ENVST-UA 323 Marine Ecology & Conservation
Fall 2016, T/R 2-3:15pm
Prerequisite: ENVST-UA 100 Envr. Systems Science
Location: MEYR 102
Professors:
Jennifer Jacquet
Office hours: R 3:30-5pm
Office location: 285 Mercer Street, 10th floor
Google calendar:http://goo.gl/QMPxO
Daniel Pauly
Office hours: T 3:30-5pm
Office location: 285 Mercer Street, 9th floor
Google calendar: http://goo.gl/QMPxO
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The Course Objectives:
Welcome! This course analyzes several aspects of our oceans, with particular emphasis on human impacts. We will focus ecologicalrelationships between marine organisms and their environment, with theintroduction of humans as marine predators and ecological disturbers.We will review recent peer-reviewed marine ecology studies as well as popular articles to familiarize ourselves with the latest research. The first half of the course focuses more on basic ecology while the second half focuses more on anthropogenic impacts (e.g., overexploitation, pollution, invasive species, and climate change) and proposed and tested solutions.
Required texts:
The peer-reviewed research articles listed on the daily calendar (available on NYU Classes)
The Grade:
40% written assignments (4 worth 10% each)
25% mid-term exam* (Thursday Oct. 20th)
35% final exam* (in class Thursday Dec.15th)
*Exams will be a combination of multiple choice questions, short answer, and essays.
Plagiarism: results in failure in the class and referral to an academic dean. Plagiarism includes: copying sentences or fragments from any source without quotes or references; not citing every source used in your papers; citing internet information without proper citation; presenting someone else’s work as your own; or copying verbatim from any source. You are subject to CAS’s guidelines on plagiarism: http://cas.nyu.edu/page/ug.academicintegrity
Disability disclosure statement: academic accommodations are available to any student with a chronic, psychological, visual, mobility, learning disability, or who is deaf or hard of hearing. Students should please register with the Moses Center for Students with Disabilities at 212-998-4980.
NYU's Henry and Lucy Moses Center for Students with Disabilities
726 Broadway, 2nd Floor New York, NY 10003-6675
Telephone: 212-998- 4980
Voice/TTY Fax: 212-995- 4114
Website: http://www.nyu.edu/csd
Schedule:
(key concepts) / Readings/media (prepare before coming to class) / Assignment/
exam
Sept. 6
(Tues.) / Science as a means to predict the future (falsifiability, hypothesis vs. theories) / --
Sept. 8
(Thurs.) / Human drivers of change in the ocean + current affairs
(overexploitation, habitat loss, pollution, climate change, invasive species) / Worm & Paine 2016. Humans as hyperkeystone species. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 31: 600-607.
Hance, J. Could we set aside half of the earth for nature? The Guardian June 15, 2016.
Sept. 13
(Tues / Oceanography
(benthic, pelagic, temperate, tropical, plankton, nekton, seamount, continental shelf) / Pauly, D. 1995. Ocean Ecology. Pages 1-17 In: W.A. Nierenberg (ed.) Encyclopedia of Environmental Biology. Academic Press, San Diego, Volume 3
Sept. 20
(Tues.) / Marine habitats
(rocky shore, coral reefs, kelp) / Beck et al. 2001 The identification, conservation, and management of estuarine and marine nurseries for fish and invertebrates. BioScience 51:633-641.
Tomanek & Helmuth. 2002. Physiological ecology of rocky intertidal organisms: A synergy of concepts. Integrative and Comparative Biology 42: 771-775.
Sept. 22
(Thurs.) / Darwin, taxonomy, diversity, species, and life histories
(biodiversity) / Sala & Knowlton 2006. Global marine biodiversity trends. Annual Review of Environmental Resources 31:93-122.
Radiolab ‘Colors’ -- ‘Rippin’ the Rainbow a New One’
Sept. 27
(Tues.) / Guest: BECCA FRANKS
Fish behavior, cognition, and welfare / Brown, C. 2015. Fish intelligence, sentience and ethics. Animal Cognition 18:1-17. / Assignment 1 due (use fishbase and sealifebase)
Sept. 29
(Thurs.) / Food webs
(primary producer, apex predator, trophic level, trophic cascade, keystone species)
Marine mammals / Estes et al. 1998. Killer whale predation on sea otters linking oceanic and nearshore ecosystems. Science 282: 473-476.
Brasheres et al. 2004. Bushmeat hunting, wildlife declines, and fish supply in West Africa. Science 5699:1180-1183.
Oct. 4
(Tues.) / Population dynamics
(density dependence, Allee effect, logistic vs. exponential growth, marine extinctions, r/K selection theory) / Dulvy et al. 2003. Extinction vulnerability in marine populations. Fish and Fisheries 4:25-64.
Oct. 6
(Thurs.) / Coral reefs
(theory of coral reef formation, fringe, barrier, atoll, zooxanthellae, mutualism, inter-species cooperation) / Bshary, R. 2002. Biting cleaner fish use altruism to deceive image-scoring client reef fish. Proceeding Royal Society London B 269: 2087-93.
Knowlton and Jackson 2008. Shifting baselines, local impacts, and global change on coral reefs. PLoS Biology 6(2): e54.
Oct. 11
(Tues.) / Human expansion and conquest of the oceans (fishing, whaling, industrialization) / Erlandson et al. 2007. The kelp highway hypothesis. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 2:161-174.
Pauly. Aquacalypse Now. The New Republic September 28, 2009.
Oct. 13
(Thurs.) / Altered ecosystems (shifting baselines) / Jackson et al. 2001. Historical overfishing and the recent collapse of coastal ecosystems. Science 293: 629-637.
