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Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Describe and explain the physical and geological aspects of the
world's oceans and how they influence the success and distribution
of marine life.
2. Describe how tides, currents, and waves are formed and distributed,
and how each effects the circulation and distribution of nutrients
and organisms in the sea.
3. Describe the characteristics of life and explain basic cell structure
and properties including photosynthesis and cell respiration.
4. Compare and contrast the mechanisms of evolution and explain how they
lead to diversity of marine life.
5. Explain the role and significance of nutrient cycles in the sea,
relate these cycles to photosynthesis, primary production, secondary
production, and trophic structure, and analyze human impacts on these
cycles.
6. Describe the concepts of zonation, ecological succession, and
population growth and regulation in marine ecosystems.
7. Compare and contrast the types, roles, and life histories of the major
groups of marine organisms in marine ecosystems.
8. Compare and contrast the structure, distribution, and trophic
relationships of selected marine communities, including the intertidal
zone, subtidal kelp forests, estuaries, coral reefs, and the deep sea.
9. Evaluate the impact of human activities on the marine communities
listed above and describe methods used to mitigate these impacts and
to restore these habitats.
10. Compare the types, distributions and adaptations of the major groups
of the nekton, including marine tetrapods.
11. Analyze and explain marine fisheries methods and problems of
management and overexploitation.
12. Analyze and explain the problems and issues of toxic pollutants in
marine ecosystems and compare and contrast methods used to reduce
these impacts.
13. Analyze and explain the effectiveness of marine conservation methods
including marine protected areas.
14. Effectively communicate biological observations from activities in
the field.
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LECTURE MATERIAL:
1. The ocean as a habitat
a. Light and temperature
b. Dissolved gases
c. Pressure changes with depth
d. Salinity, temperature, and density
e. Stratification of the ocean
2. Marine geology
a. Plate tectonics
b. The sizes of ocean basins and distributions of continents, past
and present
3. Physical oceanography
a. Tides
b. Currents
c. Waves
4. Properties of life
a. Characteristics of life
b. Overview of cell structure: eukaryotic and prokaryotic
c. Overview of cell respiration and photosynthesis
5. Evolution and systematics of marine organisms
a. Mechanisms of evolution
b. Diversity of marine organisms
c. Biological species concept and methods of taxonomy and
systematics
6. Nutrient cycles
a. Nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon cycles
b. Human impacts on the nutrient cycles listed above, including
global warming and eutrophication caused by fertilizers and
sewage
c. Upwelling and El Nino (ENSO) events
7. Marine Ecology
a. Primary and secondary production distribution: patterns and
causes
b. Food chains, food webs, and trophic hierarchies
c. Energy flow through ecosystems
d. Principles of population biology including the concept of
carrying capacity
e. Habitat disturbance (natural and human impacts) and succession
8. Marine plants, protists, and bacteria
a. Vascular plants in the sea: the seagrasses and mangroves
b. Protists in the sea: macroalgae and phytoplankton diversity
c. Bacteria in the sea: importance in primary production and
nutrient cycles
9. Kelp forest ecology
a. Kelp forest structure: physical and biological factors
b. Human impacts including harvesting of the kelp itself and its
inhabitants, habitat destruction, and removal of keystone
predators
c. Interrelationship of this habitat with other marine and
terrestrial habitats, discussion of how human impacts in this
habitat ultimately impacts other habitats
10. Intertidal community structure
a. Intertidal structure: physical and biological factors, zonation
patterns
b. Human impacts including harvesting and habitat destruction
c. Interrelationship of this habitat with other marine and
terrestrial habitats, discussion of how human impacts in this
habitat ultimately impacts other habitats
11. Coral reefs
a. Coral reef structure: physical and biological factors including
the importance of zooxanthellae
b. Human impacts including harvesting (including dynamite fishing
and cyanide fishing practices), habitat destruction,
sedimentation, eutrophication, and global warming
c. Interrelationship of this habitat with other marine and
terrestrial habitats, discussion of how human impacts in this
habitat ultimately impacts other habitats
12. Estuaries
a. Estuary structure: physical and biological factors
b. Human impacts including harvesting and habitat destruction
c. Interrelationship of this habitat with other marine and
terrestrial habitats, discussion of how human impacts in this
habitat ultimately impacts other habitats
13. Deep water ecology
a. Physical and biological components of deep sea environments
including benthic and non-benthic types
b. Hydrothermal vents, cold seeps and chemosynthesis
c. Human impacts including harvesting and habitat destruction
d. Impact of whaling on the deep-sea benthic community
14. Marine nekton
a. Diversity of fish species
b. Diversity of marine tetrapods including human impacts on tetrapod
populations caused by harvesting and habitat destruction
c. Osmoregulatory and thermoregulatory adaptations of the nekton
15. Fisheries
a. Maximum sustainable yield
b. Historical fisheries practices and collapses, causes and
consequences
c. Current problems related to overexploitation and new methods of
stock management
d. Aquaculture promise and problems including genetically modified
organisms
16. Ocean pollution
a. Sources and types of pollution
b. Impact of toxins on marine organisms including the concept of
biological magnification
17. Marine Conservation and Protected Areas
a. History of marine resource use
b. Current methods used to protect marine habitats and resources
worldwide including marine reserves and marine sanctuaries.
LABORATORY/FIELD MATERIAL:
1. Compound and dissecting microscope
2. Analysis of sea water
3. Osmoregulation in marine animals
4. Taxonomy of marine organisms
5. Major marine animal groups
a. Sponges
b. Cnidarians
c. Mollusks
d. Arthropods
e. Echinoderms
6. Major marine plant groups
a. Vascular plants: sea grasses
b. Macroalgae
7. Phytoplankton collection and review
8. Zooplankton - collection and review
9. Intertidal zonation - zone indicators in rocky intertidal and
mudflats
10. Marine fish
11. Marine birds
12. Marine mammals
13. Fisheries
14. Marine pollution
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MARINE BIOLOGY: Castro and Huber, Third Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2000
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BIOLOGY OF MARINE LIFE, Seventh Edition, by James
Sunrich, McGraw-Hill Publishers, 1999
MARINE BIOLOGY AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH, Fifth Edition, by James Nybakken,
Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Publishers, 2001
MARINE BIOLOGY: FUNCTION, BIODIVERSITY, ECOLOGY, by Jeffery Levinton,
Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2001
ISSUES IN OCEANOGRAPHY, 2nd Edition, by Abel, McConnell, and Koepfler,
Prentice Hall Publishers, 2001.
