functional Groups. četrta izdaja, Springer, Berlin: 506 s. ISBN 3-540-43516-6
Flexas J., Loreto F., Medrano H. 2012. Terrestrial Photosynthesis in a Changing Environment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 728 s.ISBN 978-0-521-89941-3
Chapin III, F.S., Matson, P.A., Vitousek, P. 2012. Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology, 2nd ed. Springer, Berlin: 529 p. ISBN 978-1-4419-9502-5
Sala, O.E., Jackson, R.B., Mooney, H.A., Howarth, R.W. (Eds.). 2000. Methods in Ecosystem Science. Springer, New York: 421 p. ISBN: 978-0-387-98743-9
Waxmundska-Hajnos, M., Sherma, J.2010. High performance liquid chromatography in phytochemical analyses. CRC Press, 975 s. ISBN: 978-1-4200-9260-8
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