Plant Ecology 100 Hours Certificate Course

There are 8 Lessons:

1 Introductory Ecology

• Definitions for ecology, ecosystems
• Constituents of an ecosystem
• Ecological concepts
• Interrelationships between climate, soil and living things (consumers, decomposers)
• The food web
• Habitat and niche
• Biomes
• Terminology

2 Plant Communities

• Open and closed plant communities
• Habitat types
• Location and characteristics of biomes
• Semi natural vegetation
• Competition
• Succession of plant communities
• Community stability and equilibrium
• Environmental stress
• Edge effectsTerminology

3 Plants and their Environment

• Development, structure and function
• Plant modifications: functional adaptions
• Environmental factors: light, temperature, fires, wind
• Monitoring abiotic factors
• Introduction to Environmental assessment
• Pre purchase inspection of a site
• Background data
• Flora and fauna surveys
• Open space management plans
• Compliance with lisencing conditions
• Detection of pollutants
• Use of plants
• Remediation of a polluted site

4 Plants, Soils & Climate

• Natural conditions andplants distribution
• Climate classification
• Examples: climate in the UK, climate in Australia
• Meteorological data
• Plant distribution
• Geographic location
• Rainfall
• Evapouration
• Effective rainfall
• Circulation features
• The walker circulation
• Southern oscillation
• El nino
• La Nina
• GAIA theory
• Carbon dioxide cycle
• Wind descriptions
• Soil problems
• Erosion
• Salinity
• Soil structure decline and soil compaction
• Soil acidification
• Build up of dangerous chemicals

5 Plant Adaptations to Extreme Environments

• Ecological groups of plants: hydrophyte, xerophyte, mesophyte, halophyte
• Xeromorphy
• Common environmental problems when growing plants: foliage burn, pollution, lack of water, frost, shade, humidity, temperature, wind, etc
• Desert landscapes
• Xeriscapes
• Coastal gardens
• Water plant environments
• Greenhouse plants

6 Manipulating Plant Environments

• Controlling environmental conditions
• Tolerance levels for different plants
• Matching plants with their environment
• Managing light
• Managing water
• Protective structures
• Windbreaks
• Tree guards

7 Environmental Conservation

• Water pollution
• Soil pollution
• Atmospheric pollution
• Effects of horticulture
• Pesticides
• Fertilisers
• Deforestation problemsLoss of agricultural land
• Loss of biodiversity
• Environmental weeds
• The greenhouse effect
• Other environmental problems affecting plant communities
• Greenhouse gases
• Ozone depletion
• Introduction to recycling

8 Environmental Organisations, Assessment and Funding

• Plant conservation
• Conservation of individual species
• Conservation organisations
• Conservation funding

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The quality of this course is second to none, from the in-depth learning you will get to the expert individual mentoring you will receive throughout your studies. The mentors for this course are:

Susan Stephenson

BSc in Applied Plant Biology (Botany) Univ. London 1983.

City and guilds: Garden Centre Management, Management and Interior Decor (1984)

Management qualifications in training with retail store. Diploma in Hort level 2 (RHS General) Distinction.

Susan Stephenson is a passionate and experienced horticulturist and garden designer. She has authored three books, lectures at 2 Further and Higher Education Colleges, teaching people of all ages and backgrounds about the wonders of plants and garden design, and tutors many students by correspondence from all over the world.

Susan studied botany at Royal Holloway College (Univ of London) and worked in the trading industry before returning to her first love plants and garden design. She is therefore, well placed to combine business knowledge with horticulture and design skills. Her experience is wide and varied and she has designed gardens for families and individuals. Susan is a mentor for garden designers who are just starting out, offering her support and advice and she also writes, delivers and assesses courses for colleges, introducing and encouraging people into horticulture and garden design.

In 2010, Susan authored a complete module for a Foundation degree (FDSC) in Arboriculture.

Susan holds the RHS General with Distinction. She continues to actively learn about horticulture and plants and (as her students will tell you) remains passionate and interested in design and horticulture.

