Production and Growth in Polar Areas

Master course for biology students - principally aimed at MSc-students specializing in "Marine Ecology and Resource Biology". The course is available as a singular course.

The subject deals with production at lower trophic levels in pelagic and benthic organisms in boreal/polar areas. This course encompasses methods and regulatory mechanisms for primary production in phytoplankton and ice algae, and secondary production at lower trophic levels, especially zooplankton, as well as trophic interactions. The course consists of lectures, article seminars on current research themes, computation exercises and a one-week cruise. We strive for a problem-based approach, where the students design and report a small research project, which is carried out on the cruise.

Local admission, application code 9371 - - Master`s level singular course.

Admission requires a Bachelor`s degree (180 ECTS) or equivalent qualification, with a major in biology of minimum 80 ECTS.

Students that have completed Bio-3504 Production and Growth in Polar Areas will be able to:

Knowledge

• discriminate between biomass and production.
• explain the most important mechanisms that regulate production in the ocean.
• explain processes that link pelagic and benthic production
• evaluate how climate changes may affect marine production in high latitudes

Skills

• apply some of the major methods for measuring primary and secondary production.
• Design simple experiments to carry out on a research cruise

Abilities (generell kompetanse)

• Work independently and in collaboration with scientific topics
• Prepare a scientific topic for oral presentation
• present scientific results in written essays and reports

If you pass the examination in this course, you will get an reduction in credits (as stated below), if you previously have passed the following courses:

• BIO-316 Marin populasjonsdynamikk og produktivitet 10 stp

Language of instruction and examination

Portifolio assessment: Two written and one oral presentation. The exam will be assessed with a graded scale of five marks from A to E for pass and F for fail. The final grade for the course is based upon a complete evaluation of the various components in the  portifolio assessment.

Re-sit exam:

There will be a re-sit examination for students that did not pass the previous ordinary examination.