Course builds on core classes to examine the features of the oceanography of the U.S. southeast Atlantic coast, the South Atlantic Bight (SAB). Lectures will introduce broad interdisciplinary processes, with readings and discussions from the literature to explore connections among SAB physics, geology, chemistry, and biology.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students: Students enrolled at the graduate level will have additional expectations of their research projects in terms of paper length and depth of primary literature cited. Students are encouraged to choose topics that incorporate more than two disciplines and/or have connections to hands-on student research.
Athena Title
Regional Oceanography
Undergraduate Prerequisite
MARS 4100/6100 and MARS 4200/6200
Graduate Prerequisite
(MARS 4100/6100 and MARS 4200/6200) or (MARS 8010 and MARS 8020 and MARS 8030)
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
Students will be able to apply concepts learned in core Physical/Geological and Biological/Chemical Oceanography classes to interdisciplinary problems in regional research.
Students will be able to analyze complex information, evaluate arguments, and develop reasoned conclusions in critical analysis, using scientific literature to understand how physical, geological, biological, chemical, and ecological processes can be interconnected in the SAB.
Students will be able to synthesize information from example systems in group and individual in-class presentations.
Students will be able to formulate, support, and communicate original scientific arguments about questions addressed in the scientific literature effectively in written and verbal formats.
Topical Outline
This course serves senior Ocean Science majors, with lectures designed to guide students as they explore the primary literature on several broad interdisciplinary systems of interest in the southeast U.S. Atlantic Ocean from Cape Canaveral, FL, to Cape Hatteras, NC, regionally known as the South Atlantic Bight (SAB).
Students will explore the drivers, limitations, patterns of variability, and connections among the disciplines in example systems from the continental slope, shelf, nearshore, and marshes/estuaries of the SAB, using descriptive physical oceanography as context for drivers and time and length scales of variability in the biology, geology, and chemistry of the water column and benthos. Students will read, summarize, and discuss scientific research on example systems from journal articles in regular in-class and take-home assignments, and will synthesize an original argument and/or perspective on an interdisciplinary research topic of their choice in the form of a research perspective presentation and paper.
Students enrolled at the 6000 level will have additional expectations of their research perspective in terms of paper length and depth of primary literature cited, and are encouraged to choose topics that incorporate more than two disciplines and/or have connections to hands-on student research.
Topics include:
Review of regional oceanography from core courses
Physical setting
Major features
Coastal oceanography
Outer shelf/upper slope: Gulf Stream
Review of drivers/limitations/connections
Patterns of variability
Example process: Upwelling by Gulf Stream frontal eddies, associated nutrient cycling, and effects on food web dynamics
Mid shelf: Tides, wind, air-sea interaction
Review of drivers/limitations/connections
Example process: Advective pore water exchange and effects on benthic biogeochemistry, redox layers, and ecological zonation
Example process: Langmuir circulation and associated sediment dynamics
Inner shelf: Buoyancy, tides
Review of drivers/limitations/connections
Patterns of variability
Example process: Coastal Frontal Zone dynamics, delivery of fresh water, inorganic nutrients, and other terrestrially-derived materials to coastal ocean
Nearshore processes
Example process: Barrier island formation, migration. Hypoxia.
Marshes and estuaries
Review of drivers/limitations/connections
Outwelling hypothesis
Sediment transport, marsh accumulation rates
Ecological zonation
Biogeochemical processes
Anthropogenic influence
Synthesis of gradients across the SAB
Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Communication
The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, interpersonal, or visual form.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
