Mar 28, 2024  
2021-2022 Course Catalog 
    
2021-2022 Course Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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BIO 225 - Marine Biology I

Credits: 4
Lecture Hours: 3
Lab Hours: 2
Practicum Hours: 0
Work Experience: 0
Course Type: General
Students will study polar, temperate and tropical marine organisms and their environmental and ecological relationships. They will also examine the structure and function of marine flora and fauna using preserved and live specimens. The course includes hands-on laboratory activities, comparative anatomy, field observations, marine aquarium care, snorkeling, kayaking and introductory scuba.
Prerequisite: High school or college Biology
Competencies
  1. Summarize the history of marine science and ocean exploration
    1. Be able to match the following individuals to their contributions to marine science or exploration
    2. Describe the route and two important accomplishments of the first major voyage, HMS Challenger, undertaken exclusively for the purpose of investigation the nature of the ocean
    3. Arrange in proper order the steps that led to the modern day scuba systems.
    4. Arrange in proper order the historical development of marine laboratories.
    5. Arrange in proper order the historical development of submersibles.
    6. Name and locate three of the most important United States’ oceanographic institutes
    7. Highlight the career of a current nationally or internationally known marine biologist
    8. List and define the use of typical tools and instruments on board a research vessel that would be used to probe the ocean for information.
    9. After examing the classroom copy of Ed Rickett’s book, Between Pacific Tides, students will be able to explain John Steinbeck’s connection to the book.
    10. Examine the displayed marine-related artifacts from Indian, Eskimo, Aftrican, Canadian, and Polynesian cultures and state the significance of two of the artifacts to the culture
  2. Examine marine navigation
    1. Summarize briefly the development of chronometer and explain its relationship to longitude
    2. Explain the concept of time zones and their origin
    3. Describe 2 methods a sailor could use to pinpoint his or her location.
    4. Interpret the latitude, longitude, direction, and depth numbers found on a nautical chart
    5. Identify six important navigational markers and flags
    6. Compare and contrast a bathymetric chart and a physiographic chart.
    7. Explain and use the appropriate tools and the compass rose on a navigational chart to plot a simple navigation course
    8. Be able to follow the intracoastal waterway on a map of the Florida Keys and be able to answer questions regarding the route
    9. Locate Arctic and Antarctic Circles, Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer, Equator, prime or Greenwich meridian, and international date line on a globe and explain why these points of reference are located where they are.
    10. Demonstrate the use of the classroom sextant
    11. Recognize the parts of the compass then calculate and complete simple orienteering courses
  3. Explore ocean-related careers
    1. List and describe five major divisions of research that occur at harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
    2. List five industries apart from research and education that employ marine biologists
    3. Define one of the possible education routes a high school graduate who is interested in marine studies should consider
  4. Demonstrate understanding of underwater sign communication
    1. Using American Sign Language be able to sign and read numbers and fingerspell and read fingerspelling
    2. Recognize and perform widely used signs used in scuba.
    3. Recognize and perform 250 signs (American Sign Language, Signed English, or class-developed signs for specific marine organisms) to communicate underwater, in noisy situations, and at distances
  5. Demonstrate knowledge of scuba adequate for certification
    1. Summarize anatomical description, cause, symptoms, treatment and prevention of the following - decompression sickness, nitrogen narcosis, the four overexpansion injuries, hypothermia, oxygen toxicity, and carbon monoxide poisoning, and various squeezes
    2. Calculate the partial pressures of oxygen and nitrogen.
    3. Summarize the body’s response to breathing compressed air at increased ambient pressure
    4. Understand the need to follow and practice safe diving procedures including dive planning.
    5. Explain and use the information provided by the U.S. Navy Dive Tables including decompression problems
    6. State that water requires 1000 times more heat energy to warm it than an equal volume of air and that water conducts heat away from the body 25 times more rapidly than air does
    7. Paraphrase Archimedes’ Principle and Boyle’s Law and explain their significance to the diver and how they each apply to diving mammals.
