Teaching

Bio 462 – Deep Sea Biology, Spring 2011 at UNC Wilmington

JUMP TO: Section I (01/12 – 02/11) | Section II (02/14 – 03/11) | Section III (03/21 – 04/20) | Section IV (04/25 – 05/02)

DOWNLOAD SYLLABUS (pdf)

OFFICE HOURS: Monday, Wednesday and Friday 11:00 – 11:50 in Dobo 118 and a deep sea chat (can ask me anything related to the ocean or questions about the course material) Friday 4:00-5:00 at the coffee shop in the library, otherwise by appointment.

Introduction: Welcome to the Spring 2011 Deep-Sea Biology course at UNCW! This semester we will take an integrative approach towards understanding the Deep Sea. It is my hope that you not only come out this course with an appreciation for the history, biology, adaptations and unique habitats that make up Earth’s largest environment, but to appreciate this as case-study in how we can understand a system using a multidisciplinary approach. While we will focus on biological aspects of the Deep Sea, we cannot understand without more than a passing familiarity with geology, chemistry, physics, history and sociology.

Texts and Reading: You should get Tony Koslow’s The Silent Deep. I did not order the book through the UNCW Bookstore because it is nearly half the price on Amazon and other online retailers. The last I saw on Amazon (click here) used copies were as low as $10 and new copies were around $20 for the paperback and $25 for the hard cover. If you are on a scholarship that requires you to purchase books only via the campus bookstore, let me know and I’ll try to make arrangements. I will also have a copy on reserve at the Library.

There will be additional reading from the primary literature and popular science articles. I will make them available for download as pdf files (click here to get Adobe Reader for free if you haven’t already) or links to articles that are open access or that you may download on campus when the UNCW library has a subscription.

Section I: Exploration and Processes

January 12 – Introduction to the Class: What is the Deep Sea? The State of Marine Biology 2010. LECTURE SLIDES

Required Reading: Koslow Preface and Chapter 1, Costello MJ et al. (2010) A Census of Marine Biodiversity Knowledge, Resources, and Future Challenges. PLoS ONE 5:e12110, Carney R (2005) Zonation of deep biota on continental margins. Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review 43:211-278 (Download pdf here)–>Read pgs. 211-223

More Reading: Anderson & Rice (2006) – Deserts on the sea floor: Edward Forbes and his azoic hypothesis for a lifeless deep ocean. Endeavour 30(4): 131-137 (Download pdf)

January 14 – NO CLASS: I am away at a conference.

January 17 – NO CLASS: Please celebrate Martin Luther King Day.

If you are interested in the current state and history of black professionals in marine biology, I wrote Minorities in Marine Biology: The Dearth of Black Professors at Deep Sea News last year. (Not required reading)

January 19 – History of Deep-Sea Exploration I: Major People and Expeditions. LECTURE SLIDES

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 1 and Chapter 2

More Reading: Challenger Expedition Reports (1895) (scroll down to Historical Introduction, Sections A-E). Kunzig (2003) Deep Sea Biology: Living with the Endless Frontier. Science 302: 991.

January 21 – History of Deep-Sea Exploration II: Sampling in the Deep. LECTURE SLIDES

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 2, Gage and Tyler (1992) Deep-Sea Biology, Chapter 3: Methods of study of the organisms of the deep-sea floor (Download pdf)

More Reading: Challenger Expedition Reports (1895) (scroll down to Historical Introduction, Sections A-F)

January 24 – Geology of the Deep Seafloor. LECTURE SLIDES

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 5 (pgs 88-91), Gage and Tyler (1992) Deep-Sea Biology, Chapter 2: Physical Environment (Download pdf)

More Reading: Animations of seafloor geologic processes

January 26 – Hydrodynamics of the Seafloor. LECTURE SLIDES

Required Reading: Gage and Tyler (1992) Deep-Sea Biology, Chapter 2: Physical Environment, Broecker WS (1997) Thermohaline Circulation, the Achilles Heel of Our Climate System: Will Man-Made CO2 Upset the Current Balance? Science 278:1582 -1588. (Download pdf from here)

January 28 – Chemistry of the Sea. LECTURE SLIDES

Required Reading: Gage and Tyler (1992) Deep-Sea Biology, Chapter 2: Physical Environment

January 31 – Carbon Cycling and the Deep Seafloor. LECTURE SLIDES

Require Reading: Gooday A (2002) Biological Responses to Seasonally Varying Fluxes of Organic Matter to the Ocean Floor: A Review. Journal of Oceanography 58:305-332. (Download pdf), Carney R (2005) Zonation of deep biota on continental margins. Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review 43:211-278 (Download pdf here)–>Read pgs. 223-230

More Reading: Orr JC et al.(2005) Anthropogenic ocean acidification over the twenty-first century and its impact on calcifying organisms. Nature 437:681-686 (Download pdf)

February 2 – Microbial Ecology in the Sea. LECTURE SLIDES

Required Reading: Pomeroy L, Williams PL, Azam F, Hobbie J (2007) The microbial loop. Oceanography 20:28-33 (Download pdf here)

More Reading: The following is a history of the field with all the key players. It is very interesting, well-written and for those who would like to a deeper understanding I recommend it for reading. Karl DM & Proctor LM (2007) Foundations of Microbial Oceanography. Oceanography 20 (2): 16-27 (Download pdf here)

February 4 – Organisms of the Deep-Sea: Midwater. LECTURE SLIDES

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 3

February 7 – Organisms of the Deep-Sea: The Benthos. LECTURE SLIDES

Required Reading: None.

