220-302 Tree Growth and Ecophysiology

202-201 Plant Function or 606-201 Plant Structure and Function; 202-203 Soil and Water Resources.

Subject content includes:

• life cycles and tree development;

• molecular aspects of wood, and the effect of genetics and silviculture on wood quality;

• flowering and tree developmental responses to environmental stresses;

• ecophysiology of water and nutrient use, tree performance and environmental constraints on tree growth, interactions between light, water, nutrients and genetic capacity in limiting growth;

• management of the interaction between light, water and nutrients to maximise carbon gain (growth) in planted trees;

• current tools for measurement of physiological performance;

• nutrient cycling in native forests and plantations, gas exchange and the C and N economies;

• process-based models for forest growth.

A 3-hour end-of-semester examination (50%), and two project reports totalling 3000 words (50%).

• H Lambers, F S Chapin and T L Pons, Plant Physiological Ecology. Springer, 1998.