Class Time and Place

BSCI 473

MARINE ECOLOGY

Spring 2013

Professor:

Dr. Marjorie L. Reaka

Office: 4204 BioPsych Building

301-405-6944,

Class time and place:

Tu, Th 12:30-1.45 p.m.

Class Room: 1124 Biol-Psychology Building

Office hours:

By appointment

(email or see me in class to arrange)

Objectives

The objectives of this course are:

1. To provide the student with an understanding of the major ecological and evolutionary processes that shape past, present and future marine communities.

2. To provide the student with an understanding of the significance of marine biodiversity and global environmental changes, especially those affecting the marine environment.

3. To provide the student with an understanding of how policy issues relating to marine biodiversity and conservation are shaped by physical and biological characteristics of the marine environment.

4. The overall goal of the course is to enable students to be informed, educated citizens that are capable of understanding, discussing, and/or voting on issues related to the marine environment and its biodiversity. The course is intended to simulate interest and further the foundational knowledge and expertise of students who are preparing for careers in academia or in the environmental and policy sciences.

5. The course will have an active learning component, with participatory discussion by both the professor and students.

6. The course will be integrated by a common set of principles across all topics covered, i.e., we will identify a foundational set of environmental, ecological and evolutionary processes that organize marine communities across all of the major marine habitats considered.

Format

The primary focus of this course will be in-depth classroom presentations and discussions of topics in marine ecology. Dr. Reaka will present a conceptual overview of each major topic. Discussions will include emerging issues relating to evolution, ecology and biodiversity of marine organisms, and will include discussions of original scientific papers. We will have an evolutionary as well as an ecological perspective in this course. Students will be expected to read assigned material before class in order to participate in discussions. Assigned reading topics are given below and additional papers may be assigned if appropriate for particular topics.

Students are expected to participate in classroom discussions and lead/facilitate discussions on outside reading material related to the major topics presented by Dr. Reaka. Dr. Reaka will provide a pdf of a classical or otherwise important paper for each topic/subtopic; this will be made available to everyone in the class. Each student will choose a particular topic with its provided outside paper from a scientific journal, and lead discussion on that paper; everyone is expected to have read that paper in order to participate in the discussion. In addition, the student leader for that paper will research that topic and place the article in its scientific context. This will entail (1) providing a brief summary of the paper to the class (a brief paragraph in the written document), (2) evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of this paper (a few sentences or short paragraph on each in the written document), (3) stating how that paper has contributed to the advancement of the field (a brief paragraph in the written document), (4) assessing where this particular subfield of Marine Ecology is going (i.e., what are the main outstanding questions that need to be answered and how should they be approached? This will take some thought. A brief paragraph in the written document is sufficient), and (5) providing the citations for 5 other relatively recent scientific publications, with one sentence describing how each of these fits into objective (3) and/or (4) above. All of this should be provided in a one-page document and submitted to Dr. Reaka one week before your discussion is scheduled to take place so that Dr. Reaka can put it up on the web for all students to review before class. Each student will be evaluated on their written submission and on their ability to lead discussion on this topic. The 3 or 4 students who sign up for a given topical discussion are encouraged to cooperate, discuss and synthesize in their research stage and during the discussion session in class, since they all will have been reviewing a relatively similar topic. However, each written one-page summary should be done, and will be graded, independently of the other students. Also, each student’s ability to lead the class in discussion will be graded independently. Their goal should be not only to present the “state of the topic” (1-5 above) and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the paper, but also to lead and generate class discussion regarding this topic. Students from the audience who regularly contribute insights to the discussion also will receive credit on their attendance/discussion grade.

Exams

The midterm exam will be given in class (one hour 15 minutes, Thursday, March 14, 2013), will be mostly objective (more information will be given in class), and will include material covered up until that time. The final exam will be in a similar format as the mid-term exam and will occur on Thursday, May 16 (it will be 2 hours [1:30-3:30], same class room as our regularly scheduled class). It will be comprehensive but will emphasize the last half of the course. The midterm and final exam questions will cover all lecture presentations, discussions both in Dr. Reaka’s lectures and in the student-led discussions, and all assigned reading material, including the one page reports prepared by the students for their discussion sessions.

Textbook and Other Reading Material

The textbook, Marine Ecology: Processes, Systems, and Impacts (by Michael J. Kaiser, Martin J. Attrill, Simon Jennings, David N. Thomas and David K. A. Barnes, 2nd edition. 2011. Oxford University Press), will be supplemented with lecture presentations drawn from the text and other original sources. Additional papers from the scientific literature will be assigned or discussed where appropriate.

Grading

Attendance (taken at random intervals) and discussion in the audience 15%

One-Page Summary of Assigned Original Scientific Journal article 15%

Oral Presentation and Performance as Discussion Leader 15%

Midterm (Thursday, March 14) 25%

Final (Thursday, May 16) 30%

100%

Attendance: Only doctor’s medical excuse or University approved absence.

There will be no extra credit.

