The online course ALPECOLe provides a global overview of the complex ecosystems of mountain regions, and of their great diversity of habitats and organisms. The course is strongly interdisciplinary and the various approaches are designed to help understand the past, present and future of mountain ecosystems.

The online course ALPECOLe provides a global overview of the complex ecosystems of mountain regions, and of their great diversity of habitats and organisms. The course is strongly interdisciplinary and the various approaches are designed to help understand the past, present and future of mountain ecosystems.

This course provides the ecological systems` knowledge needed to question applied solutions to current environmental issues. Our central aim is to balance participants' respect for complexity with a sense of possibility by providing examples from the vast solution space offered by ecological systems, such as e.g. green infrastructure to manage water.

The colloquium “Challenges in Plant Sciences” is a core class of the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center's PhD program. The colloquium introduces participants to the broad spectrum of plant sciences within the network. The course offers the opportunity to approach interdisciplinary topics in the field of plant sciences.

In this course, the students explore ecological approaches, philosophical foundations, and practical implementations of nature conservation. Based on case studies, they are introduced to different views, values and ideals inherent in these activities.

Patterns of species distribution in the landscape, and how these are related to specific plant traits, are (1) introduced in two lectures and (2) studied in the field on two excursions, one in an agricultural landscape and one in a subalpine pasture area.

Plants adjust to their environment through plasticity and evolution. What are important morphological and physiological traits? Which ecological, biochemical and genetic processes are involved? This course presents recent research results in three fields: light perception and its role in regulating plant activity, plant invasion ecology, and life strategies of clonal plants.

In the module "Integrative Plant Sciences", which consists of the online course and seminar "Plant Response to Stress" (PRESS) and the colloquium "Challenges in Plant Sciences" , the focus lies on interdisciplinarity, ranging from molecular biology and biochemistry to ecosystem research, and an integrated understanding of plants in their environments.

How are plant traits influenced by site conditions? Which traits determine the success of a species? How are plant populations structured? What regulates the species composition and diversity of the vegetation? Students increase their knowledge in plant ecology. They learn how to investigate properties of plants and how to analyse their data in order to understand ecological relationships.

The main vegetation types (biomes) of the world are presented with their structure, functioning, and dependence on abiotic and biotic factors as well as human impacts. Important topics are the effects of climate and soil conditions, fire, succession, herbivory, human use, biodiversity, worldwide patterns of species distribution, convergence, radiation, invasion and exctinction, endemism.