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Ε5210 - PALAEOBOTANY - CLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES

 

Semester:

5th

Course Type:

Elective

Course Code:

Ε5210

eClass URL

Hours per Week

- Lecturing:

1

- Practical/Lab Exersices:

2

Total Hours of Fieldwork Exersice:

4

ERASMUS:

 

ECTS:

4

Teaching Units:

3

Prerequisites:

-

Expected Prior Knowlegde:

Υ2205
Υ3206


Course Content

An interdisciplinary course designed to offer insights to the study of fossiled plant remains and introduce students to paleoclimate restoration techniques using plant fossils. Plants, as multicellular organisms composed of a significant number of different parts, produce a large number of fossils of varying size, composition and form, which are excellent witnesses both to paleovegetation andto the environmental and climatic conditions that prevailed in the past. In addition, plant fossils are among the most important bioproxy data for the quantitative reconstruction of paleoclimatic parameters. The course includes practical exercises in the preparation laboratory, using microscopes, computers and specialized software (R, C2, Tilia).

Introduction to the study of fossil plants:
‒ structure, systematics, fossils and fossilization processes, peat and coal deposits, petrified forests, methods of fossil collection
Plant evolution:
‒ origins, land colonization, evolution mechanism and characteristics, Paleozoic-Mesozoic-Cenozoic plant diversity. Fossil plants of Greece.
‒ Paleobotanic methodology, contribution to stratigraphy and paleogeography.
Palynology:
‒ pollen, spores and NPP analysis and their significance in the geoenvironmental research.
Climatic variability and vegetation:
‒ Quaternary long paleovegetation records, persistent populations, refugia.
‒ Vegetation history of the Mediterranean region.
‒ Reconstruction of past climate variables from fossil pollen records - Pollen-climate modelling techniques


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