February 9 – Catch up and Review. EXAM 1 TOPIC LIST

February 11 – MIDTERM 1

Section II: Biology in the Deep Sea

February 14 – Physiological and Biochemical Adaptations. (LECTURE SLIDES)

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 3, Childress JJ (1995) Are there physiological and biochemical adaptations of metabolism in deep-sea animals? Trends in Ecology & Evolution 10:30-36. (download pdf here),  Seibel BA & Drazen JC (2007) The rate of metabolism in marine animals: environmental constraints, ecological demands and energetic opportunities. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 362: 2061 -2078. (download from here)

More reading: Somero GN (1992) Biochemical Ecology of deep-sea animals. Experientia 48:537-543. (Download pdf)

February 16 – Sex and Seasonality in the Sea (LECTURE SLIDES)

Required Reading: Young CM (2003) Reproduction, development and life-history traits. In: Tyler PA (ed) Ecosystems of the Deep Oceans. Ecosystems of the World. pp 381-426. (Download pdf)

February 18 – Larval Dispersal

February 21 – Bioluminescence and Visual Ecology (LECTURE SLIDES<– updated to include the whole week Feb 21-25)

**UPDATE: FIXED TO INCLUDE MISSING LECTURE SLIDES FROM FEB 25!**- 3/7/11

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 3, Johnsen S (2005) The red and the black: bioluminescence and the color of animals in the deep sea. Integrative and Comparative Biology 45:234-246 (Download pdf here), also a nice popular science article from Sönke Johnsen on bioluminescence: Johnsen, S (2000) Transparent animals. Scientific American 282(2): 62-71 (Download pdf here)

February 23 – Bioluminescence and Visual Ecology

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 3 and Chapter 4,

February 25 – Visual Ecology

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 3 and Chapter 4

February 28 – Feeding Ecology & Carnivores (LECTURE SLIDES)

March 2 – Feeding Ecology & Suspension Feeders (LECTURE SLIDES)

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 4

March 4 – Symbioses (LECTURE SLIDES <-Includes all slides for March 4-9)

March 7 – Symbioses continued EXAM 2 TOPICS LIST

March 9 – Catch up and Review

March 11 – MIDTERM 2

March 14 – NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK!

March 16 – NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK!

March 18 – NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK!

Section III: Deep-Sea Habitats

March 21 – NO CLASS!

March 23 – CLASS CANCELED-SICK

March 25 – Patterns in Biomass, Body Size and Abundance (LECTURE SLIDES for 3/25 AND 3/28)

Required Reading: Carney R (2005) Zonation of deep biota on continental margins. Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review 43:211-278 (Download pdf here)–>Read pgs. 230-264

March 28 – Patterns in Biomass, Body Size and Abundance (continued)

March 30 – Patterns in Biomass, Body Size and Abundance (continued) (LECTURE SLIDES)

April 1 – Seamounts (LECTURE SLIDES)

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 6, Oceanography Volume 23 (1) Special Issue on Mountains in the Sea (At minimum read Wessel et al. pgs 24-33 – download pdf here – and Shank pgs. 108-122 – download pdf here). All articles in Oceanography are freely available, written for general audience and very nicely laid out and illustrated. I encourage you to at the least peruse through the other articles, especially the short “Spotlights” and “Boxes” sections.

April 4 – Finish up Seamounts, start Hydrothermal Vent Ecology (LECTURE SLIDES through April 8th)

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 5 (pgs 91-108), Fisher CR et al. (2007) Hydrothermal Vent Ecosystems. Oceanography 20:18-27 (Download pdf here), Ramirez-Llodra E et al. (2007) Biodiversity and biogeography of hydrothermal vent species. Oceanography 20:30-41 (Download pdf here)

April 6 – Hydrothermal Vent Ecology continued

April 8 – Hydrothermal Vent Ecology continued

April 11 – Methane Seeps (LECTURE SLIDES)

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 5, Fisher CR et al. (2007) Cold seeps and associated communities of the Gulf of Mexico. Oceanography 20:68-79 (download pdf here).

April 13 – Seeps (continued), Whale Falls (LECTURE SLIDES)

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 6, Smith CR & Baco AR (2003) Ecology of whale falls at the deep-sea floor. Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review 41:311-354 (Download pdf). Ross S (2007) Unique Deep-Water Ecosystems Off the Southeastern United States. Oceanography 20:130-139 (download pdf here)

April 15 – Deep Sea Coral Reefs (LECTURE SLIDES)

April 18 – Catch Up and Review EXAM 3 TOPICS LIST

April 20 – MIDTERM 3

April 22 – NO CLASS: Good Friday State Holiday

Section IV: Humans and the Deep Sea

April 25 – Climate Change and Pollution (LECTURE SLIDES)

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 7 and Chapter 9, Patz J et al. (2006) Climate change, oceans, and human health. Oceanography 19:52-59 (Download pdf here). Benn AR et al. (2010) Human Activities on the Deep Seafloor in the North East Atlantic: An Assessment of Spatial Extent PLoS ONE 5:e12730 (Open Access)

April 27 – Discuss Exam 3

April 29 – Economic interests in the deep sea (LECTURE SLIDES)

Required Reading: Koslow Chapters 8 and 10

May 2 – Law of the Sea, Marine Science Research, and Course Evaluations (LECTURE SLIDES)

Required Reading: Koslow Chapter 11, Devey et al. (2007) Responsible science at hydrothermal vents. Oceanography 20:162-171 (Download pdf here), Godet et al. (2011) Scientists as Stakeholders in Conservation of Hydrothermal Vents. Conservation Biology (Download pdf)

***May 6 – FINAL EXAM 11:30-2:30***

FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE