Plant ecophysiology in a changing climate

Plant growth, reproduction and the geographical distribution of plant species are influenced by their interactions with the physical, chemical and biological environment. Plant Ecophysiology is the study of how plants sense, respond and adapt to variable environmental conditions.
In Plant Ecophysiology we highlight the basic mechanisms of plants, which allow them to tolerate and survive environmental challenges. Especially, we will focus on how plants respond to climate change and we will look at the consequences in terms of growth and diversity.
The course will take an integrative approach and study responses from the cellular to the ecosystem levels. In the course we work on cases from both natural terrestrial ecosystems as well as cultivated systems used for commercial plant production.
The main topics of the course are trained through a balanced combination of lectures, theoretical and practical exercises.

Knowledge:
· an advanced mechanistic understanding of how the environment influence plant growth at various levels of integration, from the single cell level to the whole plant and ecosystem levels.
· an in-depth knowledge to the basic processes of plants affected by the physical, chemical and biological environment.
· a strong and contemporary focus on how the key parameters of climate change (e.g. temperature, carbon dioxide, irradiation, precipitation and their interactions) affect basic metabolism of plants and how this impacts plant growth and ecosystem diversity.

Skills:
· ability to assessing the impact of the environment on plant growth.
· ability use the concepts of plant stress responses to understand the mechanisms involved in plant adaptation and acclimation to adverse conditions and climate change.

Competences:
· key competences within plant science and nature management
· ability to evaluate the conditions for plant growth in cultured and natural ecosystems.
· ability to evaluate and suggest strategies for improved plant tolerance towards climate change and adverse environmental conditions by agronomy practices and plant breeding will be obtained.