Introduction to Functional Marine Biology

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Relate the form and function of a marine organism to its habitat,
• Subject-specific Skills: knowledge of basic functional biology and practical lab skills in manipulation of simple laboratory equipment and the acquisition of raw data, its analysis and presentation of final results
• Describe the basic physiological another functional characteristics of marine organisms.
• Have some knowledge of basic laboratory measurements.
• Generic skills: report writing
• To collect practical data, analyse it and write a report.

Topics include eco-physiological adaptations to life in extreme environments (polar and deep sea), basic neurophysiology and comparative neurobiology, macroecology of reproduction, growth and development in marine invertebrates including evolutionary patterns and bottlenecks in response to environmental cues and feeding, immunology and parasitology, barobiology and bioemechanics.

Formal Lectures: 10 x 2h lectures will provide an introduction to the theory underlying the course. Each lecture systematically covers the main concepts and topics by the use of PowerPoint presentations that are also available on Blackboard as recorded videos and pdfs to download. Where relevant, lecturers’ own research experience in the appropriate fields is brought into the lecturing sessions. References to relevant textbooks and/or journal articles are provided as essential reading for each lecture via Blackboard.

Practical Class (3 x 3 hours): will provide you with an understanding the characteristics of major biological processes and the practicalities of simple biological measurements.

Revision Class: The last lecture slot provides an opportunity for students to aim specific questions about the parts of the course not fully understood.

A wide range of support can be provided for those students who have further or specific learning and teaching needs.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.