833109 Biodiversity of animals in cultural landscapes

Type
Lecture and seminar
Semester hours
2
Lecturer (assistant)
Frank, Thomas
Organisation
Offered in
Sommersemester 2025
Languages of instruction
Deutsch
Content

Alteration of European landscapes. Habitats of native animals and plants. Species loss and enhancement of beneficials in agroecosystems. Man-made semi-natural habitats. Habitat fragmentation and connectivity. Species diversity and size/age of habitat. Farming practice and biodiversity, beneficials and pests. Landscape structure and biodiversity/efficacy of beneficial organisms.

Each student gives a talk or writes a protocol in German on a recent English written publication covering the topic biodiversity of animals in cultural landscapes.
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

Students learn to detect factors that affect biodiversity in cultural landscapes. Students learn to estimate impacts of landscape alteration on animals. Students deepen their faunistic ecological knowledge about selected animal groups playing particularly important roles in the agricultural landscape. Each students gives a talk or writes a protocol about an actual international research paper, an exercise being novel to almost every student. Students obtain the ability to critically estimate strength and weakness of a scientific paper. Students learn how to understandably communicate the essential results of a scientific paper to the audience. Thus students learnt to summarise complex topics, which is an essential exercise for each student`s professional future.
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.