---

---

Professor: Nathan Mantua
nmantua@u.washington.edu
Office: FSH 316B
Office hours: W 3-4:30pm, Th 9-10:30am, or by appointment.

TA: Lauren Rogers
larogers@u.washington.edu
Office: FSH 358B
Office hours: W 11:30am-1:30pm or by appointment, in FSH 358B.

Lecture

Monday, Wednesday & Friday 10:30-11:20
Mary Gates Hall 241

Lab/discussion section

I: Tuesday: 8:30-11:20
II: Tuesday: 2:00-4:50

Sections will meet in either Mary Gates Hall 085 or FSH 207 (computer lab), depending on the scheduled activity for the week. Please check the "Lab Section" part of the website to know where to go!

This course provides an in-depth introduction to the role of large-scale to local-scale climate processes as agents of change and structure in marine ecosystems. Students will explore the fundamental physical processes linking changes in the ocean with changes in ecosystems. Once a foundation for understanding the biophysical impacts of climate variations is set, lectures will focus on the impacts of large-scale patterns of climate variability and climate change--including the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation, and human-caused global warming--on marine ecosystems. While the primary focus of the course will be climate impacts on ecosystems, students will also learn the basics of human-caused ocean acidification and its projected impacts on marine ecosystems. Case studies focused on tropical, temperate, upwelling, sub-arctic, and polar marine ecosystems will allow students to apply their understanding for fundamental processes of biophysical interactions to present-day concerns about future climate change impacts on marine ecosystems. Daily ecology vignettes will present a 5 -10 minute overview of the life history of a different marine animal so that by the end of the quarter students will have a collection of material describing a range of habitat requirements and sensitivities for different species that will enrich their understanding of the ecosystem case studies.

By the end of this course, successful students will:

• Develop new perspectives on scale issues in ecosystem dynamics
• Develop a conceptual understanding for the physical processes underlying the productivity and variability of marine ecosystems
• Develop insights into the natural history for a range of marine species and their habitat requirements
• Understand the characteristics of prominent patterns of large-scale climate variability and their regionally-specific impacts on marine fisheries
• Understand the basic physics of human-caused climate change
• Understand the issues surrounding human-caused ocean acidification and its potential impacts on marine ecosystems
• Become proficient at accessing climate and environmental data via the internet
• Become able to formulate hypotheses linking climate change to ecosystem change

All students must enroll in the lecture and lab/discussion section for 5-credits. All students should be comfortable with the basic concepts and symbolism of calculus, and should have taken at least an introductory college physics course yielding familiarity with Newton's Laws and be able to comprehend and construct vector diagrams.

This part of the course will provide students with instructions on how to carry out and report on exploratory climate impacts analyses for a variety of applications. Students should be comfortable using computers and analysis software like Matlab and/or Excel. In this component of the course, students will learn how to:

• find and download credible environmental data via the internet
• explore techniques for "upscaling" and "downscaling" environmental observations
• use a variety of analysis approaches in climate impacts assessments
• to critically evaluate material presented in research articles, popular media, and non-peer reviewed literature

Main text:
Bakun, A. 1996. Patterns in the Ocean: Ocean Processes and Marine Population Dynamics. University of California Sea Grant, San Diego, California, USA. 323 pp.

The complete book is available online in an 88Mb pdf found here. (Warning, this is a large file and may take a long time to download!). You may download individual chapters from the course e-reserves page.

Additional readings will consist of selected articles and book chapters that will be made available via UW Libraries e-reserves or handed out in class.

Lecture grades will be based on weekly reading quizzes, two mid-term exams and a final exam. Lectures and reading materials will be the basis for the mid-term and final exams. Lab/discussion section grades will be based on weekly assignments and attendance.

Academic Integrity

Plagiarism, cheating, and other misconduct are serious violations of your contract as a student. We expect that you will know and follow the University's policies on cheating and plagiarism. Any suspected cases of academic misconduct will be handled according to University regulations. More information, including definitions and examples of Academic Misconduct, can be found at:

http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm

Disability Accommodations

To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disabled Student Services, 448 Schmitz, (206)543-8924 (V/TTY). If you have a letter from Disabled Student Services indicating that you have a disability which requires academic accommodations, please present the letter to the instructor so we can discuss the accommodations needed for this class.