GEOG3063

Professor Chronis Tzedakis and Professor Mark Maslin

Unit Value: 0.5 unit   Year  3    Term  2

The fieldclass will run during the Easter break

Brief Course Description
The course focuses on aspects of Mediterranean environments (geology, geomorphology, plant ecology, climate and past climate changes, agriculture), centred around a week-long field trip to the island of Lesvos, during the Easter vacation.

Course Aims
To provide students with
(i) hands-on experience of using a range of fieldwork based research techniques; and
(ii) an understanding of the interaction between geology, climate and humans in shaping landscapes.

Course Content
This module integrates knowledge accumulated over the course of the undergraduate programme with advanced field skills, towards a holistic understanding of Mediterranean environments and the complex interaction of its different components.

Method of Teaching
Preparatory reading and two lectures introduce the field area and key scientific topics. During the first few days of the field trip, students will be introduced to the locale and to a range of different fieldwork skills. These skills will then be put into practice by working in a small group on a project chosen by the group itself. The group will plan their research, collect field measurements, analyse and interpret them, give a group presentation of their findings.

Form of Assessment
Fieldwork notebook 40%
Group presentations 10%
2-hr Examination 50%

Pre-requisites and Relationships with other courses
GEOG2002 (Methods in Physical Geography) and GEOG3007 (Past Global Environmental Change)

Students are asked to write a 100 word justification of why they should take the course and submit it to the Departmental office before 12pm on Tuesday 29th May 2012.  This will be used to select the participating students if numbers exceed the upper limit of 20 students.  Once selected for the course, students will not be able to withdraw from the course without incurring a penalty.

Please note that in the last two years there has been no charge for students on this fieldtrip, although the Department cannot always guarantee that will be the case we will always do our best to keep the costs as low as possible.

Suggested Reading
Grove, A.T. and Rackham, O. 2001. The Nature of Mediterranean Europe: an Ecological History. Yale University Press, New Haven & London.
Woodward, J. (ed.) 2009 The Physical Geography of the Mediterranean, Oxford University Press, Oxford.