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Coral Reef Ecology

Instructor:

To be announced.

 

NOTE: Diving certification is not necessary to enroll in this course, but is recommended. For SCUBA-certified (PADI, NAUI, or SSI certified) students who will be diving, there is a $100 Lab Fee with this course which covers dive tank, air and dive weight rental. Students with SCUBA certification are expected to bring their own BC, regulators, and proof of certification.

Course Objectives

  • Learn some basic sampling and measurement techniques.
  • Learn/review basic statistics for data analysis, and guidelines for experimental design.
  • Learn some of the local organisms, their biology, and common local habitats.
  • Introduce students to the design and execution of a field research project; this to include the appropriate data analysis, interpretation, and written and oral presentation.
  • Introduce students to local and other habitats that together constitute the global intertidal and shallow subtidal marine habitat.
  • Understand the major ecological processes that govern the distribution, abundance, and health of coral reef organisms, and of the marine shallow water system generally.
Recommended Texts: It is difficult to have a textbook that covers the range of materials we will explore in this course. Here I suggest some field guides that will prove extremely useful for identifying local organisms, and which also provide insight into some of the local ecology, and a more general marine ecology text, and a guide to data analysis. I have indicated those I consider most useful in the context of this course.
  • Reef Coral Identification – Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas. 2002 Human, P. & N. Deloach. New World Publications Inc. Jacksonville, Florida. Pp. 1-278 + Appendices. Comments: Very useful guide with all colour plates; includes an Appendix on some of the common algae. Also discusses some of the ecology and biology of corals and related organisms. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR THIS COURSE.
  • Reef Creature Identification - Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas. 2002 Human, P. & N. Deloach. New World Publications Inc. Jacksonville, Florida. Pp. 1-420 + Appendices. Comments: Very useful guide with all colour plates; covers invertebrates generally (but not corals). No ecological data except incidental information included with specific organisms. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR THIS COURSE.
  • Reef Fish Identification – Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas. 2002 Human, P. & N. Deloach. New World Publications Inc. Jacksonville, Florida. Pp. 1-512 + Appendices. Comments: Very useful guide with all colour plates. No ecological data except incidental information included with specific species. USEFUL, BUT NOT SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS COURSE.
  • Marine Plants of the Caribbean – A Field Guide from Florida to Brazil. 1989 Littler, D.S., M.M. Littler, K.E. Bucher & J.N. Norris. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC. Comments: An excellent field guide to tropical marine algae, each species photographed in situ and presented as a colour plate. Scattered ecological data. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR THIS COURSE. This book has a larger and more comprehensive companion covering more algae in more detail.

You may also find useful other books, depending on your particular interest and background. Again I suggest some that may be useful in the context of this course:

  • Statistics: Practical Statistics for Environmental and Biological Scientists. 2002 Townend, J. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, England. Comments: An excellent primer for the use of basic statistics, their strength and weakness for any given data set, and assumptions of statistical tests.
  • Ecology: Marine Community Ecology. 2001 (Bertness, M.D., S.D. Gaines & M.E. Hay. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts. Comments: A compendium of chapters by different authors, including chapters of process, community types (including coral reefs and mangrove communities), and conservation issues.

Readings

There are some assigned papers that address issues or ecosystems discussed in the course. I will endeavor to have these as downloadable PDF files, or a hard copy that can be duplicated.

