School of Environmental Sciences
ENV 2A02 Marine and Coastal Ecology
Aims
and Objectives
Most of you will have taken ENV 2A01 last Semester. Taken together, ENV 2A01 and ENV 2A02 seek to develop some of the skills required to carry out ecology. As well as providing an introduction to aquatic ecology, ENV 2A01 has concentrated particularly on practical skills. In ENV 2A02 the emphasis changes somewhat. There is no compulsory practical element, although I would encourage you to take ENV 2A7Y Community Analysis in Ecology and ENV 2C11 Ecology Fieldcourse next year, if you have not already done so. The skills which will be more prominent in 2A02 are information finding and handling skills - finding information in the scientific literature, making use of this to formulate arguments and critique arguments put forwards by others etc. Some of you will have just taken ENV 2A03 (or BIO 2B03) and not ENV 2A01. You will not be at any disadvantage if this is the case. If you have not taken either (or an equivalent second level ecology course at another university) you are likely to find the course hard going, because it makes such heavy use of the primary literature. If you haven’t taken a second level ecology course, you should come to discuss things with me as soon as possible of you haven’t already done so.
The course will not attempt to give a
general coverage of marine and coastal ecology, but will select particular
sections of the field and study them in some detail, exposing you to primary
literature. This will allow you to see
how science works in practice - the ways in which scientists collect pieces of
a puzzle bit by bit; make mistakes and argue with each other - a rather
different picture from the nice tidy world that is sometimes portrayed in
textbooks.
The bookshop should have copies of:
Levinton, J.S., 2002. Marine
Biology, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press,
Valiela,
Another very good text book, Raffaelli, D.
and S. Hawkins, 1996. Intertidal Ecology. Chapman and
Hall,
Levinton gives a good introduction to the organisms, covering the basic biology of the animals and plants in a lot more detail than is possible within the course, and has a reasonable number of leads into the literature. Raffaelli and Hawkins gives good routes into the recent primary literature, but is restricted to intertidal habitats. Valiela is also very good on leads into the primary literature, but leans more towards biological oceanography than does this course. With an unlimited budget, the combination Valiela plus either Raffaelli and Hawkins or Levinton would be ideal. But there are copies of all in the library so don’t feel that you must buy a text book.
Other text books that you might want to look at (copies in the library) are:
Barnes, R.S.K., R.N. Hughes and J.G. Field, 1999. An introduction to Marine Ecology 3rd Edn., Blackwell,
Boaden, P.J.S. and R. Seed, 1985. An introduction to Coastal Ecology, Blackie, Glasgow.
Nybakken, J.W., 1996. Marine
Biology: An ecological Approach. Benjamin
Cummings,
Barnes and Hughes covers the full range of marine environments, and has a reasonable number of leads into the literature. Nybakken cover the whole range of marine environments with more detail on what the organisms and communities actually look like. It gives an accessible overall summary of the ecology of all of the environments that we will be looking at.
In addition to these, I shall provide an extensive reference list, pointing you towards the primary literature and to review articles relevant to different sections of the course. Some of these you will be asked to read prior to seminars. Others are provided for you to supplement the material presented in class. The course (and the exam) will be designed on the assumption that you do read in accordance with the guidance given, reflecting the fact that there are only three contact hours a week rather than five or six. If you want to see some pictures of what habitats look like in situ you might have a look at:
Earll, R., 1994. The
SEASEARCH habitat guide : an identification guide to
the main habitats found in shallow seas around the
Other general texts are:
Barnes, RSK and K.H. Mann, 1980. Fundamentals of aquatic ecosystems; Classmark: QH 541.5.W3 BAR
Fincham, A. Basic Marine Biology
Levinton, J.S., 1982. Marine Ecology, Prentice Hall,
Tait, R. V., 1981. Elements of marine ecology: an introductory course. Classmark: QH 541.5.S3 TAI
Mann, K. H. & J.R.N. Lazier; 1991. Dynamics of marine ecosystems: biological-physical interactions in the oceans. Classmark: QH 541.5.S3 MAN
Mann, K. H., 1982. Ecology of coastal waters: a systems approach. Classmark: QH 541.5.S35 MAN
McConnaughey, B H., 1983. and R. Zottoli, 1983. Introduction to marine biology. Classmark: QH 91 MAC Oversize
Thurman, H. V. and H.H. Webber, 1984. Marine biology; Classmark: QH 91 THU Oversize
The course is in slot
Monday 1700 - 1800 Arts 3.02
Friday 1000 - 1200 EF 01.02
Alastair Grant (Course Convenor), with a one week contribution on plankton from Michael Steinke
There is one piece of assessed work, a 3500
word essay. The deadline for handing
this in will be Monday of week 9 (8th March). For non-ENV students, please note that normal
ENV deadlines are
Alastair Grant
January 2004
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