GARDEN'S RESEARCH ACTIVITY AND THIRD-LEVEL EDUCATION

For nearly 60 years, the AMU Botanical Garden has been a research and educational facility. Research works taking place at the Garden are closely linked to the strategic research areas and priority research trends set forth in the National Framework Programme (KPR) by the Polish Minister of Education and Science. They focus on issues which can be classified into three subject areas:

• Florae of Poland and selected countries worldwide
  - wealth and diversity of vascular plants;
  - phytosociology and ecology of plant communities, vegetation mapping;
  - landscape-based differentiation of plants;
  
  
• Biology and population ecology of vascular plants
  - developmental morphology of vascular plants;
  - growth dynamics of underground organs in vascular plants;
  - vascular plant phenology;
  - acclimatisation and introduction of vascular plants
  
  
• Conservation of plant resources
  - in situ/ex situ conservation of vascular plants facing extinction;
  - conservation of plant communities and plant landscape (in general);
  - documentation of plant cover in regions of nature conservation;
  - shaping and preserving greenery in urban areas;
  - biological recultivation of areas transformed by man.

The Garden has its Research Board. It includes specialists in research subjects handled by the facility.

Research conducted at the AMU Botanical Garden is facilitated by valuable technical resources, such as: the Rhizarium lab for examining root systems, Vaisala computerised weather station as well as an automatic air pollution meter.

The Garden prides itself on its valuable research resources, such as: the Herbarium of Vascular Plants from the Babia Góra National Park, computerised HORTUS Database of the AMU Botanical Garden, National Collection of Species from the Cotoneaster Genus as well as the National Collection of Species from the Fern Division Pteridophyta.

The Garden participates in the worldwide programme International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation.

Apart from research, another priority of the Garden is its educational activity. It is based on such resources as the extensive plant collections, purposefully composed into various subject areas (including biology, ecology, geography, taxonomy, rare and endangered species). They facilitate education on a range of issues related to the plant world. The educational process also heavily relies on the findings of research carried out by the facility's employees both home and abroad. The teaching activity carried out by the researchers and PhD students at the Garden is related mainly to the courses of study offered by two units within Adam Mickiewicz University, i.e. the Faculty of Biology and the Faculty of Geographical and Geological Science. The Garden's researchers also lecture at the University of Life Sciences and the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań.

Over the ca. 55 years of educational activities at our Garden, under the academic supervision of the Garden's employees, diploma papers were written by approximately 80 undergraduates, 50 graduates and 9 doctoral students. Among them, some received honours for their exceptionally high academic level. Moreover, two researchers went on to receive postdoctoral degrees and become professors. More bachelor's, master's, doctoral and postdoctoral papers are under way.

A number of exploratory walks leads around the Garden, with particular stops marked by information boards. In 2007, Jolanta and Karol Węglarski published a geobotanical guidebook under the title Plant Geography Section of the AMU Botanical Garden in Poznań. It presents plant collections from the point of view of phytogeography. To aid in self-education using the plant collections of the AMU Botanical Garden in Poznań, multimedia educational materials are available at the bookshop of the University Centre for Public Education in Natural Science (the Garden's exhibition and educational building).