Course Activities

  • July 15 (Thursday) Course introduction, discussion of course objectives, student background discussion, goals of students, evaluation. Ways of thinking about ecology.
    Laboratory: Introduction to sites and field procedures, safety, equipment, discussion of course project limitations and possibilities.
  • 16 (Friday) Experimental design and data analysis
    Laboratory: Field exercise in sampling
    Paper to read for July 19th: Caribbean coral reefs of Panama: present status and future perspectives. Guzman, HM 2003. In: J. Cortes (ed.), pp. 241-274. Latin American Coral Reefs. Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam
  • 17 (Saturday) Experimental design and data analysis
    Laboratory: Analysis and critique of sampling data from July 16th.
  • 18 (Sunday) No lectures, no laboratory.
  • 19 (Monday) Discussion of Guzman paper – Main conclusions and summary of status of reefs.
    Laboratory: Field exercise in measuring elevation in the intertidal zone, and estimating exposure times of selected organisms. (Groups of two students).
  • 20 (Tuesday) Coral reefs I
    Laboratory: Calculations of elevations and exposure times; Oral report. Written summary due July 21 at 1300 hrs.
  • 21 (Wednesday) Coral reefs II
    Laboratory: Field trip to common coral reef habitats and identification of common corals.
  • 22 (Thursday) Discussion of Guzman paper: What research projects are suggested by the information included in this paper (think about both long-term and short-term [course project length] projects, what your hypotheses would be, how you would test the hypotheses, and the mechanics of doing such a project)?
    Initiation of proposals for course field project (one group project, small group project, or individual projects?). Hand in proposal on Friday.
    Laboratory: Field exercise in comparative sampling techniques; followed by data analysis.
  • 23 (Friday) Biomechanics and water motion (emphasis on algae).
    Laboratory: Reports on Comparative Sampling Techniques field exercise. Introduction to some simple biomechanical devices and their use. Construction of a simple water movement measurement device.
    Paper to read for July 26: ………………..
  • 24 (Saturday) Biomechanics of marine organisms (emphasis on algae)
    Laboratory: Field exercise in measuring some biomechanical properties of organisms (emphasis on algae). In situ placement of water movement measurement devices.
  • 25 (Sunday) No lectures, no laboratory.
  • 26 (Monday) Discussion of assigned paper; Introduction to algae (emphasis on tropical algae).
    Laboratory: Field exercise in identification of local algae; retrieval of water movement measurement devices; discussion of project proposal(s).
  • 27 (Tuesday) Mangrove ecosystems
    Laboratory: Calibration and interpretation of water movement device data; visit to mangrove habitat(s). Hand in revised project proposal.
  • 28 (Wednesday) Quiz 1; Hand-in revised project proposal.
    Laboratory: Revisit reef sites for coral and algae identification and habitat typification.
  • 29 (Thursday) Seagrass ecosystems
    Laboratory: Finalize project topics and groups, prepare equipment, consider hypotheses, suggest data analysis procedures.
  • 30 (Friday) Herbivory I
    Laboratory: Begin project research.
    Assign paper for discussion on August 02.
  • 31 (Saturday) Herbivory II.
    Laboratory: Project research.
  • August 01 (Sunday)
    No lectures, no laboratory.
  • 02 (Monday) Competition I
    Laboratory: Project research.
  • 03 (Tuesday) Competition II
    Laboratory: Project research; preliminary reports by subgroups to entire group (progress, problems, and revisions of questions and procedures).
  • 04 (Wednesday) Introduced species and biodiversity
    Laboratory: Measuring and interpreting biodiversity data.
  • 05 (Thursday) Marine protected areas – what do they do (Video presentation).
    Laboratory: Project research.
  • 06 (Friday) Seaweed mariculture – motivation, techniques, and products.
    Laboratory: Project research and data analysis.
  • 07 (Saturday) Project research, data analysis, and discussion of conclusions to date by project groups.
  • 08 (Sunday) No lectures, no laboratory.
  • 09 (Monday) Quiz 2; Project conclusion and preparation for group presentation.
  • 10 (Tuesday) Project presentation and discussion; Project groups hand in paper (written in scientific paper format).
  • 11 (Wednesday) Course wrap-up.
Lecture times: These are nominally scheduled to start at 0830, and will run for approximately 1.5 hours. However, the starting time and extent will be modified if required by course progress, weather, field trip impediments, etc.

Laboratory times: These will be determined as deemed suitable by local weather conditions, equipment readiness, and other ongoing activities.

Evaluation: Evaluation will be based on the two quizzes, several laboratory reports, the group project and your individual effort relating to that, and course participation. The absolute value of each of these components will be given at the first class meeting.

NOTE: This is a provisional course outline of lectures and activities; further consideration by me, and discussion with other individuals may alter both the sequence and specific material to be covered. In addition, local (on site) opportunities and limitations may similarly alter the course material.