Structure and function of marine food webs, from primary producers to top trophic levels; interaction of marine organisms with the environment; energy and mass flow in food webs; elemental cycling; coupling between pelagic and benthic environments.

Comparative examination of major adaptations and functional responses of marine invertebrates to biotic and abiotic factors in the marine environment. Field trips required.

Principles and technology in molecular genetics, including nucleic acid purification and manipulation, DNA fingerprinting, gene cloning and sequencing, phylogenetic analysis, and detection of gene expression.

Ecology of planktonic organisms (bacteria, protista and metazoa). The evolutionary ecology concept, methods of research, special features of aquatic habitats; adaptations to aquatic environments; population biology; predation, competition, life histories, community structure, and role of plankton in ecosystem metabolism.

General concepts in fish ecology such as distribution, feeding, bioenergetics, growth, larval fish ecology, biotic interactions, life history evolution and other contemporary research topics.

Fundamentals of algae, interactions of algae with the environment, and applications for environmental conservation and human uses. Introduction to the evolution and diversity of marine and selected freshwater algae and major ecological characteristics and responses to environmental variability. Applications may include utilization of algae for green energy, environmental bioremediation, food, and bioproducts.

Composition, origin and solution chemistry of seawater and the marine biogeochemical cycles of salts, elements and gases. Distributions and transfer in the marine environment through chemical equilibria, rates, redox, partitioning, ocean circulation, biological cycles and crustal exchanges.

Overview of processes and compounds leading to pollution in the nearshore marine environment. The impact of pollution on the marine foodweb and its response is emphasized. Alleviation of pollution through metabolism of organisms, including bacteria, seagrasses and salt marshes.

Fundamentals of marine and atmospheric processes in global biogeochemistry. Evaluation of atmospheric, biological and chemical processes that contribute to global change.

Major global biogeochemical cycles of the major elements, nutrients, gases, organic matter, and trace elements and the impact of climate change and ocean acidification. Biogeochemical cycling of toxic trace metals, and transfer of substances at the air and sediment interfaces.

Concepts in geological oceanography, including the role of plate tectonics in the control of the Earth and ocean system, fundamentals of biosphere-geosphere interaction over geologic timescales, and the reconstruction of past climates using marine sediment archives.

Exploration of how the geologic record, geochemical proxies and model simulations can be used to understand climate change at centennial and longer timescales, with an emphasis on oceanographic processes. Topics include global overturning circulation, carbon cycle dynamics, and feedback mechanisms that govern long-term climate variability.

Introduction to a theoretical and computational understanding of physical processes that control the structure and circulation in the ocean and atmosphere. Topics include the global energy balance, thermodynamics and stability, fundamental geophysical fluid mechanics, surface gravity waves, tides and other long waves.

Ocean thermodynamics; dynamics of rotating; homogeneous fluids; ocean circulation; western boundary currents; the thermocline, oceanic fronts.

Processes controlling the exchange of momentum, heat and mass across the air-sea interface. Topics include atmospheric and oceanic stratification, wind-wave-current interaction, wave breaking, bubble generation, heat budgets, flux parameterizations and instrumentation.

Overview of physical properties and dynamics influencing the oceans and coastal waters. Descriptions of global water property distributions, surface mixed layer, pycnocline, surface heat fluxes, and major ocean currents. Introduction to dynamics of ocean circulation, waves, tides, and coastal circulation.

Influences of rivers on estuaries, coastal and open ocean water properties, energy budgets and ecosystems including inputs of buoyant waters, sediments and pollutants and variability from storms, seasons, human alterations and climate change. Recommended preparation: calculus and general physics.

Physical processes controlling the circulation and mixing of the ocean focusing on small scale processes with short time scales. Topics include fundamental fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, turbulence, waves, wave-current interactions, and air-sea interaction.

Programming, data input/output, and graphing with advanced scientific analysis software. Analysis of temporal and spatial patterns in oceanographic datasets using multivariate regression, harmonic analysis, Fourier and wavelet transforms, empirical orthogonal functions, and three-dimensional mapping.

Development of skills with modern and traditional methods used in making physical, chemical, biological and geological observations at sea from the R.V. Connecticut. Students should be prepared for a three-day or longer expedition. Instrumentation, methods, data analysis and synthesis will be conducted in pre- and post-cruise seminars. May be repeated to a maximum of six credits with a change of topic.

Introduction to the chemical/biological reactions and transport dynamics of ocean models with the focus on attribution of anthropogenic carbon in the global ocean. Quantitative topics include mass balances, the coupled dynamics of oceans and the atmosphere as biogeochemical systems, and parameterizations of important biogeochemical processes.

Introduction to experimental design and data analysis for marine biology and ecology. Analysis and visualization of experimental data using the statistical software package R. Topics include analysis of variance, replication and pseudoreplication, factorial designs, and significance testing.

Survey of practical skills required for professional integration into the scientific community, including proposal writing, scientific and public presentations, manuscript preparation and publication, scientific peer review, resume building, and interview skills.

Intensive reading, evaluation and critical discussion of current interdisciplinary topics presented at weekly departmental research seminars. May be repeated for credit.

Critical examination of state-of-the-art research, policy and regulatory frameworks of marine conservation biology and associated environmental, cultural, and socio-economic implications. Topics may include aquaculture, endangered species, strandings, biomedicine, ocean pollution, and marine protected areas. Research projects to be conducted at Mystic Aquarium.

Readings and discussions of current literature in oceanography. Topics vary each semester: Biological, Chemical, Physical, Geological. May be repeated for credit.

A new or pilot course offering in Marine Sciences. May be repeated with a change of topic.

Field and laboratory research covering selected topics of marine sciences.

Independent study under the direction of a faculty member.

Examples of the formulation of quantitative models of marine systems with a review of some particularly useful mathematical methods (differential equations, operational methods, numerical solution techniques), emphasizing the computation of predictions.

Individual term projects relating to mathematical modeling in the marine sciences.

Development of skills with modern and traditional methods of simulating marine biogeochemical cycles of nutrients, oxygen, carbon, and carbonate within a simplified physical model environment. Experience using Nutrient, Phytoplankton, Zooplankton, and Detritus (NPZD) models with and without gas exchange. Knowledge of different model formulations and tracers, evaluation of model results, sensitivity analyses, tracer budgets, and development of new parameterizations in biogeochemical simulations.

Pelagic communities, ecosystem structure and function, bioenergetic constraints, population dynamics, consequences of global climate and environmental change, and advances in the field driven by technological innovation.

Physical and physiological constraints on the benthos, benthic-pelagic coupling, species interactions, community assembly and dynamics, and anthropogenic impacts.

Concepts and principles of Genomics and other forms of -omics (transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics), resources and methods of analyses, and recent advances in biological oceanography and marine biogeochemistry achieved through the -omic approach.

Overview of important stable isotopic systems used to study biogeochemical cycling of bioactive elements. Focus will be on carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopic systems with an introduction to sulfur, silicic acid, and trace metals.

Environmental factors governing the processes that determine the fate of organic compounds in natural and engineered systems. Quantitative assessments based on thermodynamic principles of the environmental behavior of organic compounds. Topics include multimedia partitioning between air, water, and particles; photochemical and biodegradation models.

Global biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and their impact on ecosystem function and biogeochemisty. Trace elements include required (nutrient), potentially toxic, metals and metalloids. Topics include biogeochemical tracers, reaction rates, chemical speciation, equilibria, solubility, oxidation-reduction, adsorption, complexation, and relationships to the marine food web and human activity.

With a change in content, may be repeated for credit.