Quaternary Environmental History (U00215)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : HCA-3-AQuat

To provide an introduction to the Environmental History of the Quaternary. The course examines the evidence for environmental change over the last five million years ("the long Quaternary") and the ways in which this evidence can be correlated to produce local, regional and global sequences. It examines the search for explanations of change in terms of both internal- and external-dynamic factors and explores the consequences of environmental change for individuals, populations and communities of plants and animals.

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : Archaeology 2A and 2B

? Costs : None.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Archaeology, (School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Schedule E)

Other subject areas

Environmental Courses, (School of GeoSciences, Schedule N)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Not being delivered

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

? Additional Class Information : Timetable is arranged annually.

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

A knowledge and understanding of:
- the geological context of the Quaternary and the evolution of the global environment from the later Tertiary to the later Quaternary;
- the detailed record of Quaternary environmental change in the British Isles within its regional, European and North Atlantic, setting;
- the dynamic interaction of Solar, Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Terrestrial environmental systems and how such interation may give rise to possible driving mechanisms for global, regional and local environmental change;
- the consequences of Quaternary environmental change for terrestrial plant and animal populations (including the hominids) with particular emphasis on evolution, dispersal, migration, colonisation and the formation (and stability) of biotic communities. Supported by the acquisition of appropriate intellectual, professional, practical and transferable skills, including, for example: the ability to express the outcome of learning exercises in coherent and accurate written, numeric, graphical or illustrative form to pre-determined specifications.