BIOL 43401 - Marine Community Ecology Field Trip

Course is a field trip to a coastal marine location. For example, students will explore coastal and shallow marine environments including supratidal mudflats and estuaries, mangrove forests and coastal dunes, rocky and soft-sediment intertidal and nearshore environments, seagrass beds, and reefs.

Preparation for Course
P or C: BIOL 43400 Marine Community Ecology Lecture.

Cr. 1.
Student Learning Outcomes
1.  Identify up to 200 species of coastal terrestrial and marine animals and plants found utilizing photographs, preserved specimens and shells. [Note: In the future the area of focus may be altered–there are many choices for marine field trips in different realms with different biotic histories.]
2.  Relate broadly the species in the focus area to other species and their positions in the phylogeny of animals and plants.
3.  Distinguish several closely related species found in both realms.
4.  Describe how these species constitute the various coastal communities found in different oceanic realms and their ecological interactions, and the adaptations to their respective environments and niches.
5.  Explain how plate tectonic changes in the oceanic and continental crust and how oceanic circulation patterns between different oceanic basins have affected the evolution of both terrestrial and marine organisms in the focus area.
6.  Explain the effects of oceanic and atmospheric circulation, tides, and climate in various locations in the focus area.
7.  Apply above knowledge to interpretation field photographs and videos, satellite and drone photography, transects, cross sections, etc. in the focus area.