Steven Whitaker

Diploma in Garden Design (Distinction) – The Blackford Centre, Gold Certificate of Achievement in Horticulture, Level 2 NVQ in Amenity Horticulture, Level 1 NOCN Introduction to Gardening, – Joseph Priestly College, BTEC Diploma in Hotel, Catering and Institutional Operations (Merit), Trainer Skills 1, & 2, Group trainer, Interview and Selection Skills – Kirby College of Further Education

Steven has a wealth of Horticultural knowledge, having ran his own Design and Build service, Landscaping company, and been a Head Gardener. His awards include five Gold awards at Leeds in Bloom, two Gold awards at Yorkshire in Bloom and The Yorkshire Rose Award for Permanent Landscaping. Steven has worked with TV’s Phil Spencer as his garden advisor on the Channel 4 TV Programme, “Secret Agent”.

He is qualified to Level 2 NVQ in Amenity Horticulture and has a Diploma in Garden Design which he passed with Distinction. Steven’s Tutor and Mentor was the Chelsea Flower Show Gold Award-winning Garden Designer, Tracy Foster. He also works for a major Horticultural Commercial Grower in the field of Propagation and Craft Gardening. Steven lives in Leeds where he is a Freelance Garden Designer and Garden Advice Consultant.

PLANT DISTRIBUTION

Plant distribution is greatly dependant on local natural conditions. In different regions land plants face different problems. In some regions they are subject to periodic frost, drought, flood, heat or other extreme weather condition. A combination of these conditions defines plants’ distribution. Climate and weather depends on distribution of heat from the sun and its transport by winds and Ocean currents, seasonality of the heat distribution, and the rainfall pattern for the region. The same factors influence selection of plants to grow in horticulture sites, especially if resources for environmental factors management are limited (i.e. big open sites). Selection of right plants for the local environmental conditions greatly reduces maintenance costs.

Geographic Location

Geographical longitude and latitude, mountains attitude and orientation affect sunlight patterns, seasonality, and climate and weather of any particular location. In very general terms, the farther place is from the equator the lower is the average annual temperature, the shorter are winter days and the longer are summer days. Average annual temperature is also decreasing with altitude that leads to forming relatively similar communities in Arctic tundra and Alpine tundra.

Large areas with different conditions can serve as impenetrable borders for plants and other biological species. Over period of time these borders such as oceans, mountains, deserts etc. isolate plant populations from each other and cause difference in species composition between plant communities in similar isolated habitats. People can overcome this limitation and introduce plants from overseas into localities with suitable environmental conditions. A couple of spectacular examples of successful usage of overseas plants in new locations is culture of Coffee tree, African plant, in South America, and Cocoa, South American plant, in Africa.

Rainfall

There are four major points to consider regarding rainfall. These are:

• Distribution - This refers to when the rain falls. An inch (25mm) of rainfall in a normally moist site during winter conditions will not have the same significance as the same amount falling in a normally drier site, or in summer.

• Variability - Some areas have very consistent rainfall, others do not. Two sites may have the same average annual rainfall, but there may be quite different variation around that average at each site. For example, each site may have an average annual rainfall of 1000mm (40 inch) but one may vary between 250 and 2000mm from year to year, while the other may only vary between 750 and 1300mm from year to year.

• Frequency - This is a measure of how often it rains, and can be important in determining the size of water storages. For example where there is a large interval between periods of rain then water storages (e.g. farm tanks) will have to be larger than for sites where rain falls frequently.

• Intensity - This is the total annual rainfall divided by the number of wet days (days exceeding 0.2mm of rain). This is very important in terms of run off. In areas of high intensity rainfall run-off is generally high, and consequently the % of water infiltrating into the soil is low in comparison to areas with low intensity rainfall. Erosion can be a major problem in high intensity rainfall areas, while getting sufficient run off to boost water storages can be a problem in low intensity areas.

Generally, in Australia, southern areas such as Southern Victoria and South-West Western Australia have low intensity, with intensity much higher along the eastern coastline, and in particular the northern part of the continent.

Evaporation

Evaporation is the loss of water as water vapour. It is part of the cycling of water process (see Water Cycle diagram below) It increases as temperatures increase, humidity drops and winds increase. It can be measured by determining the amount of water evaporated from a free water surface exposed in a pan. In countries, such as Australia, where surface water storage is extremely important for agricultural purposes, evaporation is very significant. As with other climatic data maps or tables of evaporation data are generally readily available.