Assignment of grades will be based on:

A = 90%

B = 80%

C = 70%

D = 60%

F = 50%

Academic Integrity

The University has a Code of Academic Integrity, which is available on the web at http://www.inform.umd.edu/CampusInfo/Departments/JPO/. The Code prohibits students from cheating on exams, plagiarizing papers, submitting the same paper for credit in two courses without authorization, buying papers, submitting fraudulent documents, and forging signatures. The University requires that students include the following signed statement on each examination or assignment: "I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this examination or assignment". Compliance with the code is administered by an Honor Council. Allegations of academic dishonesty can be reported directly to the Honor Council (314-9154) by any member of the campus community.

SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND PRESENTATIONS

DATE
(2013) / TOPIC / NOTES / ASSIGNED READING / PRESENTER
Thurs Jan 24 / 1 / Introduction
The history of marine life / Chap 1.1, Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Tues Jan 29 / 2 / The history of marine life / Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Thurs Jan 31 / 3 / The history of marine life / Chap 1.1, Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Tues Feb 5 / 4 / DISCUSSION OF PAPERS / Last day for schedule adjustment / Original research papers & 1-page summaries / Student discussion leaders.
Papers by Erwin 1994, Schulte et al. 2010, Jablonski 1991
Thurs Feb 7 / 5 / Extinction and diversification / Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Tues Feb 12 / 6 / Life history evolution / Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Thurs Feb 14 / 7 / Evolution of larvae / Original research papers & 1-page summaries / Dr. Reaka
Tues Feb 19 / 8 / Life history and larvae in marine organisms DISCUSSION OF PAPERS / Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Student discussion leaders. Papers by Raff 2007, Vaughn & Allen 2010, Peterson 2005, Robichaux et al. 1981
Thurs Feb 21 / 9 / Larvae, life history and sex change in marine organisms. DISCUSSION OF PAPERS / Original research papers & 1-page summaries / Student discussion leaders. Papers by Marshall & Bolton 2007, Marshall & Morgan 2011, Warmer 1984, Chiba 2007
Tues Feb 26 / Diversity on land and sea / Chap. 1.3, Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Thurs Feb 28 / 10 / Diversity on land and sea / Chap. 1.3, Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Tues Mar 5 / 11 / Major marine environmental and diversity gradients and their causes / Chap. 1.2, Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Thurs Mar 7 / 12 / Major marine environmental and diversity gradients and their causes / Chap. 1.2, Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Tues Mar 12 / 13 / Intertidal shores (hard bottom, soft bottom communities) / Chap. 6, Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Thurs Mar 14 / 14 / MIDTERM
Mar 19-21 / SPRING BREAK
Tues Mar 26 / 15 / Rocky intertidal communites; beaches and intertidal soft bottom communities.
DISCUSSION OF PAPERS / Original research papers & 1-page summaries / Student discussion leaders.
Classic papers by Connell 1961, Paine 1966, Peterson 1991
Thurs Mar 28 / 16 / Intertidal communities: Estuaries / Chap. 5, Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Tues Apr 2 / 17 / Intertidal communities: Salt marshes. DISCUSSION OF PAPERS / Chap. 5.3.4 + Original research papers & 1-page summaries / Student discussion leaders.
Papers by Bertness et al. and others
Thur Apr 4 / 18 / Intertidal communities: Mangroves. DISCUSSION OF PAPERS / Chap. 1.1-1.2 + Original research papers & 1-page summaries / Student discussion leaders.
Papers to be determined.
Tues Apr 9 / 19 / Subtidal shores (hard and soft bottom) and continental shelf environments / Apr 10 is last day to drop with a “W” / Chap. 8, Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Thurs Apr 11 / 20 / Subtidal communities: Papers on subtidal soft bottoms and sea grass beds. DISCUSSION OF PAPERS. / Chap. 10.3 + Original research papers & 1-page summaries / Student discussion leaders. Papers by Suchanek et al. and others.
Tues Apr 16 / 21 / Subtidal communities: Papers on rocky subtidal environments and the biology of kelp forests. DISCUSSION OF PAPERS. / Original research papers & 1-page summaries / Student discussion leaders. Papers by Estes et al., Witman and Sebens, Dayton, Steneck et al. 2002.
Thurs Apr 18 / 22 / Subtidal communities: Coral reefs / Chap. 11, Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Tues Apr 23 / 23 / Subtidal communities: Coral reefs / Chap. 11, Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Thurs Apr 25 / 24 / Subtidal communities:
Coral reefs. DISCUSSION OF PAPERS. / Original research papers & 1-page summaries / Student discussion leaders. Papers to be determined.
Tues Apr 30 / 25 / Life in the deep sea / Chap. 9, Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Thurs May 2 / 26 / Deep sea communities: Soft bottom ecology & diversity. DISCUSSION OF PAPERS. / Original research papers & 1-page summaries / Student discussion leaders. Papers by Sanders, Hessler, Dayton & Hessler, Etter
Tues May 7 / 27 / Deep sea communities: Hard bottoms, vents and cold seeps. DISCUSSION OF PAPERS. / Original research papers & 1-page summaries / Student discussion leaders. Papers by Grassle and others.
Thurs May 9 / 28 / The polar seas / Chap. 12, Dr. Reaka’s powerpoint / Dr. Reaka
Thurs May 16 / FINAL
in this classroom (1:30 – 3:30)

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