Unit information: Sensory Ecology in 2021/22

Unit name	Sensory Ecology
Unit code	BIOL31132
Credit points	10
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Professor. Roberts
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None, but we recommend that students should have taken BIOL11000 or BIOL12000 or equivalent. Some interest in biophysics is of advantage.
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Biological Sciences
Faculty	Faculty of Life Sciences

Description including Unit Aims

Aims: This unit will provide instruction on the physiology, neurophysiology, biophysics, ecology and evolution of sensory systems in animals.

Description: Emphasis will be given to: 1) developing a solid appreciation of the concepts of physical and sensory ecologies; 2) understanding the information available to animals via different sensory modalities; 3) understanding physiological, biomechanical and biomolecular mechanisms underpinning sensory mechanisms; and 4) the evolutionary adaptation of sense organs to particular ecological niches and behavioral strategies. The course will consider both vertebrates and invertebrates, in both terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Topics will cover the sensory modalities of vision, and audition primarily, but will also explore infrared reception, thermoreception, olfaction, mechanoreception, magnetoreception.

Intended Learning Outcomes

• the structure and function of major sense organs across the animal kingdom and the physiology and sensory mechanisms underlying the senses, especially vision and audition.

• other sensory modalities, such as olfaction, taste, infrared reception, mechanoreception, hygroreception, thermoreception and magnetoreception.

• the physical ecology of hearing; directionality and limits to sensitivity.

• the physical constraints to sensory perception; the ecology of information in the environment.

• the evolution and evolutionary constraints affecting the structure and function of sensory organs.

• the ecology of vision - how animal vision, particularly spectral sensitivity, is related to animals' behaviour and ecology.

• visual pigments- their phylogeny, absorption and visual transduction; birds and how they compare to other vertebrates; light underwater - fish vision and the evolution of colour vision in vertebrates; vision in the deep sea; mammalian colour vision.

Teaching Information

Lectures, directed reading, research and/or problem-solving activities; and independent study.

Assessment Information

Summative written assessment, with one essay question to be selected from a choice of two.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. BIOL31132).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.