16:712:501 (F) Physical Oceanography (3)
Physical properties and basic equations for describing waves, tides, currents, and the large-scale wind-driven and thermohaline circulation. Ekman, geostrophic, and inertial flows. Gulf Stream; air-sea interactions; El Niño.
Chant, Miller. Prerequisites: One year of college calculus and college physics.
16:712:502 (F) Large-Scale Ocean and Atmosphere Dynamics (3)
Observational basis for large-scale ocean circulation; derivation of oceanic equations of motion; Kelvin, planetary, and topographic waves; wind-driven ocean circulation; simple models of abyssal circulation and thermocline; and instabilities and mesoscale eddies.
Prerequisite: 16:712:501 or permission of instructor. Offered in alternate years.
16:712:503 (S) Coastal Ocean Dynamics (3)
Observation basis and theoretical foundation of coastal ocean dynamics; tides; rotation; Kelvin and vorticity waves; fronts and plumes; upwelling; estuaries and buoyancy forcing; effects of boundaries and topography; and biogeochemical implications.
Chant, Wilkin. Prerequisite: 16:712:501 or 502. Offered in alternate years. Next offered Spring 2022.
16:712:509 Integrated Ocean Observing – Software Bootcamp
The aim of the course is to introduce some widely used software tools and teach basic coding practices. The goal is to help students jump start research by acquiring the skills to work efficiently with their data. Topics to be covered include: Jupyter notebooks/lab, the Unix shell: interacting with your computer programmatically and reproducibly, Python programming (including common geoscience libraries: numpy, matplotlib, pandas, xarray, cartopy …), version control (git), accessing public earth science datasets. The course will assume no prior coding experience and is aimed at beginners. The course will aim to build a solid programming foundation to accelerate your data analysis. The course will culminate in a project of each student’s choosing. Ideally this will be a task that directly builds on/complements your research.
16:712:520 (F) Biological Oceanography: Water Column Ecosystems & Processes (3)
The ocean is the majority of Earth and the largest biome on the planet. Processes that occur in the water column are highly dynamic and central to regulating the planet’s biogeochemistry which influences how much oxygen we breath, how many fish exist, and how much oil is available to human’s to extract. This course will cover the processes that regulate the biology of the plankton and fish, which drives the community ecology for ocean ecosystems. This course covers ecological themes such as the acquisition and transformation of energy and materials, population regulation, competition/predation dynamics, population connectivity and marine food webs. The course will also highlight approaches and technologies used to make measurements in the ocean.
16:712:521 (S) Marine Benthic Ecology (3)
Emphasis on fauna living in soft sediments: roles in nutrient cycling and marine food webs; feeding biology, reproduction, and recruitment; and community structure as influenced by physical and chemical properties of the environment.
Taghon. Prerequisites: One year of college calculus and invertebrate zoology. Offered in alternate years.
16:712:522 (S) Biological Oceanography (3)
Interactions among biological, physical, and chemical components of the marine environment, including primary production and secondary production, biogeochemical cycles, food web interactions, and ecosystem analysis of selected marine ecosystems. Habitats considered include the open ocean, coastal waters, kelp beds, coral reefs, estuaries, the deep sea, and hydrothermal vent environments.
Taghon. Prerequisite: One year of college biology.
16:712:523 (F) Primary Production in Aquatic Ecosystems (3)
Regulation of phytoplankton productivity in nature; physiological ecology of phytoplankton in dynamic environments; impact of phytoplankton on water column optical and chemical properties; and new technologies being used in fieldwork.
Schofield. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor. Next offered Fall 2017.
16:712:525 (F) Molecular Microbial Oceanography (3)
The application of molecular tools to study biological processes in the oceans with emphasis on phylogenetics, genomics, population genetics, phylogeography, and molecular ecology.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
16:712:526 (F) Estuarine Ecology (4)
Focus on current scientific questions in the ecology of estuarine organisms, with an emphasis on student-based examination of data collection, techniques, analysis, and synthesis relative to the relevant literature.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructors. Offered every fourth year; next offered fall 2018.
16:712:540 (S) Chemical Oceanography (3)
Chemical description of the ocean and its major chemical cycles; salinity and the elements of seawater; nutrients; the carbonate system; marine organic matter; radioisotopes; hydrothermal processes and ocean evolution.
Rosenthal, Severmann, Sherrell, Sikes. Prerequisites: One year of college chemistry; 16:712:501.
