BIO413 Coastal Benthic Ecology

Emnet er tilknyttet følgende studieprogram

• Kystsoneøkologi, masterprogram

Undervisningsspråk

Norsk eller engelsk

Innhold

The course provides a thorough introduction to temperate coastal marine benthic ecosystems. The course will give more specialized insights into organisms and ecological interactions of the coastaleastern North Atlantic focusing on the Skagerrak/North Sea regions. Students will be introduced to coastal and shelf environments and benthic habitats.

Læringsutbytte

Upon completing the course, the students will:

• understand the ecological interactions characteristic of the benthic ecosystem along the eastern Atlantic coastlines and be able to describe the dominant functional groups of this system.

• know the characteristics of temperate coastal ecosystems and how these differ from ecosystems of other biographical regions.

• be able to characterize the main marine enthic habitats, and to discuss current human influence on coastal organisms.

• be able to identify the dominant benthic flora and fauna along the Agder coastline.

• be able to formulate hypotheses and design studies to investigate questions related to coastal ecology.

• have acquired practical experience related to marine sampling and to relating field data to scientific questions.

• have gained experience in collaboration through group work,

• be able to synthesize and visualize their results and to present these in a scientific format.

Vilkår for å gå opp til eksamen

Field excursions, laboratory work and required presentations are compulsory learning activities.

Undervisnings- og læringsformer

The course will use a combination of lectures, seminars, field work, laboratory work and group project work. The course will start with lectures and seminars/discussions to introduce students to relevant topics including the field project. 3-5 days will be spent in the field to sample material and data for student projects.
Estimated workload for the average student is 270 hours.

Studentevaluering

The course runs over 6 weeks and will have an end of course evaluation.

Eksamen

The course assessment will be based on a individual written report on a given topic. The report is graded by letters (A-F).