    8. Summarize the steps for a safe normal ascent and for a dependent and independent out-of-air ascent
    9. Describe the appropriate breathing pattern for SCUBA.
    10. State the three rules of SCUBA
    11. Demonstrate a working knowledge of a dive computer and how to record the information in a dive log
    12. Provide the following information when asked
    13. Fill in missing information for tables pertaining to absolute atmospheres, PSIA (pounds per square inch of air), depth, and volumes; answer word problems practicing the concepts.
    14. Explain the following terms in regard to the underwater environment; refraction, illumination, absorption, diffusion, turbidity, thermoclines, and sound
    15. Define hyperventilation and relate the impact of carbon dioxide on the respiration process
    16. Write the words for the acronym SCUBA
    17. Relate why being knowledgeable of SCUBA diving is beneficial to marine biology students and why enrolling in SCUBA courses is vital for diving safety.
    18. Define types of water currents and the potential impact on dive planning.
    19. Describe three values of a buddy team and proper buddy team functioning.
    20. List causes of panic, possible solutions and ways to avoid panic.
    21. Pass all open water scuba skills tests if certifying in scuba.
  6. Examine ocean-related geology and geography
    1. Label the continents, oceans, and 64 other major water bodies (gulfs, seas, bays).
    2. List the 4 oceans from largest to smallest and average depth from deepest to shallowest
    3. Explain the relationship between plate tectonics and mid-ocean ridges, deep-sea trenches, earthquakes, and volcanoes
    4. Describe the relationship of H.M.S. Challenger, Glomar Challenger, and Alvin to findings regarding plate tectonics
    5. State the importance of index fossils
    6. Describe the impact of the most recent ice age on sea levels and marine habitats.
    7. Label major ocean features on a relief map - continental shelf, continental rise, continental slope, seamount, guyot, atoll, island, delta, trench, fracture zone, mid-ocean ridge, abyssal plain, island arc, and bay.
    8. State the maximum ocean depth and its location.
    9. Identify classroom rock samples with the appropriate geologic origins; peridotite from Gros Morne (earth?s mantle), basaltic rock (ocean floor) and granitic rocks (continental base rock), and obsidian (fast cooling lava).
    10. List several sources and components of the inorganic and organic sediments on the ocean floor
    11. Explain why the ocean does not get saltier and saltier and include at least 3 ways in which salt is naturally removed from seawater.
  7. Summarize water properties
    1. Define and give examples of the following forms of heat transfer: conduction, radiation and convection
    2. Look at a map of geographic variations of surface ocean salinities and analyze why certain locations are high or low
    3. Compare the average specific gravity of seawater to that of the classroom marine aquariums
    4. Recognize the major and minor ions of seawater and list six of the major seven.
    5. Identify on a map the major marine climatic zones; polar, subpolar, temperate, subtropical, and tropical
    6. Describe the impact of the dissolved gases, acid/base buffering, and dissolved nutrients found in seawater and run some of the related test for these items.
    7. List and describe the major physical and chemical features of seawater that change markedly from the sea surface downward
    8. List and describe the major physical and chemical features of seawater that change markedly as one proceeds form the equator to the poles.
    9. List 3 properties of seawater which change with salinity variations, and indicate how those properties change as salinity increases
    10. Define thermocline, halocline, pycnocline
    11. Explain the different ocean zones based on physical characteristics such as water temperature, water depth, available light, and tidal exposure.
    12. State the biological importance of the following properties of water; boiling point, freezing point, surface tension, capillary action, viscosity, density of solid, latent heat of evaporation, latent heat of freezing, solvent power, and heat capacity
    13. explain what is meant by pH and why our marine aquariums have a pH ranging from about 8.2-8.4
    14. Summarize the impact of global warming on the earth’s oceans.
  8. Demonstrate understanding of wind and water movement.
    1. Identify causes of waves and parts of waves (height, length, crest, trough, and interval)
    2. Explain high energy waves, low energy waves, surf, breakers, surge, wave train (wave series) and the potential implications for divers and marine life.
    3. Explain causes and a potential impact of the following currents: tidal, rip, alongshore, countercurrent, gyres, major surface currents, continental boundary currents, deepwater currents, El Nino, upwelling and downwelling.