16:712:544 (S) Coastal Biogeochemical Cycles In a Changing World (3)
The course will use coastal systems systems to explore important concepts in marine chemistry in the coastal zone and nearshore sediments. It will investigate how the disciplines of chemistry, biology and geology are used to understand marine processes in the coastal zone. These high productivity regions of intense biogeochemical cycling are increasingly challenged by anthropogenic changes including: Sea level rise, ocean acidification, and eutrophication. We will study 4 coastal environments from the poles to the tropics while building skills in analysis software. Prerequisites: One year of college chemistry.
16:712:545 (S) Dynamics of Waves, Currents, and Sediment Transport on the Continental Shelf (3)
Equations of motion; linear theory for surface waves; wave boundary layers; current Ekman layers; coastal current circulation patterns; sediment transport in steady flow, oscillatory flow, and combined waves and currents.
Glenn. Prerequisite: 16:712:501. Offered in alternate years.
16:712:552 (F) Remote Sensing of the Ocean and Atmosphere (3)
Introduction to physical principles of remote sensing; past, present, and future instruments on satellites, aircraft, the surface, and under the ocean; applications in oceanography and atmospheric sciences.
Miller, Wilkin. Prerequisite: One year of physics.
16:712:560 (F) History of the Earth System (3)
Introduction to major processes that have shaped Earth’s environment, including climatic processes on geological time scales, the evolution of organisms, the cycling of elements, and the feedback between these processes.
Falkowski. Prerequisites: Introductory chemistry, biology, and physics, or permission of instructor.
16:712:561 (F) Professional Science Writing and Presentation (3)
Presenting your science at international meetings. Effective design of data and conceptual figures, and tables that are fit for different purposes. Writing thesis or fellowship proposals and manuscripts. Understanding the peer review process. Job applications. Science communication to the public.
Severmann, Bhattacharya
16:712:590 (S) The Role of Polar Regions in the Earth System (3)
The polar regions are a central to the Earth system, playing an outsized role in regulating the planet’s climate, chemistry, and ecosystems. The polar regions are changing rapidly in response to global warming, with far-reaching impacts on sea level rise, carbon cycling, and other global dynamics. Processes in the Arctic and Antarctic are central to understanding past and future climate variations, biodiversity and marine resources. In this course, we will build on fundamental physical and biological principles to understand the links between the cryosphere, ocean, atmosphere and biosphere in the polar regions. We will explore the drivers of polar change, and the ramifications of these changes for the Earth system and climate.
Course topics include: polar oceanography, ocean-cryosphere-atmosphere interactions, physics of glaciers and sea ice, primary and secondary production in polar systems, polar marine food webs, marine ecology, and climate change. The course will also highlight approaches and technologies used to make measurements in the polar oceans and cryosphere.
16:712:603 (F) Numerical Modeling of the Atmosphere and Ocean I (3)
Governing equations of atmospheric/oceanic motion; simplification and scaling; parameterization issues; numerical solution of the equations; Fourier and spectral methods; and evaluation of atmospheric and oceanic models.
Haidvogel. Prerequisites: 16:375:547, 16:712:502 or equivalent; proficiency in a high-level programming language. Offered in alternate years.
16:712:604 (S) Numerical Modeling of the Atmosphere and Ocean II (3)
Laboratory course for practical application of numerical approaches taught in 16:712:603, including literature review, problem formulation, model development, and synthesis and presentation of results.
Offered in alternate years. Prerequisite: 16:712:501 or 522 or 540 or equivalent.
16:712:605,606 (F/S) Oceanography Seminar (1)
Scientific papers are read in order to foster discussion and critical analysis by students of important scientific topics. Papers are selected from all disciplines with an emphasis on interdisciplinary studies. Faculty instructors provide guidance and comment.
16:712:615 (S) Geophysical Data Analysis (3)
Quantitative analysis and display of spatial and time-series data; filters; spectral analysis; covariance; coherence; confidence intervals; goodness-of-fit; optimal interpolation of unequally spaced data; empirical orthogonal functions; and harmonic analysis. Practical exercises using Matlab to analyze data from marine and environmental instruments, satellites, and climatologies. Communicating quantitative results to an audience.
Chant, Wilkin. Prerequisites: Calculus, differential equations, linear algebra. Offered in alternate years. Next offered Spring 2023.