Flora and Fauna 1400-112FF

A. Floristic part
The main aim of the course is to aquire knowledge about flora of Poland by means of its seasonal and spatial variability and about the main factors affecting plant diversity. Students learn how to identify plants using different keys and field guides and to recognize the most common species of the trees, bush and herbs.

Main subjects:
1. Flora and habitats of the forest (broadleaved, coniferous, riparian)
2. Flora and habitats of the meadows and pastures
3. Peat bogs and lowland bogs
4. Freshwater plants
5. Synanthropic plants (ruderal species and weeds)

Lab activity
1. usage of different types of keys for plant identification
2. identification of the most important plant famiilies, commonly occured in Poland.

To pass the test of the floristic part the following knowledge and abilities are required: the knowledge about 100 vascular herbaceous plant species and selected mosses, trees and shrubs; practical usage of the key for plant identification; the characteristics of the main families of the flowering plants and of the most typical habitats and plant communities.

B. Faunistic part
This part is conducted by the researchers of theDepartment of Ecology and Department of Hydrobiology, University of Warsaw. The main aims of this part of the course are: to aquire th e biological diversity of the most important groups animals in typical terrestrial and freshwater environmentsof Polish lowlands; to learn the methods ofcollecting and identification of the most common groups and species of fauna in particular environments; to get the knowledge of biology of those animals, their taksonomy and zoological nomenclature.

Main subjects
Each student takes part in three courses, concentrated on identification and biology of particular groups of animals: terrestrial invertebrates (incects, arachnids and snails), freshwater invertebrates (annelids, molluscs, arthropods) and vertebrates (fish, amphibians an birds. Each course incudes: field trips, collecting and observation of animals at field, lectures and practical lab activities. Each of the course ends with test.

To pass the test of the faunistic part the following knowledge and abilities are required: the ability of recognition of the most common animals on the level of species (vertebrates) or on higher level (invertebrates); the capability of using the keys to identification and field guides. Also the knowledge about the biology of selected animals and the field methods is required in tests.