Thematic Course 1: Ecology and Management of Nature and Semi-Nature Areas

After completing the course the student must have gained the following knowledge, skills and competencies:

Knowledge:

• The student must obtain knowledge on the value of physical-biological indices describing the value of different types of nature habitats.
• The student must obtain knowledge on patterns of biodiversity on international, national and local scales and the measures required for the analyses.
• The student must obtain knowledge on the ecological foundation of different management strategies and their influence on the environmental and biological quality of different natural habitats.
• The student must be able to evaluate the concepts and elements involved in sustainability and ecological footprints.
• The students must obtain knowledge on the economic value of forest for biodiversity, recreation, hunting and tree production.
• The student must obtain knowledge on how climate has been and is changing and what the couplings are to human impacts.
• The students must obtain knowledge on carbon dynamics in relation to global climate and how human enterprises and nature managements types influence the overall balance.

Skills:

• The student must be able to use abiotic-biotic methods to classify freshwater and terrestrial habitats in terms of ecological status and according to national and international directives.
• The student must be able to analyse and graphically represent environmental and biological data, including indices of biodiversity, couple them and evaluate them by appropriate quantitative-statistical methods and tests using excel or other software.
• The student must be able to collect samples and perform measurements of environmental key parameters in lakes and streams.
• The student must be able to calculate and evaluate the biodiversity, the quality of nature and the economy associated with different production methods in forest types.
• The student must be able to calculate and evaluate different types of nature management and offer guidance to the most suitable methods under the specified conditions.
• The student must be able to quantify the retention or loss of carbon and its relation to atmospheric carbon dioxide on a national and regional scale involving towns, traffic, industry, agriculture and initiatives in different types of habitat management in nature.

Competences:

• The student must be able to work in inter-disciplinary groups aiming at developing evidence based optimal management strategies.
• The student must be able to work interdisciplinary to offer solutions to minimize release of carbon dioxide and optimize retention of organic carbon in agricultural and nature areas.
• The student must be able to communicate ecology and nature management to a broader, non-professional audience.