Course: Marine Conservation 11:628:342 (3 credits)

General Info | Course Description & Grading | Syllabus | Reading | Case Study | Organizations

Instructor: Dr. Judy Grassle

Normally offered: This course is offered every fall.

Prerequisites: 01/11:628:320 Dynamics of Marine Ecosystems or 11:704:351 Principles of Ecology or equivalent.

Format: The class will be taught in two back-to-back periods. Each class meeting will include assigned student presentations of current marine conservation issues culled from the print media, a lecture, and a class discussion of assigned readings in the text (Ray, G. C. and J. McCormick-Ray, Coastal-Marine Conservation: Science and Policy, Blackwell Science Ltd. Malden, MA 2004, 327 pp) and in the primary scientific and policy literature.

Description: This course will focus on coastal zones as ecosystems of global significance. They are heterogeneous, complex, and biologically diverse. Increasingly, this is where human populations are concentrated. Conservation issues are urgent and not easily addressed because of fragmented jurisdictions and competing uses. The course will attempt to draw students into thinking about conservation issues and conservation tools and the linkages between science and policy. Following a series of lectures and discussions on issues, conservation tools, and the properties of coastal ecosystems, the course will follow the text in using a series of case studies to exemplify those issues and the steps already taken to address them. As part of the evaluation of student performance, students will prepare their own case studies.

Additional Information: Course enrollment will be limited to 18 students to allow for close interaction between faculty and students.

Course Description:

This course will focus on coastal zones as ecosystems of global significance. They are heterogeneous, complex, and biologically diverse. Increasingly, this is where human populations are concentrated. Conservation issues are urgent and not easily addressed because of fragmented jurisdictions and competing uses. The course will attempt to draw students into thinking about conservation issues and conservation tools and the linkages between science and policy.

Following a series of lectures and discussions on issues, conservation tools, and the properties of coastal ecosystems, the course will follow the text in using several case studies to exemplify those issues and the steps already taken to address them. Ray and McCormick-Ray (2004) use the Chesapeake Bay, the Bering Sea, and the Bahamas as their in-depth case studies. As part of the evaluation of student performance, students will prepare their own case studies. The case studies will be presented as written reports and as brief oral communications (10 minutes) at the end of the semester.

The class will be taught in two back-to-back periods allowing time for 1) brief student presentations of current issues and class discussion, 2) a 50-minute lecture, and 3) a class discussion of assigned readings. At the beginning of each class two or three students will each make a brief presentation on an issue covered in the print media during the last three months, enhancing their presentations with one or more references from the primary literature relevant to the issue. Other students will be encouraged to question the presenters and to enter into a group discussion of the issue. The articles from the print media and the accompanying science references will be compiled into a class bibliography of current marine conservation issues. Students will be encouraged to develop some of these issues as individual case studies, using as their models the case-studies in the text.

The course will be graded using the following scheme:

• presentation of current issue 10%
• participation in class discussions based on assigned readings (30%)
• case study written report (total 40%). First draft due December 3 (10%). Final report due December 19 (30%).
• case study oral report (10%)
• oral presentation and fact sheet on marine conservation/marine education organization (10%).

Syllabus

Reading

¹Textbook: Textbook: Coastal-Marine Conservation: Science and Policy, G. C. Ray and J. McCormick-Ray, Blackwell Science Ltd., Malden, MA, 327 pp, 1st edition, 2004.
 
Airame, S., Dugan, J. E., Lafferty, K. D., Leslie, H., McArdle, D. A., Warner, R. R. 2003. Applying ecological criteria to marine reserve design: A case study from the California Channel Islands. Ecological Applic. 13 (1): S170-184.

Bateson, G. 1980. Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity. Bantam Books, New York. Chapter  II. Every
Schoolboy Knows.

Bothner, M. H., H. Takada, I. T. Knight, R. T. Hill, B. Butman, J. W. Farrington, R. R. Colwell, J. F. Grassle (1994. Sewage contamination in sediments beneath a deep-ocean dump site off New York. Mar. Env. Res. 38: 43-59.

Chisholm, S. W., P. G. Falkowski, J. J. Cullen (2001). Dis-crediting ocean fertilization. Science 294: 309-310.

Codey R. J. 2005. New Jersey Coast 2005.

Coleman, F. C., Figueira, W. F., Ueland, J. S., Crowder, L. B. 2005. The impact of United States recreational fishers on marine fish populations. Science : 1958-1959 (plus correspondence)

Dybas, C. L. 2005. Dead zones spreading in world oceans. BioScience 55 (7): 552-557.

Feely, R. A. et al. 2004. Impact of anthropogenic CO2 on the CaCO3 system in the oceans. Science 305: 362-366.

Helvarg, D. (2005) The Ocean and Coastal Conservation Guide 2005-2006. Island Press, Washington.

