Effects of environmental stressors on man and the environment. The course will use ionising radiation as a case study, but will cover protection and assessment approaches for any environmental pollutant, and students can choose their own stressor for their case study. Thus the course will be relevant for students within radioecology and other areas of ecotoxicology as it will enable them to put the models and approaches for assessing radiation in to contect with other environmental stressors as well as the protection of man from ionising radiation. Themes: Biological effects, hazard characterisation, dose-effect relationship, dose-models, RBE, biological endpoints, cancer, dose to biota, ecotoxicology, micro-dosimetry. Ecological Impact and Risk Assessment: Environmental risk, risk characterization, species sensitivity distribution, population dynamics. Countermeasures and remediation. Environmental ethics: philosophy and principles. ALARA and BAT principles, international politics and conventions Field Course: Studies of radionuclides in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems, sampling and environmental radiation monitoring.

Understand the basis for evaluations of the ecological impact of pollutants on man and the environment. Understand the links between science and policy in the management of pollutants. The course will use ionising radiation as a case study to illustrate the various methods and approaches for assessing the effects and impacts of environmental stressors. But the approaches and methods are generic, and can apply to any environmental pollutant, and students can choose their own stressor for their case study. Thus the course will be relevant for students within both radioecology and environmental chemitsry and ecotoxicology. For radioecologies it will enable them to put the models and approaches for assessing radiation in to contect with other environmental stressors as well as the protection of man from ionising radiation.

Lectures, practical demonstrations, training in using models and assessment tools, monitoring, semester assignment (Risk Assessment).

Under the two week course the students will have access to all guest lecturerer - joint lunches etc. Each student will be assigned two "mentors" for theirr chosen assignment, who will follow them and offer advice during the writing period. The assessment tool part of the course will be supported by two teachers to ensure all students get supervision during the hands-on part of the training.

Suter, A.J. Ecological Risk Assessment, CRC Press, 2006 Plus Handouts, research articles and reports.

MINA200 and either FM310 or KJM350/352

The semester assignment counts 100%. Grading system: Pass/Fail.

Total 300 hours

Special requirements in Science

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Lectures: 30 hours. Model and tool training/demonstrations: 20 hours. Seminars/Presentation of thesis: 10 hours. Independent study: 240 hours.

There will be around 30 hours intensive lectures in June block. Oral exam, presentations and work with assignments in the Juneblock. Deadline for submission of term paper is by agreement in August.

External examiner according to NMBU regulations.