    4. Trace the probable path of a bottle tossed in the ocean along the coast of one country and months or years later arriving on the coast of another country (i.e. Peru to Norway
    5. Explain the causes of high and low tides including spring and neap tides.
    6. Be able to understand and graph tide tables as well as explain whether the tides are diurnal, mixed diurnal or semidiurnal.
    7. Identify the type of tide that occurs on each coastline of the U.S.
    8. Summarize the Coriolis effect on winds and water, including Ekmar spiral and transport
    9. Be able to appropriately label the following on a diagram of wind circulation: high and low pressure areas, doldrums, polar easterlies, westerlies, horse latitudes, and trade winds
    10. Explain the seasonal water column changes exhibited in temperate and polar seas and the positive impacts of these changes.
    11. Define a tsunami, identify its causes, state examples of its effects, and explain ho a potential warning system would work
    12. Explain two or more impacts of the fact that land heats and cools faster than water.
    13. Introduce the idea of beaches that appear and disappear with the seasons due water transport
    14. Examine several different samples of beach sand, pebbles, and rocks and then be able to hypothesize something about their origin and the shore conditions in which they were found
    15. Explain the role of alongshore currents and winds in the formation of barrier islands and sand dunes such as those found in Florida.
    16. Draw, label and compare a tidal curve representing a typical lunar day on the gulf coast of Florida and the East Coast of Florida.
  9. Demonstrate knowledge of the following general biology information.
    1. State that organic compounds are chemicals that contain carbon and hydrogen and that the main types of organic compounds are carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids.
    2. Provide 2 examples of use in any marine organisms for each the 4 main organic compounds.
    3. Compare and contrast photosynthesis and respiration.
    4. Explain that energy released from organic matter by respiration is used to make ATP, the “energy currency” of life
    5. Define primary production as the net gain in organic matter that occurs when autotrophs photosynthesize more than they respire
    6. State that primary production requires nutrients, as well as light and that nitrogen and phosphorus are usually the most important nutrients for plant growth in the ocean
    7. Compare and contrast prokaryotic cells and eukaryotic cells, plant cells and animal cells
    8. Match the appropriate function to the correct cell organelle.
    9. List and briefly define each of the five levels of organization from cell through to organism
    10. Summarize challenges of life in the sea.
    11. Define diffusion as the movement of ions and molecules from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration
    12. State that osmosis is the diffusion of water across a selectively permeable membrane
    13. Define and give examples of asexual reproduction
    14. Compare and contrast mitosis and meiosis
    15. State that the eggs and sperm are the female and male gametes, respectively, and that their fusion (sexual reproduction) forms a zygote that becomes a genetically distinct individual.
    16. Describe the relationship of natural selection to evolution as follows. Natural selection occurs when some members of a population survive and reproduce more successfully than others. Evolution is the genetic change in the population that results because
    17. Explain species as a population of organisms that share common characteristics, can breed with each other, and are reproductively isolated from other populations
    18. Explain the origin and significance of biological taxonomy.
    19. List the eight main parts of the taxonomic scheme
    20. List the 3 domains and their corresponding kingdoms and give examples of organisms that belong to each of the 6 kingdoms
    21. Know the parts comprising a scientific name, the importance of a scientific name, and the origination of the binomial naming system.
    22. Construct and use a couplet identification key.
  10. Examine the organization of communities
    1. Identify the biotic and abiotic, factors found within a community.
    2. Examine the ways abiotic factors nutrients, salinity, pressure, sunlight, temperature, and wastes (relate to aquariums) - in the environment affect distribution of marine organisms
    3. Explain why, if populations are capable of explosive growth, growth is usually limited
    4. Use the terms “limiting resource” and “competitive exclusion” correctly in explaining competition between two species
    5. Define ecological niche and describe the niche of a marine organism.
    6. Explain how predation affects the numbers of both predator and prey.
    7. Define and give and example of each of the three kinds of symbiosis-parasitism, commensalisms, and mutualism
  11. Examine the flow of energy and materials.
    1. Explain how energy and materials are passed from one trophic level to another along a food chain or food web and state that the first level is occupied by primary producers, the other levels by consumers
    2. Be able to diagram a marine food web and food chain.
    3. Explain why only about 10% of the energy and organic matter in one trophic level is passed to the next higher level.
    4. Know that waste organic mater that is dissolved in the water is called dissolved organic matter (DOM) and that detritus consists of non-living, solid organic matter and the decomposers that break it down.