Saenz-Arroyo et al. 2005. Rapidly shifting environmental baselines among fishers of the Gulf of California. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences, 272, 1957. / Assignment 2 due
(shifting baselines)
Oct. 18
(Tues.) / Fishing + overfishing
(longlining, trawling, maximum sustainable yield, catch per unit effort, open access, bycatch, ghost fishing) / Pauly, D. et al. 1998. Fishing down the marine food web. Science 279: 860-863.
Kleisner, K., R. Froese, D. Zeller and D. Pauly. 2013. Using global catch data for inferences on the world’s marine fisheries. Fish and Fisheries. 14: 293-311
Worm et al. 2006. Impacts of biodiversity loss on ocean ecosystem services. Science 314: 787-790.
Oct. 20
(Thurs.) / MID-TERM EXAM / MID-TERM EXAM
Oct. 25
(Tues.) / Solutions to overfishing (producers) / Steneck et al. 2011 Creation of a gilded trap by the high economic value of the Maine lobster fishery. Conservation Biology 5, 904-912.
McCauley et al. 2016. Ending hide and seek at sea. Science 351: 1148-1150.
Oct. 27
(Thurs.) / Solutions to overfishing (consumers) / Jacquet & Pauly 2007. The rise of consumer awareness campaigns in an era of collapsing fisheries. Marine Policy 31: 308-313.
Jacquet et al. 2010. Seafood stewardship in crisis. Nature 467: 28-29.
Nov. 1
(Tues.) / Subsidies and slavery-at-sea as drivers of overfishing / Simmons & Stringer. 2014. New Zealand׳s fisheries management system: Forced labour an ignored or overlooked dimension? Marine Policy. 50:74-80.
Sumaila et al. 2016. Global fisheries subsidies: an updated estimate. Marine Policy, doi: 1016/j.marpol.2015.12.o26.
Urbina. ‘Sea slaves’: the human misery that feeds pets and livestock. New York Times July 27, 2015.
Nov. 1
6pm-8pm / CAPTURED AT SEA / Special event with Daniel Pauly, John Hocevar, Ian Urbina and Abby McGill
Nov. 3
(Thurs.) / Ocean ranching & aquaculture
(hatcheries, mangroves, fishmeal, feed conversion ratios, welfare, food security, bivalves) / Naylor & Burke. 2005. Aquaculture and ocean resources: raising tigers of the sea. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 30: 185-218.
Jacquet et al. Bivalves are better: Ecological, food security, and welfare considerations of farming aquatic animals. Solutions.
Nov. 8
(Tues.) / Marine protected areas
(spillover effect, high seas) / Roberts et al. 2001. Effects of marine reserves on adjacent fisheries. Science 294: 1920-1923.
McCook et al. 2010. Adaptive management of the Great Barrier Reef: A globally significant demonstration of the benefits of networks of marine reserves. PNAS.
White and Costello 2014. Close the high seas to fishing? PLoS Biology 12(3): e10011826.
Watch THE LAST OCEAN
Nov. 10
(Thurs.) / Aquarium trade
(CITES) / Foster & Vincent. 2005. Enhancing sustainability of the international trade in seahorses with a single minimum size limit. Conservation Biology 19: 1044-1050.
Watch BLACKFISH / Assignment 3 due
(review)
Nov. 15
(Tues.) / Biological responses to climate change
(thermal tolerance, coral bleaching, krill, poleward migration) / Cheung et al. 2013. Signature of ocean warming in global fisheries catch. Nature 497: 365-368.
Cheung et al. 2010. Large-scale redistribution of maximum fisheries catch potential in the global ocean under climate change. Global Change Biology 16: 24-35.
Hoegh-Guldberg, et al. 2007. Coral reefs under rapid climate change and ocean acidification. Science 318: 1737-1742.
Nov. 17
(Thurs.) / Social responses to climate change
(geoengineering, iron fertilization, Paris Agreement) / Sanders & Henson. 2014. Ecological carbon sequestration in the oceans and climate change. Global Environmental Change 1: 125-131.
Jacquet & Jamieson 2016. Soft but significant power in the Paris Agreement. Nature Climate Change 6: 643-646.
Nov. 22
(Tues.) / Marine pollution + solutions
(eutrophication, dead zones, acoustic feeders) / Diaz & Rosenberg. 2008. Spreading dead zones and consequences for marine ecosystems. Science 321: 926-929.
Eriksen et al. 2014. Plastic Pollution in the World’s Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea. PLoS ONE 9(12): e111913.
Nov. 24
(Thurs.) / NO CLASS / THANKSGIVING
Nov. 29
(Tues.) / Marine invasions & solutions
(ballast water, ‘tens’ rule, vessel fouling, biocontrols) / Green et al. 2012. Invasive lionfish drive Atlantic coral reef fish declines. PLoS ONE 7(3): e32596.
Bax et al. 2003. Marine invasive alien species: a threat to global biodiversity. Marine Policy 27:313-323.
Dec. 1
(Thurs.) / Bad graphs: an essential element to bad presentations. / -- / Assignment 4 due
(graphs)
Dec. 6
(Tues.) / Marine science & media
(+ GUEST) / Jolls 2008. Science students need to develop the skills of artists. Nature 455: 1175.
Dec. 8
(Thurs.) / Wrap up and final exam review / Bring questions for final exam
Dec. 13
(Tues.) / NO CLASS / MONDAY CLASSES MEET
Dec. 15
(Thurs.) / FINAL EXAM (IN CLASS) / FINAL EXAM (IN CLASS)
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