CESI Proposal Syllabus: Working with Undergraduates to Evaluate Salt Marsh
Ecosystem Health: Developing a lab for Marine Biology (Biol 381) in Partnership
with the Massachusetts Bays National Estuaries Program
Below is the current syllabus for Biol381: Marine Biology & Ecology. In the
following years, it will be moved to the spring (currently it is taught in the fall
semester), but with the lecture portion of the course retaining the same general
format. The CESI grant will enable me to develop a lab component for the course.
As the course will begin in February, and marshes do not become biologically very
active until April, the lab portion of the course will only occur during the second half
of the semester. This is perfect, as it means lab sections will be able to run longer
giving students more time to work in the marsh. A sample lab schedule is below:
Lab Schedule
The goal of the lab is to introduce the students to the basic concepts of sampling salt
marshes to understand their biology and ecology. Sampling will be coupled with
goals from the Massachusetts Bays National Estuaries Program. While sampling will
be conducted within certain parameters, the students will be given latitude as the lab
progresses to design sampling methodologies that best suit the biology of the marshes
they are observing.
Week : March 24
Topic: Introduction to Cohasset Marsh; Salt marsh sampling methodology
Description: An introduction to the natural history of the Cohasset salt marshes
from Dr. Sara Grady. Dr. Grady will discuss their role as a provider of local
ecosystem services, and the types of information government agencies require to
keep tabs on marsh health for management. We will then introduce basic sampling
techniques for different types of organisms. Students will perform simulated
sampling exercises to learn the importance of random sampling, large sample sizes,
and how to understand natural variability. They will also be introduced to the
concept of keeping field notes, and given a notebook for observations in the field.
Last, they will be introduced to how to record data, and the concept of good data
recording for analysis using Google spreadsheets.
Week: April 1
Topic: In the grass: cordgrass abundance and marsh bank stability
Description: We will take students to Cohasset and introduce them to the general
layout of the marshes, including where permanent markers have been placed for
sampling. Students will then be tasked with implementing a plan to measure
cordgrass abundance in marked areas around the marshes and asses sediment stability
in those same areas to examine the relationship between the two.
Week: April 7
Topic: Marsh zonation
Description: In Cohasset, we will introduce students to the zones of the marsh that
they learned about in lecture. Along marked transects students will be tasked with a)
measuring the width of each zone and b) designing and implementing a simple
sampling scheme for snails and crabs in each zone.
Week: April 14
Topic: Grazing and decomposition assays
Description: Students will be given a short introduction to how marsh grazing and
decomposition are assessed in marshes. They will then deploy assays of grazing and
decomposition using either live or dead cordgrass in locations they deem appropriate
based on principles of good sampling design.
Week: April 28
Topic: Nutrient sampling; Assay recovery.
Description: At the marsh, we will introduce the students to the basics of sampling
for porewater nitrogen. Knowing the arrangement of plots throughout the marsh,
students will have to design a sampling scheme to evaluate large-scale variation in
nutrient concentrations across the marsh. Students will then be assigned to teams to
either sample nutrients from porewater sipper in the marsh according to their design,
or to
Week: May 5
Topic: Making the leap to new science in the marsh.
Description: Students will come to lab with all of the course data entered, and
notebooks of field observations. During the lab, students will discuss and agree on a
topic of further research in the Cohasset marshes. The TA will be available to guide
conversation and demonstrate data visualization and rough analyses from material
gathered by the class previously.
Week: May 12
Topic: Student project
Description: Students will implement the project they have designed. If they are
taking the lecture portion of the course, they may continue sampling and writing as a
group during the finals period as their course final project. TA and professor will be
available for aid in transportation throughout this time.
BIOL 381 Special Topics: Marine Biology & Ecology
Weekly Schedule: Tuesday & Thursday 2:00-3:15
Office Hours: Prof. Byrnes will hold officer hours Monday and Wednesday 2-4.
Overview: In this course, we will explore the diversity of life in the oceans. The
course aims to have students understand the basic physical and biological processes
that shape life in the different habitats in the ocean around the globe. We will place a
special emphasis on marine life in New England.
We will emphasize the interactions between humans and the sea. We will focus on
the goods and services that the marine life provides for humans. This focus will lead
us to a greater understanding of the consequences of ongoing environmental changes
and human activities in the ocean, and it will aid students in the future decisions they
must face as our oceans change.
