Plant Function

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2008:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

Plant Function is a functional approach to the question 'How do plants work?' and is delivered with an integrative, production-oriented approach. It is organised around three themes:

• biomass acquisition;

• biomass allocation; and

• environmental physiology: limitations to productivity.

Common content will include:

• radiation, energy budgets and transfer, photosynthesis, photorespiration;

• water use, uptake and transpiration, xylem flow, stomatal control;

• biomass assimilation, translocation and storage, respiration, phloem;

• root growth and function, nutrients and nutrient uptake, nitrogen fixation;

• plant vegetative development, production of flowers and fruit, seed dormancy and germination; and

• abiotic factors affecting growth and productivity (deficiency or excess): light, temperature, nutrients, water, biotic factors affecting growth and productivity, secondary metabolism.

It will be augmented by stream-specific content, including:

• crops (leaf area development, canopy light interception, dry matter partitioning);

• horticulture (plant selection, environmental modification, plant ­hormones);

• forestry (lignin, water relations of trees, nutrient deficiencies in pines and eucalypts); and

• animals (inherent qualities of plants as food and feed, changes from manipulation).

Practicals will cover topics in plant physiology, give skills in basic plant handling, field and greenhouse experimentation, and measurement and statistical analysis of populations of plants.

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