[Coral-List] study Coral Reef Ecology in Bermuda July 2008
Samantha de Putron
Samantha.dePutron at bios.edu
Mon Feb 4 16:38:22 EST 2008
****The Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences
(BIOS) is pleased to announce a Coral Reef
Ecology field course offering in Bermuda in July 2008.
Course dates: 13 July to 2 August, 2008
Course instructor: Dr. Samantha de Putron, BIOS
Qualifications: Open to undergraduates and
graduate students with strong academic
credentials, and to professionals. The course is open only to SCUBA divers.
Application deadline: March 15, 2008 for first
round of admissions and scholarship decisions.
Later applications will also receive consideration on a space-available basis.
Scholarships and financial aid AVAILABLE and are
based on academic background/performance and
demonstrated need. Full scholarships are rare and
only available in exceptional circumstances. We
encourage students to apply for other sources of
funding that BIOS can supplement or match. Travel
and SCUBA equipment are NOT included under any
circumstance. Some scholarships and financial aid
are open to all nationalities. We particularly
encourage Canadian and UK students to apply, as
there are specific funding sources for these students.
More information of the Coral Reef Ecology summer
course is below and also can be found at:
http://www.bios.edu/education/coral_reef_ecology.html
Application form available at: http://www.bios.edu/education/scapp.html
For further information please contact: education at bios.edu
Course summary:
The Coral Reef Ecology summer course at BIOS
exposes the student to the reef ecosystem at all
organizational levels, from physiological ecology
through population biology, community structure
to ecosystem dynamics, and ends with
consideration of human impacts and climate
change. The course has a large practical
component, and the field surveys along with
complementary laboratory analysis provide
training in many techniques commonly used in coral reef research.
The integrated course is comprised of lectures,
required reading, laboratory exercises and field
surveys. The lectures cover a broad range of
relevant topics in coral reef ecology that are
supplemented by readings from the primary
literature with attention given to active areas
of research. The course is divided into 20
lectures (1 to 1.25 hours long), 9 field trips (4
hours each), 6 lab sessions (4-5 hours each), 6
precepts (1 hour each), 3 or 4 seminars by BIOS
scientists on current research, a take home
written exam, and an afternoon of oral
presentations. An additional 10-15 hours is taken
to complete the working-group analyses and presentations.
The lab work is focused on training in practical techniques:
separation of coral tissue from skeleton
fractionation by centrifugation
enumeration of zooxanthellae with a haemocytometer
chlorophyll analysis
determination of coral surface area
coral growth determination using a buoyant weighing technique
Various field techniques and subsequent lab
analyses are used repetitively at different sites
so that each student has the opportunity to
become familiar with the following methods:
video-taping of reef transects to assess community structure
quantification of reef fish community structure using a visual census method
quadrat sampling of reef algae, sorting,
identification and dry weight biomass estimation
quadrat sampling and measurement of juvenile
corals to construct size/frequency curves
quantification of parrotfish and surgeonfish
feeding rates and social interactions
The laboratory and field work are synthesized as
final oral presentations that are based on a
typical format for presenting scientific results
to an audience and so are designed to provide
experience in communicating science.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Dr Samantha de Putron
Assistant Research Scientist
Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences
(formerly the Bermuda Biological Station for Research)
Ferry Reach
St Georges
GE 01, Bermuda
Tel: (441) 297 1880 ext 724
Fax: (441) 297 8143
Web: www.bios.edu
http://www.bios.edu/research/coralintro.html
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