As this is a vast topic, the course will primarily be conducted through lecture and
discussion. The class will engage in periodic excursions to the seashore on the UMB
campus to emphasize different concepts and lessons from class. The textbook will be
augmented with papers from the primary literature to provide students with the
necessary depth in the topics covered.
Students will be evaluated based on their interactions and mastery of the material.
Evaluation will take multiple forms, all querying the students’ connection to the
material in a variety of ways that will allow students to bring bear on their
understanding of marine biology & ecology.
Objectives:
1) Develop an understanding of the diversity of life in the sea.
2) Learn to understand new scientific information and rapidly incorporate it into
one’s understanding of the goods and services produced by our oceans.
3) Gain an appreciation for how changes in the environment alter life in the sea
and the concomitant indirect effects to human society.
4) Understand the historic, current, and future links between humans in New
England and the ocean around us.
Prerequisites: BIOL111, BIOL112, and BIOL290 or equivalents are required for
this course. BIOL342 and EEOS226 will be helpful, but are not required.
Required Texts:
We will use Levinton 2013 and heavily supplement it with additional outside
readings that are TBD. PDFs of additional readings will be provided on the course
website. Levinton is available in the bookstore.
Levinton, J.S. 2013. Marine Biology, 4th Edition. Oxford University Press.
Content and teaching approach: The course will be a mixture of lecture and
discussion. I will assume that students have read the course material for the week,
and utilize a Socratic approach to facilitate student discussion and interaction.
Grading: Your grade will be determined by a combination of in-class participation,
mid-term paper, weekly reflections, and a final project or exam. Participation will be
worth 20%. Weekly short reflection essays will be worth 30% of your course grade.
The midterm paper will worth 30%. The final project will be worth 20%.
Weekly Essay: Every week I will ask you to write a short essay reflecting on topics
you have learned this week and how they relate to you. This is a broad topic, and can
be interpreted in any way you would like except for a strict recapitulation of what we
talked about this week. Ask yourself, what fascinated you this week? What infuriated
you? What resonated with you as someone living in coastal New England? Or, did
you encounter something outside of class that relates to the course generally.
Perhaps something from one of the marine blogs listed below? Essays need be no
longer than a page. Essays will be marked for being completed or not. Essays that
merely repeat notes from class will be marked as not completed. At least five essays
will be chosen at random and posted to the course blog. More will be posted if they
are exceptional, and extra credit will be awarded. There will be no essay the final
week of the course.
Midterm Paper: Students will select one paper from a given list. Students should
read the paper and at minimum 3 associated papers from the reference list to
understand its context and 2 papers that cite it (use Google Scholar). Students are
then asked to write a short persuasive essay (5 pages max.) that 1) summarizes the
paper, 2) states its importance in the context of the additional work, 3) argues
whether the authors got it right or not. Students will be graded equally on their
accuracy, understanding of the material discussed, the strength of their argument,
and the style of their writing. Grammar and spelling count. Students will be given an
opportunity to revise and resubmit.
Final Project: Students have the choice of either taking a final written exam during
the exam period or presenting a final interdisciplinary project. As students are
entering the course with varying backgrounds and interests, the interdisciplinary
project is designed for students to address the course material using their own
perceived strengths – even if they are outside of the scope of a formal marine science
education. Interdisciplinary projects can take several forms: 1) a grant proposal for
future work complete with preliminary data from the literature, 2) a film (animation,
music video, documentary, etc.) exploring a paper or theme from class, 3) a piece of
original research with accompanying writeup – ranging from taking data in the field,
from online databases (e.g., http://marinexplore.org), building a new sensor or
marine tool (e.g., SeaPerch ROV), a survey of people regarding attitudes or
knowledge of relevant issues, etc. 4) other piece of creative work. Projects falling
outside of these areas but demonstrating a connection between the course material
and the students’ knowledge are essential. Projects can be done in groups. All
projects must be approved by the Professor by November 1st. Projects will be graded
on a demonstration of mastery and understanding of topic material in the context of
the work. Projects will be presented to the class at large on the last day of classes.
Cell Phones: Cell phones and other electronic devices must be
POWERED OFF during class.
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities: The University of
Massachusetts Boston is committed to providing appropriate academic
accommodations for all students with disabilities. If you have a disability and feel you
will need accommodations in this course, please contact:
The Ross Center for Disability Services
Campus Center, Upper Level, Room 211 (617-287-7430).
http://www.umb.edu/academics/vpass/disability/
After registering with the Ross Center, a student should present and discuss the
accommodations with the professor. Although a student can request accommodations
at any time, we recommend that students inform the professor of the need for
accommodations by the end of the Add/Drop period to ensure that accommodations
are available for the entirety of the course.
