Marine Science 354Q Marine Environmental Science Spring 2014 (3 credits) Instructors: Ken Dunton Amber Hardison Office: L341 L317 phone: 361-749-6744 361-749-6705 email: ken.dunton@utexas.edu amber.hardison@utexas.edu Teaching Assistant: Name Jordann Young Office: L 212/210 phone: 512-965-9745 email:jkyoung@utexas.edu Class meeting time: Monday 10:00-11:00 Place: ERC (top floor) Field/lab work meeting time: Thursdays, 0800 Place: Teaching lab Course Description Marine Environmental Science is a 3-credit course designed for upper-level undergraduate or graduate students. This course will focus on application of basic marine science principles to the environmental issues we are currently facing in the ocean, such as eutrophication, sea level rise, and a warming global climate. Although the challenges faced by scientists to understand changes occurring on a global scale are formidable, they are often best addressed by experiences gained from working on issues of local or regional significance. On the Texas coast, we face challenges that are related to a long regional drought, eutrophication, and vegetative changes in wetland habitats. Using these local examples, we will approach these vexing issues from a basic knowledge of estuarine marine science. In addition to lectures, a combination of field trips and laboratory work will expose students to the tools, methodologies, and strategic approaches used by marine scientists to help local and state planners address vexing interdisciplinary problems in our coastal ecosystem. Course Objectives After completing this course, the student is expected to have a basic understanding of major environmental issues: 1. Nutrients, eutrophication, and harmful algal blooms 2. Dissolved oxygen, stratification of water column, and hypoxia 3. CO2 system and ocean acidification 4. Global warming and sea level rise 5. Droughts, hypersalinity, and habitat loss 6. Ecosystem response to regional climatic warming 7. Fishery Management 8. Estuarine Dependence on Freshwater Inflow
Blackboard The Blackboard page for this course is accessible at http://courses.utexas.edu using your UTEID and password. Lecture notes (generally, PDF files of our PowerPoint slides) will be available on the Blackboard site. While we will do our best to adhere to the lecture schedule, UT holidays and our travel schedule may result in the re-scheduling of some lectures. Any major changes will be announced in advance. Links to various web resources will be provided on the site and updated through the semester. News and class reminders will be posted. It is your responsibility to check the site regularly. Texts and Reading Assignments Reading assignments are posted with the lecture schedule on Blackboard. The primary texts for the course will be Environmental Oceanography: Topics and Analysis, by Daniel Able and Robert McConnell (Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2010). We will also refer to Oceanography: An Invitation to Marine Science, by Tom S. Garrison (7 th edition, Brooks Cole, 2009). We will also assign and recommend reading from the primary literature, both for lectures and for in-class discussions. You are expected to complete the assigned reading before class and to be prepared to discuss it in class. All textbooks will be available on reserve in the library. Lab and Field Work Components Responsibilities: 1. Be on time! 2. Be serious about sun protection (sunscreen, hat, sunglasses, etc.). 3. Wear foot protection (old shoes, aquasocks, booties) closed toe shoes on boats. 4. Do not wait until the last minute to complete lab reports! 5. Come prepared for lab! Print out lab handouts from Blackboard, read thoroughly, and complete pre-lab assignments. 6. Turn in pre-lab assignments at the beginning of each lab to Jordann. 7. Participate in all field and lab activities and keep thorough notes in personal lab notebook to help you write your lab reports. 8. "maintain absolute integrity and a high standard of individual honor in scholastic work" (Sec. 11-801, Institutional Rules on Student Services and Activities, University of Texas) Lab Report Grading Criteria: Three lab reports and associated pre-lab assignments (15% each; 45% total) will count toward your final grade. Each lab report must contain a minimum of 2500 words (plus tables, figures, references). Attendance and full participation in every lab is mandatory; no labs may be missed. A grading rubric and guide to writing lab reports will be provided on Blackboard by the TA. The Ecosystem Research Report (20%; 3500 words) is based on a synthesis of your own data and that from the literature. Late reports will be accepted, but with a 10 point penalty for each 24-hr period past due date. Lab reports will not be accepted if submitted more than 48 hrs. past due date. This policy includes the Final Ecosystem Research Report.
