Coastal Biology

Catalog description

BIOL 482 is a lecture course designed to introduce participants to the Caribbean coral reef biome and other near-shore environments such as rocky shores, mangroves and seagrass beds. Students will learn through theoretical and practical exercises how environmental and biological factors interact to sustain near-shore ecosystems. We will discover and describe the amazing diversity of coral reef systems, explore the physiological and behavioral adaptations that enable organisms to live in this environment and deduct the basic ecological principles that underlie the function of near-shore ecosystems. We will be reading primary literature throughout the course. Students may choose to focus on current issues in marine conservation science as part of their class projects/proposal. Topics may include but are not limited to connectivity among marine populations, metapopulations-dynamics, adaptation to climate change, and conservation genetics. BIOL 482 counts towards the Marine Science Minor