MB3050 - Biological Oceanography

Credit points:	03
Year:	2019
Student Contribution Band:	Band 2
Administered by:

This subject examines plankton and their interactions with the physical and chemical environment. Thematically we explore the following: structures in the ocean, sampling equipment and oceanography; nutrients, productivity, phytoplankton and upwelling; planktonic consumers in the sea as well as their distributions, behaviour and life cycles, jellyfish fisheries, the survival of larval fish to recruitment and relevance to fisheries; impacts and manipulation of plankton, global climate change, pollution and applications for aquaculture.

Learning Outcomes

• to give a sense of the complex structure of the planktonic community over the full scale of variation across space, time and body size;
• to give the student a new conceptual understanding of the ocean as a fabric of living organisms, rather than as a mere water mass;
• to impress upon the student the fundamental significance of the plankton as the foundation of the economy of the sea and the nursery for most of its species;
• to provide a practical familiarity with the techniques of plankton sampling, identification and analysis.

Assumed Knowledge:	Students enrolling in this subject should have a good understanding of basic biological principles (eg BS1001) and marine systems (eg MB2050) and should have completed either SC2202 or SC2209 and MB2050 or equivalents.
Prerequisites:	(BS1007 OR BZ1007) AND MB2050 AND (SC2202 OR SC2209 OR BS2001 OR BZ2001)
Inadmissible Subject Combinations:	MB5055 AND MB3059

Availabilities
Townsville, , Study Period 1
Census Date 28-Mar-2019
Contact hours:	26 hours 30 hours 3 hours
Assessment:	end of semester exam (60%); essays (15%); field report (20%); online quizzes (5%).

Note: Minor variations might occur due to the continuous Subject quality improvement process, and in case of minor variation(s) in assessment details, the Subject Outline represents the latest official information.