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- Objectives and applications of plant palaeoecology, and relationships with other scientific disciplines. - Preservation and taphonomy of plant remains: macro- and micro-fossils, unaltered plant remains, waterlogging, impressions, compressions, permineralization. - Sampling techniques from lacustrine sediments and archaeological contexts: planning and implementing. - Laboratory work on fossil wood, leaves, cuticles, algae, carpological remains, pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, and phytoliths. Data collection and handling. - Interpreting pollen records. Reconstruction of past flora, vegetation, climate, and land-use. Long-term plant population dynamics. Plant extinctions. Palaeovegetation maps. Pollen and non-pollen-palynomorphs as climatic and environmental indicators. - Human impact on past natural landscapes. The transition from wild to domesticated plants: age and geographical distribution of the earliest remains cultivated plants. Human impact on forests. Fire history. - Evolution of plants: theories and fossil documents. From the earliest record of life on Earth to the origin and evolution of Angiosperms. - Origin and evolution of modern flora and vegetation. Quaternary environments. Glacial-interglacial cycles. Glacial refugia for plants and Holocene development of vegetation. - Plant palaeoecology and environmental management and conservation. - Linking Palaeobotany and Genetics: new frontiers in palaeoecology.

Basic knowledge of Botany, Ecology, Geology and Palaeontology

Handouts are avalable on the e-learning page

Attendance to lectures is recommended. Attendance to laboratory work is mandatory

To pass the exam it is necessary to achieve a grade of not less than 18/30. The student must demonstrate to have acquired sufficient knowledge in the identification of plant fossils, in the reconstruction of plant landscapes of the past, in the evolution of plants, in the interpretation of paleobotanical data in paleoclimatic terms and in relation to human activity. The exam includes the identification of plant fossils, and an oral examination of the acquired knowledge.

The course includes lectures (48 hours) and laboratory work (12 hours).