[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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