OCEAN 539B                                                                                         Spring, 2008

 

MODELING BIOLOGICAL DYNAMICS IN THE OCEAN

 
Tentative Syllabus

Instructor: Daniel GrŸnbaum

Associate Professor, School of Oceanography

 

Lectures: Wednesday 1:30-2:50

Computer Labs: Friday 1:30-2:50

Location: Ocean Sciences Building 111 (Spatial Analysis Lab)

Office Hours: Wednesday 3:00 and by appointment

Contact Info: random@u.washington.edu

Course website: http://courses.washington.edu/ocean539/OCEAN539_B/index_539b.html

 

 

Week 1 (March 31-April 4) Introduction to modeling population dynamics

April 2 Lecture: Preliminaries

April 4 Computer Lab: Stability, cycling & chaos

 

Week 2 (April 7-11) Models of multiple, interacting populations

April 9 Lecture: Competition, coexistence & exclusion

April 11 Computer Lab: Time series & phase planes

 

Week 3 (April 14-18) Scaling and non-dimensional numbers; Weekly appointment with DG

April 16 Lecture: What are non-dimensional numbers and what are they good for?

ˆ ONE OR MORE PROPOSED THEMES FOR MAJOR PROJECTS DUE

April 18 Computer Lab: Identifying dominant mechanisms with dimensional analysis

 

Week 4 (April 21-25) Age- and stage-structured populations I

April 23 Lecture: Conserved quantities, fluxes & conservation equations

ˆ PRELIMINARY REFERENCE LIST FOR PROJECTS DUE

April 25 Computer Lab: Age and stage-structured PDE population models

 

Week 5 (April 28-May 2) Weekly appointment with DG

         April 28-29 Appointments with DG

ˆ May 2 PROJECT PROPOSALS DUE

 

Week 6 (May 5-9) Age- and stage-structured populations II; Weekly appointment with DG

April 30 Lecture: Matrix population models: characteristics and solutions 

May 2 Computer Lab: Age and stage-structured matrix population models

 

Week 7 (May 12-16); Models of movement and spatial dynamics; Weekly appointment with DG

May 14 Lecture: Mathematical descriptions of spatial heterogeneity and movement; randomness and determinism in ecological dynamics

ˆ May 16 PRESENTATION OF PROJECT OUTLINES

 

Week 8 (May 19-23) Weekly appointment(s) with DG

 

Week 9 (May 26-30) Weekly appointment(s) with DG

 

Week 10 (June 2-June 6) DG out of town

 

Week 11 (June 9-13) Final Project Presentations

ˆ June 9 FINAL PROJECT PRESENTATIONS