    5. Explain why the rate of primary production is usually measured in light and dark bottles. Explain also why changes in the oxygen or carbon dioxide level in the light bottle indicate both photosynthesis and respiration, where as changes in the dark bottle
    6. State that the standing stock of phytoplankton is the total amount of phytoplankton in the water column and that it is usually determined by measuring the chlorophyll concentration
    7. State that nitrogen fixation is the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen gas into a form that organisms can use and that it is performed by certain cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and other bacteria.
    8. Summarize nature’s recycling of materials such as water, carbon, nitrogen (relate to aquariums), and phosphorus
  12. Describe biological zonation of the marine environment
    1. Explain the differences between benthos, plankton, and nekton.
    2. Compare and contrast phytoplankton and zooplankton, meroplankton and holoplankton
    3. Locate on a diagram of the marine environments each of the following: intertidal (littoral) and subtidal (sublittoral) zones; high and low tide marks; bathyl, abyssal, and hadal zones; neritic, pelagic, and oceanic zones; and epipelagic, mesopelagic, bath
  13. Examine viruses
    1. Explain why most biologists do not consider viruses to be alive.
    2. Summarize the primary roll viruses play in the marine envrionment.
    3. Explain the difference between a lytic and a lysgenic life cycle.
    4. Define seston and explain how it resembles carbon filters in the aquariums.
    5. Summarize at least 3 ways in which marine viral populations are controlled.
  14. Examine marine bacteria
    1. List several of the ecological rolls of marine bacteria.
    2. State how they reproduce and the two most common shapes.
    3. Know that cyanobacteria account for a major proportion of the production of organic matter and oxygen in the seas and that Prochlorococcus is presumed to be the most abundant life form in the ocean.
    4. Explain the roll of chlorophyll a and b and of the accessory pigments (carotenoids and phycobilins).
    5. Contrast aerobic and anaerobic photosynthetic bacteria.
    6. Define what is meant by autotrophic, chemosynthetic bacteria.
    7. Elaborate on roles of heterotrophic bacteria in recycling nutrients using the following terms: osmotrophy, exoenzymes, consolidation, lithification, sedimentation, and marine snow
    8. Draw a nitrogen cycle including nitrogen fixation and nitrification and relate it not only to the environment but to the aquariums
    9. Summarize two symbiotic relationships involving bacteria.
    10. Examine some of the symptoms and treatments for some of the common bacterial diseases of aquarium fish
  15. Examine Archaea
    1. Compare and contrast bacteria and Archaeans
    2. List some of the extreme environments in which Archaeans are found.
    3. Explain what a methanogen is.
    4. Know that some are photosynthetic, heterotrophic, and chemosynthetic.
  16. Examine fungi
    1. Identify some of the common symptoms and treatments of fungal diseases in marine aquarium animals
    2. List at least three characteristics of fungi
    3. Explain why the study of marine fungi was impeded.
    4. Know the most common marine fungi is sac fungi and that some are decomposers and some are pathogens
    5. Describe a lichen and its environment.
    6. Be able to distinguish lichens of several different growth forms from pictures and samples of similar appearing organisms displayed.
  17. Examine stramenopiles.
    1. Illustrate using assorted sizes of Petri dishes the asexual reproduction of diatoms and then continue to explain the sexual reproduction.
    2. Describe the ecological rolls of planktonic and benthic diatoms.
    3. List and describe the physical and chemical factors that initiate the spring and fall diatom blooms in temperate oceans.
    4. name uses of diatomaceous earth.
    5. Explain diatoms role in our energy reserves.
    6. Summarize how some labyrinth morphs are helpful in seagrass beds and others are harmful.
    7. Identify microscope slides or pictures of diatoms or silicoflagellates and know the shell or frustules being identified are composed largely of cilica.
  18. Examine haptophytes.
    1. Identify a slide or picture of a coccolithophore and know plates are calcareous.
    2. Summarize the ecological role of coccolithophores.
    3. Discuss the differences between sediments made of diatoms and sediments made of coccolithophores and how these sediments and their formation help researchers determine what ocean conditions were like in the past.
