BSc Zoology with Industrial/Professional Experience

Global climate change presents a wide range of impacts and challenges for the organisms that live on this earth. This unit will explore the challenges and uncertainties climate change presents in terms of its potential impacts on living systems and organisms. Each week the course will cover a different aspect of climate change and its impact on plants, animals and ecosystems delivered by experts in their field. It will also focus on data literacy and interpretation using climate change biology as a theme. 

Anthropogenic global climate change presents a wide range of impacts and challenges for the organisms that live on this earth. This unit will explore the impact of climate change on organisms, in both terrestrial and aquatic systems. Students will develop the ability to process information from scientific papers, reports, the web & the media, in the field of climate change. This unit will encourage independent thinking and an analytical approach to these environmental issues using a series of lectures and discussion workshops.

By the end of this unit students will be able to:

• Theorise how a rapidly changing climate can affect individual organisms, populations and ecosystems and assess the possibilities and potentials of adaptation and mitigation.
• Critically appraise and discuss research literature regarding contemporary and controversial issues related to the impacts of climate change on living systems.
• Predict the impact of climate change on crop production, food security and ways of improving the climate resilience of crops.
• Reflect on the impact of climate change on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems  
• Critically appraise data and figures related to climate change biology 

Unit consists of series of weekly lectures and discussion workshops. Each week there will be a 1hr workshop to accompany the lectures.  

• Climate change at a global level: We will examine scientific evidence for anthropogenic induced climate change, climate system components/indicators, greenhouse gases and changing climate patterns of temperature and rainfall. We will look at IPPC reports and how the media portrays climate change research.  
• Impact of climate change on mammalian megafauna: Climate change will create stressful, extreme environments that threaten mammals with extinction. This part will explore current topics in conservation physiology and adapting management for a changing climate.  
• Impact of climate change on invertebrates: This section will cover current topics on how climate change drives invertebrate biodiversity declines and alters species interactions with consequences for ecosystem services.  
• Food security: We will examine the capability of agriculture to deal with climate change. We will discuss the challenges of climate change on food security, its impacts on the development, yield and quality of crops. We will discuss case studies on ways to increase crop resilience, including climate-proofing photosynthesis, in order to maintain crop production into the future.  

MCQ online quizzes: 5 quizzes with 3-5 questions in each quiz (i.e. each quiz is 4% of final mark). One released each week during course, one hour to complete once started and no repeat attempts.  

Exam: The exam will consist of five short essay questions from which the students will have to pick three to answer. Each question will consist of a figure and a short description of the study, followed by a short essay question.

Written feedback is given on exam questions, formative oral feedback in class during seminars via discussions and/or verbal feedback on presentations. Marks for quizzes are released each week, given DASS extension have been accounted for. 

Mostly primary research literature-based with articles and links provided on Canvas

• J.A. Newman, M. H.A.L. Henry, S. Hunt, Z. Gedalof, (2011) Climate Change Biology CAB International, Wallingford (UK) - Recommended

Tuition fees for home students will be £10,050 for the 2027/28 academic year. In England and Wales, tuition fees for home undergraduate students are subject to the Government fee cap, which the Government has announced will be £10,050 for the 2027/28 academic year.

Government policy is to increase the fee cap on an annual basis to reflect inflation (i.e. increasing costs), and the tuition fee home students pay in subsequent academic years will reflect any increases in the Government fee cap (which we will communicate to you as soon as we can in advance of the relevant academic year).

Tuition fees for international students will be £38,000 for the 2027/28 academic year. For subsequent academic years, the University reserves the right to increase the tuition fee by up to 7% each year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our education and wider student experience.

For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

Tuition fees are considerably lower for your placement year. Please see the fees page for full details.

 

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Students participating in placements outside the UK may be able to apply for funding from the UK's Turing scheme depending on eligibility. Priority will be given to students from low income households.