Code of Conduct and Academic Integrity: It is the expressed policy of the University
that every aspect of academic life--not only formal coursework situations, but all
relationships and interactions connected to the educational process--shall be
conducted in an absolutely and uncompromisingly honest manner. The University
requires that any work submitted for academic credit is the student’s own and
complies with University policies, including policies on appropriate citation and
plagiarism. These policies are spelled out in the Code of Student Conduct, which can
be found at this website: http://www.umb.edu/life_on_campus/policies/code.
Students are required to adhere to the Code of Student Conduct, including
requirements for academic honesty. Penalties for academic misconduct in the course,
including plagiarism and cheating, are strictly enforced, and the penalties are very
serious. Penalties include an F in the assignment or exam, an F in the course, or
suspension from the University. If you have questions about what constitutes
plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct, see Prof. Byrnes before
completing an assignment or exam.
Ignorance of the rules does not excuse any academic conduct violation.
The University defines violations to include, but not be limited to, the
following:
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Submitting as one’s own an author’s published or unpublished work (e.g.
material from a journal, Internet site, newspaper, encyclopedia), in whole,
in part, or in paraphrase, without fully and properly crediting the author.
Submitting as one’s own work or materials obtained from another student,
individual, or agency without full and proper attribution.
Submitting as one’s own work material that has been produced through
unacknowledged or unauthorized collaboration with others.
Submitting substantially the same work to more than one course (i.e., dual or
multiple submission) without prior approval from all instructors involved.
Using any unauthorized material during an examination, such as notes, tests,
calculators, cell phones, or other electronic devices.
Obtaining answers to examination questions from another person with or
without that person’s knowledge; furnishing answers to examination
questions to another student; using or distributing unauthorized copies of or
notes from an examination.
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Submitting as one’s own an examination taken by another person; or taking an
examination in another person’s place.
Interfering with an instructor’s ability to evaluate accurately a student’s
competence or performance; misleading any person in connection with
one’s academic work.
Course Content:
Primary literature readings TBD.
Week
Sept 3-6
Lecture
1
2
Sept 9-13
3
4
Sept 16-21
5
6
7
Sept 23-27
Sept 30-Oct 4
Oct 7-11
Oct 15-18
Oct 28-Nov 1st
Nov 4-8
Nov 12-15
Nov 18-22
Nov 25-27
Dec 2-6
Dec 9-13
Topic
Why study life in the ocean?
Biogeography of the Ocean
Dark, salty, cold, and wet: the physical
environment
Life in moving fluids
Sex & the setae: Reproduction and larval
biology
Supply side oceanomics: recruitment processes
The masters of earth: plankton
8 Open Ocean Food Webs
It's the little stuff that matters: marine microbes
9 & viruses
Post-cold war marine science: facilitation in salt
10 marshes
11 Eaten by land and sea: salt marsh food webs
12 Don't vascular plants live on land? Seagrass beds
Tide and time wait for no crab: The rocky
13 intertidal
Why is the seashore brown? Kelp forests & algal
14 reefs
A story of Lobster & Cod: the Subtidal Gulf of
15 Maine
16 Living with symbiotes: coral reef ecology
17 Consequences of grazer loss in coral ecosystems
18 Mud and Shells: estuarine soft bottoms
19 Carbon Pumps & Detritus
20 Corpse eating, corprophagy, and the deep sea
21 In hot water? Hot acidic wavy water?
Climate change and the reorganization of the
22 ocean
23 Fishing: The Good, Bad, and Delicious
Catch Shares, MPAs and Preserving Ecosystem
24 Services
Marine Life in the City: Urbanization of our
25 shores
Space invaders: exotic species and biotic
26 homogenization
27 Ocean Health and the Future
Levinton
Chapter 1,2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7,9
Chapter 8,
10
Chapter 14
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 16
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
28 Final Project Presentations
Course notes: Slides for each lecture will be available on the course website before
each lecture.
Marine Blogs
Deep Sea News http://deepseanews.com/
The Sea Monster http://theseamonster.net/
Southern Fried Science http://www.southernfriedscience.com/
Graduate Research at the MSC http://cosresearch.wordpress.com/
The Madroporite http://bmscblog.wordpress.com/
The Echinoblog http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/
Moss Landing Drop-In http://mlmlblog.wordpress.com/