Chemical Ecology

Code

Course teacher

Associate teachers

Status of the course

Course objectives

Understanding of the basic groups of toxic pollutants, their way of dospjevanja into the environment, the transmission of the environment, their deposit and adversely affected.
Risk assessment and the ability to prevent harmful effects during working with chemicals.

Course enrolment requirements and entry competences required for the course

Learning outcomes expected at the level of the course (4 to 10 learning outcomes)

After course students will be able to :
1. definition of basic concepts and history of chemical ecology
2. the origin of the chemical constituents in the ecosystem
3. classification and labelling of hazardous chemicals
4. transport mechanisms in the environment
5. sources of pollution as a result of human activity
6. interactive impact of pollutants
7. how to process the obtained knowledge of the toxicological and ecotoxicological information

Course content broken down in detail by weekly class schedule (syllabus)

Lecture 1: Introduction. Definition of basic concepts in ecology
Lecture 2: Identification of chemical components in the ecosystems, natural resources.
Lecture 3: Risk assessment of pollutants
Lecture 4: The main disturbances in ecosystems caused by human activities
Lecture 5: Overview of the sources of pollution as a result of human activity
Lecture 6:Distribution of pollutants. Pesticides, metals, fertilizers, mechanisms of toxicity
Lecture 7: The first midterm test
Lecture 8: Physical and chemical properties
Lecture 9:.The transport mechanisms in soil, water and air
Lecture 10: Bioaccumulation and bioconcentration in organisms and ecosystems
Lecture 11:The excretion of toxic substances from the organism
Lecture 12:Mitigation of biodegradation
Lecture 13: Sources and effects of contamination. Determination of risk from an environmental point of view
Lecture 14: The classification and labeling of hazardous chemicals. Legislation and toxicological tests in Croatia and the EU.
Lecture 15: The second midterm test
Seminar: The seminar consists of practical tasks and student seminars. Determining the kind of interaction of different pollutants in a particular case. To determine the classification of adverse effects. Defining the concentration limit harmful substances.
Students independently produced work on a selected topic on the basis of scientific papers in the relevant scientific databases and presenting it.
Lab course: Methods of preparation materials. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the most important pollutants. Ecotoxicity tests. Determination of metal toxicity biomonitoring. Determination of the harmfulness of fluoride ion in the environmental community in an aqueous medium. Analysis of the results obtained toxicity tests, statistical methods.

Format of instruction:

Student responsibilities