  19. Examine alveolates.
    1. Identify a typical planktonic dinoflagellate via slide or picture.
    2. Summarize two ecological roles of dinoflagellates.
    3. Describe a symbiotic relationship of zooxanthellae.
    4. Explain the cause and environmental and economic impacts of a red tide.
    5. Explain the cause and environmental and economic impact of paralytic shellfish poisoning.
    6. Explain ciguatera.
    7. State the cause of the faint glow seen when marine waters are disturbed.
    8. List adaptations phytoplanktonic diatoms and dinoflagellates have to slow their sinking rates.
    9. Explain adaptations dinoflagellates possess that permit them to succeed in warm waters where diatoms do not thrive.
    10. Describe the use and arrangement of a ciliate?s cilia.
    11. Summarize some ecological roles of ciliates.
  20. Compare choanoflagellates to sponges.
  21. Examine amoeboid protozoans.
    1. Compare and contrast foraminiferans with radiolarians with emphasis on structure and ecological roles.
    2. Distinguish from microscope slides and pictures foraminiferans and radiolarians.
    3. Explain the geologic origin of the classroom samples from the White Cliffs of Dover.
    4. Summarize the symbiotic relationship between foraminiferans and zooxanthellae.
  22. Explore multicellular algae.
    1. Explain why macroalgae are placed in the same kingdom as photosynthetic diatoms and dinoflagellates
    2. Compare the significance of the marine phytoplankton in the marine ecosystem with other primary producers.
    3. Explain life cycles and label structural and reproductive features of a green, brown and red algae.
    4. Summarize the ecological and economic importance of the following algae communities: kelp forests (California), goniolithon shoal (Rodriquez Key), and Sargasso Sea (Atlantic).
    5. Account for the relatively small contribution that seaweeds are thought to make to the total marine plant production system.
    6. Relate three or more examples of economic importance for each major division of algae.
    7. Sample several food products made with algae or its derivatives and identify at least 10 others commonly found in grocery stores.
    8. Make at least one statement a bout the general distribution of macroscopic algaes in regard to each of these abiotic factors; light, depth, temperature, fresh water, saltwater, low tide exposure, and climatic conditions.
    9. Identify two biotic environmental factors that influence the distribution of seaweeds.
    10. Identify the chlorophyll pigments in the three macroalgae phylums.
    11. Recognize the different ways food is stored in the different divisions of algae.
    12. Define coenocytic algae and give some examples of these algae.
    13. Explain some of the problems and dangers of the released Caulerpa taxifolia.
    14. Summarize how the calcium carbonate found in the cells of several green and red algae protect the alga and how each respectively benefits a coral reef.
  23. Examine marine Anthophyta.
    1. List the general characteristics of flowering plants and observe the vascular tissues of monocots and dicots under the microscope.
    2. Identify an advantage the newer methods for measuring primary productivity have over the earlier methods; radioactive carbon over oxygen evolution, satellite-borne sea surface color scanners over radioactive carbon.
    3. Study pictures, herbarium cards, preserved and live specimens, to learn to identify by genus and/or common names; anthophyta - sea grasses (5); mangroves (4); saltmarsh grasses (3); grasses, sedges and rushes in general; and common Florida dune plants (8)
    4. Explain and label structural and reproductive features of the following anthophyta- red mangrove, black mangrove, and white mangrove.
    5. Explain and label structural and reproductive features of a typical seagrass.
    6. Contrast and compare the adaptations mangroves - red, black, and white ? have to survive in their harsh environments and how these adaptations impact their location along a shoreline.
    7. State some of the difficulties sea grasses had to overcome to live in their marine environments and explain the adaptations they have evolved to survive these harsh conditions.
    8. Relate why fertilizer runoff from lawns and farms leads to growth for algaes but decline in seagrass beds.
    9. Compare and contrast the herbaceous plants of the salt marsh to those of the sand dunes.
    10. Summarize the ecological and economic importance of the following plant communities; salt marshes, seagrass beds, mangrove swamps, and sand dunes.
