Conservation Ecology Field Course (C7148)

15 credits, Level 5

Spring teaching

Experience of environments and habitats in the field is essential for an understanding of the conservation issues that can face them.

Slapton Ley is a National Nature Reserve within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It provides access to a variety of ecologically vulnerable habitats, making it ideal for learning about conservation ecology.

You'll develop your skills by mapping species from selected taxon groups across a variety of typical habitats—from shingle beaches to temperate rainforests. Through this, you'll investigate habitat types and quality, using indicator species to assess ecological health. You'll also discover why these sites are crucial for biodiversity, how they are managed for conservation, and the challenges involved in protecting them.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 55 hours of contact time and about 95 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2025/26. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

Courses

This module is offered on the following courses:

• Biology BSc
• Biology MSci
• Ecology and Conservation BSc
• Ecology and Conservation MSci
• Zoology BSc
• Zoology MSci