This course will integrate two major areas in marine sciences,
physics and chemistry, and the mathematics and technology that
are used in these disciplines, for non-science majors. It is
intended to improve the students' abilities to read and
interpret information from sciences and to satisfy the Physical
Science requirement. Successful completion of this course will
provide students with a basic understanding of physical and
chemical processes that operate in the ocean at different
scales. Students will gain working knowledge of the mechanisms
controlling those physical and chemical processes and how they
in turn influence migratory patterns of several marine
organisms. They will be able to recognize interactions between
human activities, modifications on the ocean-atmosphere system,
and future environmental changes and they will learn how
changes in climate may influence/alter physical and chemical
processes in the ocean. A large focus of the course is on
critical writing and reading so that students can evaluate the
impact of science and technology in their lives and careers.

- Introduction, examples of migrations:

o Plankton
o Lobsters
o Fish
o Turtles
o Seabirds
o Marine mammals

- Physical and chemical processes in the ocean:

o Energy and heat budgets
o Earth’s rotation
o Optics, light absorption, and scattering
o Large-scale atmospheric circulation
o Large-scale oceanic circulation
o Ocean-Atmosphere interactions
o Waves
o Tides
o Coastal and estuarine systems
o Low-frequency variability, El Niño/La Niña
o Properties of water
o Dissolved gases
o Nutrients
o Light spectrum
o Ocean acidification
o Plastics in the ocean
o Radiation
o Human impacts
o Migration in a changing ocean
o Effects of physical and chemical processes on migrations, examples