Course Title:

Marine Biology: www.uwo.ca/biology/undergraduate/fieldcourses/marine.htm

Instructor:

Drs. James Staples (jfstaple@uwo.ca) and Michael Owen

Contact: Brenda Beretta (bberetta@uwo.ca)
Biology, Univ. of Western Ontario, London , ON

N6A 5B7; 519-661-2111 x 82555, fax 519-661-3935

Dates:

Saturday 18 August – Monday 3 September, 2012

Location:

Huntsman Marine Sciences Centre, St. Andrew’s, New Brunswick
www.huntsmanmarine.ca/
http://standrewsbythesea.ca/visit/

Cost:

$1900 : Includes all travel (by van), accommodations and on-site meals. Students must provide their own bedding for a single bed. $250 non-refundable deposit due upon registration at home University. Balance due to UWO by mid-July.

Description:

This experiential learning adventure will introduce you to the flora and fauna of the Quoddy Region of the Bay of Fundy. The course emphasizes the extensive intertidal zone, and how its ever-changing environmental conditions influence the diverse invertebrate and macroalgal communities living there. You will also study interactions among marine fish, birds and mammals. The skills you will develop include oceanographic sampling (water quality, dredges, grabs, trawls, plankton tows), surveying, quantitative ecological evaluation and fundamental data analysis. By visiting aquaculture and fish processing facilities, you will explore interactions between maritime culture and the biological and environmental sciences. Your learning experience will be enhanced by diverse classmates, an idyllic setting, excellent facilities and a picturesque, historic community first settled in 1783.

Assignments:

Both modules require equivalent effort, with the first week devoted to observations and quantitative sampling in the intertidal zone and on the HMSC vessel. All students record their observations in individual field log books that will be marked following the course. The second week is devoted to individual research projects ( Experimental Studies) or group ( ≥3 students/group) laboratory and field projects ( Ecology and Adaptation). A full project report is required from each student (working independently with group data for Ecology and Adaptation ) approximately six weeks after completion of the course.

Evaluation:

(i) individual field logs (20%), (ii) laboratory and field tests based on knowledge, identification and collection of organisms studied during the first week (35%), (iii) performance and report based on the second week’s project (45%).

Prerequisites:

(at the discretion of the instructors)

Students choose 1 of 2 modules (0.5 credits each) offered concurrently:

1. Experimental Studies in Marine Biology – prerequisite: completion of three years in a Biology/Zoology program including a course in statistics and experimental design.
2. Ecology and Adaptation of Marine Organisms – prerequisite: completion of 1 year of a Biology/Zoology program.

Antirequisite:

University of Guelph ZOO 4300 (Marine Biology and Oceanography).

Enrolment:

Maximum 17, minimum 7 (combined for both modules)

• Links to Course material

• Risk Form

• Emergency Contact Information

• Information Letter

• Huntsman Marine Science Centre

• St. Andrews, New Brunswick

North Atlantic octopus (Bathypolypus arcticus)