Hooker, S. K., Gerber, L. H. 2004. Marine reserves as a tool for ecosystem-based management: The potential importance of megafauna. Bioscience 54 (1): 27-39.

Hughes, T. P. et al. 2003. Climate change, human impacts, and the resilience of coral  reefs. Science 301: 929-933.

Jackson, J. B. C. et al. 2001. Historical overfishing and the recent collapse of coastal ecosystems. Science 293: 629-637.

Jennings, S., Kaiser, M. J., Reynolds, J. D. 2001. Marine Fisheries Ecology. Blackwell Science, pp. 327-347.

Johannes, R. E. 1998. The case for data-less marine resource management: Examples from tropical nearshore fisheries. TREE 13: 243-246.

Jones, G. P., McCormick, M. I., Srinivasan, M., Eagle, J. V. 2004. Coral decline threatens fish biodiversity in marine reserves. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 101: 8251-8253.

Knowlton, N. 2000. Molecular genetic analyses of species boundaries in the sea. Hydrobiologia 420: 73-90.

Little, A. F., van Oppen, M. J. H., Willis, B. L. 2004. Flexibility in algal endosymbioses shapes growth in reef corals. Science 304: 1492-1494.

Nordstrom, K. F. 2000. Beaches and dunes of developed coasts. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 338 pp.

Nordstrom, K. F., Garés, P. A., Psuty, N. P., Pilkey, O. H. Jr., Neal, W. J., Pilkey, O. H. Sr. (1986). Living with the New Jersey Shore. Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 191 pp.

Ofiara, D. D., Brown, B. 1999. Assessment of economic losses to recreational activities from 1988 marine pollution events and assessment of economic losses from long-term contamination of fish within the New York Bight. Mar. Poll. Bull. 38: 990-1004.

Palumbi, S. R. 2002. Marine reserves: A tool for ecosystem management. A Report prepared for the Pew Oceans Commission, Arlington, VA, 45 pp.

Palumbi, S. R., Gaines, S. D., Leslie, H., Warner, R. R. 2003. New wave: High-tech tools to help marine reserve research. Frontiers Ecol. Env. 1: 73-79.

Pandolfi, J. M. et al. 2003. Global trajectories of the long-term decline of coral reef ecosystems. Science 301: 955-958.

Pauly, D., Christiansen, V. 1995. Primary production required to sustain global fisheries. Nature 374:255-257.

Peterson, C. H. et al. 2003. Long-term ecosystem response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Science 302:2082-2086.

Psuty, N. P., Ofiara, D. D. 2002. Coastal Hazard Management. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick. 429 pp.

Roberts, C. M. et al. 2002. Marine biodiversity hotspots and conservation priorities for tropical reefs. Science 295: 1280-1284.

Sabine, C. L. et al. 2004. The oceanic sink for anthropogenic CO2. Science 305: 367-371.

Safina, C. 1997. Song for the Blue Ocean. Henry Holt and Company, Inc. New York, pp. 350-383.

Safina, C., Rosenberg, A. A., Myers, R. A. Quinn, T. J. III, Collie, J. S. 2005. U.S. Ocean fish recovery: Staying the course. Science 309: 707-708.

Vasquez, E. A., Glenn, E. P., Brown, J. J., Guntenspergen, G. R., Nelson, S. G. 2005. Salt tolerance underlies the cryptic invasion of North American salt marshes by an introduced haplotype of the common reed Phragmites australis (Poaceae). Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 298: 1-8.

Vieties, D. R., Nieto-Roman, S., Palance, A., Ferrer, X., Vences, M. 2004. European Atlantic: the hottest oil spill hotspot worldwide. Naturwissenschaftern 91: 535-538.

Weijerman, M., Lindeboom, H., Zuur, A. F. 2005 Regime shifts in marine ecosystems of the North Sea and Wadden Sea. 298: 21-39.

What is a case study?

In the terms used by the text it is a review of the conservation issues for a particular regional ecosystem. It takes into account the physical features, cultural inheritance, natural history, and ecology. Table III.1 (p. 128) shows a way of organizing the issues and the history.

For the purposes of this course we will define a case history more narrowly. Instead of dealing with all of the conservation issues for a region you should focus on a single issue in a specific place: e.g., high lobster mortality in Long Island Sound; an increased frequency and severity of coral bleaching on the reefs in Belize; strandings of two species of pilot whales off North Carolina; the effects of disease on the oyster industry of Delaware Bay; The Essential Fish Habitat concept and how it is changing (or not changing) fisheries management in the northeastern USA; assessment of the effects of the recent tsunami on coral reefs in Indonesia; The Ocean Project and strategies to increase public understanding of marine conservation issues; exotic species and their effects on San Francisco Bay; eels, horseshoe crabs, and migrating birds in Delaware Bay; seamounts: open ocean hotspots of marine biodiversity.

Organizations