Program Overview

Program Overview

The Silviculture of Temperate Forests course aims to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of temperate forests and the silvicultural principles and practices for their sustainable management. The course explores the natural productive capacity of temperate forest ecosystems, contemporary methods and strategies of temperate forest silviculture, and the factors that influence tree growth, wood quality, and forest dynamics.

Course Content

The course covers several themes, including:

• Temperate forest ecosystems: biogeography of tree species assemblies, historical distribution patterns, and ecological dynamics
• Silvicultural Systems and Climate change Adaptation: manipulation of the forest ecosystem for the long-term sustainable provision of various goods and services
• Individual tree interactions and close-to-nature forest management: application of close-to-nature forest management principles to improve forest stability, sustainability, and economics
• The forest carbon cycle and climate change mitigation: the critical role of forests in the global carbon cycle and their contribution to climate change mitigation

Learning Outcomes

After completing the course, students should have a comprehensive understanding of temperate forests and the silvicultural principles and practices for their sustainable management. They should be able to:

• Analyze data for situational forest management on a scientific basis
• Demonstrate alternative silvicultural strategies and their application
• Practice different silvicultural principles to meet management objectives in the context of sustainable forest management
• Assess and analyze scientific and management issues of sustainable silviculture in relation to the broader perspective of sustainable development

Teaching and Learning Methods

The course includes:

• Lectures: 5-6 hours per week
• Classroom exercises: 3-4 hours per week
• Field trips and practical exercises: 3-4 hours per week
• Literature: available on Absalon
• Recommended prerequisites: academic qualifications equivalent to a BSc degree, including some background knowledge on forest ecology/management

Assessment

The course is assessed through:

• Written assignment
• Oral examination, 30 minutes
• Type of assessment details: during the course, 3 reports on different themes related to the course are prepared by student groups; the oral examination is based on one drawn question from the curriculum and one drawn report
• Aid: all aids allowed
• Marking scale: 7-point grading scale
• Censorship form: external censorship
• Re-exam: identical to the ordinary examination, with resubmission of reports no later than 3 weeks before the oral re-examination

Course Details

• Course type: single subject courses (day)
• Workload:
  • Lectures: 44 hours
  • Preparation: 114 hours
  • Practical exercises: 20 hours
  • Excursions: 28 hours
• Language: English
• Course number: LNAK10052U
• ECTS: 7.5 ECTS
• Programme level: full degree master
• Duration: 1 block
• Placement: block 2
• Schedule group: A
• Capacity: no limitation
• Study board: Study Board of Natural Resources, Environment and Animal Science
• Contracting department: Department of Geoscience and Natural Resource Management
• Contracting faculty: Faculty of Science
• Course coordinator: Thomas Nord-Larsen
• Teacher: Ditlev Otto Juul Reventlow

Additional Information

• The course includes 3-4 full-day excursions and one two-day excursion, including an overnight stay in Jutland.
• Feedback is provided through written and oral feedback, collective and individual, during the course and by final exam.
• Peer feedback is also provided, where students give each other feedback on their work.