BB515: Biomonitoring of pollution in freshwater ecosystems (5 ECTS)

STADS: 04013301

Level
Bachelor course

Teaching period
The course is offered in the autumn semester.

Teacher responsible
Email: wiegand@biology.sdu.dk

Additional teachers
atreusch@biology.sdu.dk

Timetable
Show entire timetable
Show personal time table for this course.

Prerequisites:
None

Academic preconditions:
Topics of the first study year + BB509, BB510 and BMB530 shall be known.

Course introduction
Monitoring of various environmental parameters is an important part of nature conservation in many countries. The aim of the course is to introduce biomarkers (=biological responses to pollution) and indicators of microbial contamination used in the monitoring of aquatic environments. This includes analysis of various water chemical parameters, microbiological methods for measuring contamination and enzymatic tests to assess the degree of contamination in eukaryotic organisms. After the course, students will be able to perform the various analyzes in a safe and independent manner.

Qualifications
The course aims to enable the student to conceptualize, conduct and evaluate basic experimental environmental monitoring in possibly polluted freshwater ecosystem.
Students will learn theoretical and hands on skills and specificity of different biomarkers, including invertebrate enzymatic as well as microbial and molecular tests. 

Expected learning outcome
At the end of the course the student should be able to:

• Perform quality control on basic equipment including electrodes, pipettes and precision scales
• Plan and conduct experiments
• Work under sterile conditions, perform staining (e.g. DAPI) and enumeration of bacteria
• Use molecular ecologic methods to monitor microorganisms in the environment
• Use centrifuges and spectrophotometers for extraction and determination of enzyme activities and oxidative stress biomarkers
• Evaluate pollution impact on organism according to biomarker reactions
• Work in accordance with the safety regulations in a laboratory and be able to correctly classify and dispose of chemical and biological wastes
• Report results as scientific lectures and report

Subject overview

• Safety in the laboratory, the disposal of chemical and biological waste, use of notebook computers in the lab
• Installation and use of standard curves
• Manufacture of stock solutions, media and buffers
• Introduction to enzymatic tests and biomarkers: enzyme extraction, determination of enzyme activity and protein content
• Introduction to microbiologic and molecular ecologic techniques for environmental monitoring
• Dissemination of results as short scientific lectures
• Report writing

Literature
There isn't any litterature for the course at the moment.

Website
This course uses e-learn (blackboard).

Prerequisites for participating in the exam
None

Assessment and marking:
Presentation of results in a conference based on report, and participation in laboratorial part (min. 80%). Evaluation by internal censur on a pass/fail basis.

Expected working hours
The teaching method is based on three phase model.
Intro phase: 10 hours
Skills training phase: 40 hours, hereof:
 - Tutorials: 16 hours
 - Laboratory exercises: 20 hours
 - Excursion: 4 hours

Educational activities Study phase: 60 hours

Language
This course is taught in English.

Course enrollment
See deadline of enrolment.

Tuition fees for single courses
See fees for single courses.