Home

MASC 616 MARINE PLANKTONOLOGY

Credits: 
2

Marine plankton forms the base of the marine food chain and this course will introduce students to the importance, ecology and techniques of studying the plankton community. The course will focus on Taxonomy and systematics of phytoplankton and zooplankton; Adaptation to pelagic life; Survey Techniques; Sampling preservation, and enumeration; Nutrition, reproduction, growth and related processes; Vertical migration and distributions; Succession and associations; Interaction with other marine organisms and relation to fisheries; Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB); and Modelling zooplankton dynamics. At the end of this course, students will be equipped with the necessary skills in sampling and identifying plankton, modelling and predicting plankton community variability.