BB819: Practicals in Aquatic Ecology (5 ECTS)

STADS: 04005801

Level
Master's level course

Teaching period
The course is offered in the autumn semester.
1st quarter

Teacher responsible
Email: foa@biology.sdu.dk

Additional teachers
holmer@biology.sdu.dk
hsj@biology.sdu.dk

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

Prerequisites:
None

Academic preconditions:
Basic knowledge about ecology, plant biology and zoology.

Course introduction
To give the student knowledge about freshwater ecological theories within the areas: cycling of nutrients and energy in ecosystems, and function and development of ecosystems. The level of knowledge should be adequate for future work with management of aquatic ecosystems. The students should furthermore obtain practical knowledge about field and experimental ecology and know the most common aquatic environmental analysis.

Expected learning outcome
At the end of the course, the student is expected to:

• Explain the water cycle
• Analyse the physical-chemical conditions in aquatic ecosystems and explain the relationship between these and the environmental condition
• Explain the cycling of carbon and nutrients and analyse which factor that is limiting the primary production in aquatic ecosystems
• Explain the importance of abiotic factors for biological processes and the biological structure in aquatic ecosystems, including causes and consequences of eutrophication
• Summarise the overall importance of plants, animals and microorganisms for production and decomposition of organic matter and the nutrient cycling in aquatic ecosystems
• Analyse the environmental conditions of specific ecosystems using general ecological knowledge

Subject overview
1) Practicals and field work
The course is based on sampling in the field followed by laboratory analysis and experiments. These should give the student practical experience with sampling and measurements of abiotic parameters in aquatic environments. The practicals will be carried out as project work in minor groups. The laboratory work includes common chemical analysis of water and sediment used in environmental management. The data treatment and report writing should enable the students to evaluate and discuss the results on basis of a general knowledge on nutrient cycling and ecosystem parameters and to compare obtained results with other investigations. Comparisons should be made to data from Danish monitoring of aquatic ecosystems and the students should obtain insight in environmental monitoring.

2) Theoretical part
Parallel to the practicals, lectures and discussion classes will be held. In these, the theory about the importance of microorganisms, flora and fauna for production and decomposition of organic matter and nutrient cycling in aquatic ecosystems will be dealt with. For example the following subjects will be discussed: abiotic factors (light, stratification), nutrient (e.g. nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, sulfur, silica) and carbon cycling, eutrophication, limiting factors, biological structure, pelagic and benthic communities.

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

Syllabus
See syllabus.

Website
This course uses e-learn (blackboard).

Prerequisites for participating in the exam
None

Assessment and marking:
A report containing results and discussion of the project (Pass/fail, evaluation by the teacher. Written 4-hour exam (Danish 7-mark scale, evaluation by internal examiner).

Date of exam
The ordinary exam takes place on October 27, 2008

Expected working hours
The teaching method is based on three phase model.

Lectures (14 h), discussion classes (4 h), practicals and field work (37 h).
Educational activities

Language
This course is taught in English.

Course enrollment
See deadline of enrolment.

Tuition fees for single courses
See fees for single courses.