Food and Industrial Biotechnology

Biotechnological research plays a major role in responding to the environmental and development challenges facing man. This course aims to provide the basic principles of environmental biology, highlighting the interaction and interdependence among the components of biological and ecological systems. Specific training objectives are: the knowledge of the environmental conditions and the processes that are basic for life on earth; the understanding of the structure, functioning and evolution of bio-ecological systems, from the molecular to the community levels; the analysis of the effects of anthropic pressure on natural systems. Further formative objective of the course is to provide the students with the skills to create learning paths in the bio-ecological field. also by field and laboratory experience. The knowledge and skills acquired during this course will be a reference framework for the study of biotechnological applications and for the analysis of their impact on the environment. The students who have passed the exam will know and understand (acquired knowledge) – the temporal, spatial and hierarchical scales of the functional processes of the bio-ecological systems; – the mechanisms that determine the structure and functioning of bio-ecological systems; – the complex interactions between organisms and between organisms and environment; – the mechanisms that regulate the patterns and the speed of evolutionary changes within and between species; – the origin and maintenance of biological diversity; – evolutionary thinking in the study of ecology; – the existence and importance of the relationshps between culture and nature, between society and the environment. The students who have passed the exam will be able to (acquired skills): - see biological phenomena in a multi-scale and multi-factorial context; - interpreting ecological data; - use general ecological concepts to analyze the consequences of the natural environment changes; - critically analyze problems relating to biodiversity, evolution and global change; - identify and develop key issues to create learning paths in the environmental field.