Field Trips and Labs: 16 January HOBO Instrument familiarization and deployment: How is your Ecosystem Functioning? 6 March (Lab 1) Aransas-Copano Bay Transect: An Estuary in Distress? 20 March (Lab 2) Wastewater Treatment: Why Wetlands? 3 April (Lab 3) Wetland Battleground at Latitude 27: Whither the Mangroves? 17 April Back-up lab day for inclement weather Important Dates: 24 February Exam 1 14 March Lab 1 report due by 5 PM 31 March Lab 2 report due by 5 PM 14 April Lab 3 report due by 5 PM 21 April Exam 2 7 May Final Ecosystem Research Report Due Course Requirements and Grading Grading (+/- grade) will be based on problem sets, midterm and final exams, field work reports, final project paper, and in-class participation. The exams will be essays. The relative importance of each component to the final grade is as follows: Exam 1 (Basic Principles) 10% Exam 2 (Human Perturbations) 10% Lab/field work reports 45% Oral project presentation 10% Final ecosystem research report 20% Participation/Attendance 5% Group Project and Final Ecosystem Research Report: Class research projects will involve four teams of students split into groups of 3-4 at the beginning of the semester. Each group will be assigned an ecosystem to love, study, and explore. Students are encouraged to find and read primary literature, and summarize the current consensus on issues relating to their ecosystem. Students in a group may work together in compiling their HOBO data, ancillary data (e.g. weather), and other background information, but each student will be responsible for writing their own final report. In the final week of class, each group will give a 20-minute presentation of their ecosystem, with emphasis on the results of their long-term continuous measurements of physicochemical parameters. Grade Evaluation: Your grade in this class will be based on your performance on two exams (a mid-term and final), three lab reports, a group oral presentation based on a joint research project, class participation and attendance, and a final report. Exams: Each exam will be a combination of objective and short essay questions. Essays will be graded on content, organization and clarity of communication. The grades will be based on a numerical scale from 0-100. If you must miss an examination due to
unavoidable circumstances, you must notify the instructor at least one week in advance. If you miss the exam due to illness or personal emergency, please notify us within 24 hours of the exam. Exams must be made up as soon as possible. Final Course Grades >93=A 90-92=A- 87-89=B+ 83-86=B 80-82=B- 77-79=C+ 73-76=C 70-72=C- 67-69=D+ 63-66=D 60-62=D- <60=F Late Assignments Assignments turned in late will incur a 10% penalty per day (including weekends). For example, an assignment due on Thursday and turned in on Friday would be eligible for a maximum grade of 90%. Assignments turned in on the due date but after the specified time will be considered 1 day late. Missed Exams If a student is unable to take an exam due to illness or other compelling non-academic reason, they must supply a physician s note or other satisfactory verification as soon as possible. The only exception will be for students who have submitted, at least 14 days prior to the exam date, a written request to take the exam at a later date along with sufficient documentation of the need for a delayed exam. Depending on the length of the delay, students may receive an incomplete in the course that will be updated after the exam is taken and graded. In all other cases, a student missing an exam will be awarded a grade of zero for that exam. Official policies having to do with excused absences, religious observances, academic honesty, etc. are those of the University and are summarized on the Blackboard site. The University of Texas Honor Code The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the University is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community. Academic Integrity We encourage you to discuss course material in and outside of class; this includes consulting with your neighbors during in-class CPS questions. However any work turned in under your name must represent your own efforts; cheating and plagiarism in any form will not be tolerated. Students are expected to be familiar with definitions of scholastic dishonesty, standards of conduct, and the discipline processes of the University. Please see the Student Judicial Services web site (http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/) for more information, and don't hesitate to ask us if you have any questions about your own or others conduct.
University E-mail Notification Policy (Excerpted from http://www.utexas.edu/its/policies/emailnotify.html) It is the responsibility of every student to keep the University informed of changes in his or her official e-mail address. Consequently, e-mail returned to the University with "User Unknown" is not an acceptable excuse for missed communication. Students are expected to check e-mail on a frequent and regular basis in order to stay current with Universityrelated communications, recognizing that certain communications may be time-critical. E-mail messages should be checked daily or at least twice per week. Official University communications sent by e-mail are subject to the same public information, privacy and records retention requirements and policies as other official University communications. Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Students with disabilities who need special accommodations need to get a letter documenting their disability from the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) Office of the Office of the Dean of Students (471-6259 or 471-4641 TTY). This letter must be provided to the instructors as soon as possible. We will make every effort to accommodate your needs
Class Schedule: Marine Environmental Science Week Date Topic Instructor 1 Introduction to the Course; On Being a Scientist, M, Jan 13 Theories, Facts, Critical Thinking, Statistics AH R, Jan 16 Field Lab 1: HOBO Instrument Deployment 2 NO CLASS: MLK Holiday. Lecture re scheduled (time M, Jan 20 TBD): Sustainability, Resilience, Redundancy AH R, Jan 23 NO LAB 3 Critical Elements of Physical, Chemical and M, Jan 27 Geological Oceanography AH R, Jan 30 EO Lab 4 M, Feb 3 Tides, Light, Dead Zones, Upwelling R, Feb 6 NO LAB 5 Essentials of Marine Ecology: Nutrients, PAR, M, Feb 10 Productivity, and Food Webs R, Feb 13 NO LAB 6 Human Impacts on Estuaries: Eutrophication and M, Feb 17 Dead Zones R, Feb 20 NO LAB 7 M, Feb 24 Exam I R, Feb 27 EO Lab 8 Estuarine Wetlands: Negative Feedbacks Habitat M, Mar 3 Loss and the Drowning of New Orleans R, Mar 6 Field Lab 2: Aransas Copano Estuarine Transect M, Mar 10 SPRING BREAK! NO CLASS R, Mar 13 SPRING BREAK! NO CLASS 9 M, Mar 17 Whither the Mangroves or Whither the Marshes? R, Mar 20 Field Lab 3: Treatment Wetlands 10 Fisheries Management: A Case Study of North M, Mar 24 Pacific Salmon Fishery in Alaska R, Mar 27 EO Lab 11 M, Mar 31 Global Climate Change AH R, Apr 3 Field Lab 4: The Wetland Mangrove Marsh Ecotone 12 M, Apr 7 The Other CO 2 Problem: Ocean Acidification AH R, Apr 10 EO Lab 13 M, Apr 14 Sea Level Rise, Coastal Development AH R, Apr 17 NO LAB: Weather Back up 14 M, Apr 21 Exam II R, Apr 24 NO LAB 15 M, Apr 28 Student group presentations R, May 1 NO LAB 16 May 7 FINAL ECOSYTEM REPORT DUE (5 PM)