  24. Classify invertebrates and tunicates by sight and begin to examine lower animal phylums.
    1. Place into phylums numerous examples (living, preserved and photographed) of porifera, cnidarians, ctenophores, nematodes, flatworms, ribbon worms, peanut worms, annelids, mollusks, bryozoans, arthropods, echinoderms, and tunicates.
    2. Identify sponges, most echinoderms, and tunicates to class and representatives of the following to order or even family; cnidarians, echinoids, arthropods, and mollusks.
    3. Upon viewing a specimen or picture identify commonly seen Caribbean invertebrates and tunicates by common names: 20 porifera, 40 cnidarians (not corals), 15 ctenophores, 6 flatworms, 1 ribbon worm, 26 annelids, 60 mollusks, 50 common Florida shells (inclu
    4. Use a microscope and/or dissection to identify and compare (within phylums and between phylums), the form and function of external and internal anatomical features of these organisms; sponges (4), hydrozoans (6), scyphozoans (2), anthozoans (3), ctenophor
    5. Perform oral and/or written tests to discern the fulfillment of objective 24.4.
    6. State 2 or more general characteristics of porifera, cnidarians, ctenophores, flatworms, nematodes, ribbon worms, peanut worms, and annelids.
    7. State the means of reproduction of the animals in 24.6 and while looking at diagrams, explain the embryonic and larval stages of a representative sponge, hydrozoan, scyphozoan, anthozoan, and annelid.
    8. Explain the feeding process in porifera, cnidarians, ctenophores, and selected worm phylums.
    9. Explain the survival advantages wormlike body forms have for mud and sand dwellers.
    10. Explain the ecological roles of the organisms in 24.8.
  25. Demonstrate laboratory skills, field techniques and appropriate water.
    1. Perform basic water safety and snorkeling skills.
    2. Have the basics to develop underwater sign language communication.
    3. Maintain a saltwater aquarium.
    4. Can identify and properly treat several nutrition, sanitation, and disease problems in controlled ecosystems.
    5. Run and interpret basic water quality tests - pH, CO2, ammonia, nitrogen, nitrate, and specific gravity, O2.
    6. Perform systematic dissections for the purposes of comparative anatomy.
    7. Record daily scientific logs of aquariums or research project.
    8. Use basic scuba and marine biology instruments to obtain necessary data and information and record and interpret it properly.
    9. Construct charts and graphs from measured or given data.
    10. Interpret data from charts and graphs and make generalizations.
    11. Use observation skills for purposes of identification and determination of an organism?s possible ecological niche.
    12. Develop hypotheses from basic data and devise methods to test them.
    13. Use scientific methods for devising experiments which have controls and variables.
    14. Communicate organized information graphically, in writing or orally, utilizing appropriate vocabulary
    15. Follow safety rules in the laboratory, at the pool, and in open water.
    16. Apply scientific concepts, theories, and laws to given situations.
    17. Properly utilize, maintain and care for laboratory equipment.
    18. Critically analyze both sides of a controversial issue.
    19. Substantiate their opinions with concrete evidence.
    20. Improve the ability to memorize and/or understand biological terms.
    21. Use correctly basic water sampling and specimen-collecting equipment (nets, seines, dredges, secchi disks, oxygen meters, etc.).
    22. Make wet mounts and use binocular and monocular microscopes effectively.
    23. Tie simple seaman knots and interpret navigational maps and markers.
    24. Plot a simple navigational course.
  26. Describe attitudinal objectives.
    1. Appreciate the importance of the ocean in the world ecosystem.
    2. Appreciate the impact the ocean has in our every day lives.
    3. Appreciate the impact of the ocean in the world economy.
    4. Appreciate and respect the diversity of the natural world.
    5. Appreciate the value of critical thinking.
    6. Appreciate that science is a way of looking at the order of the universe.
    7. Appreciate the value of scientific and technological developments and apply them to life situations.
    8. Respect the knowledge and skill required to safely enter the marine environment.
    9. Appreciate how much there is yet to learn about the marine worlds.
    10. Appreciate the environment and want to conserve and preserve it.
    11. Appreciate the variety of sciences and technologies that are required to adequately study the marine world.



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