MS 274: Advanced Topics in Oceanography - Population Dynamics and Interpretation of Biological and Geophysical Records
Fall 3 Units

In this class we use both biology and mathematics to understand populations and their responses to ecological and geophysical interactions. This course will cover the principles of Population Biology starting with growth models and building upon these to understand the effects of various types of species interactions on population structure. Life history and population genetic theory will be included to the extent that they explain population persistence, biogeography, evolution, and speciation. From these building blocks we will move to interpretation of records of populations and other systems, using time series analysis to develop techniques for assessing the primary forcings and responses in these systems. Such effort relies strongly on interpretation of climate and oceanographic records at a number of time scales, so our emphasis will shift to analysis of geophysical records (examples might include sediment or ice core data, oceanographic and meteorological records from fixed sensors, larval settlement time series, satellite image time series, and others). Topics will likely include spectral analysis and filtering, and analysis of correlation and covariance in both the time and space domains.

The study of a selected area of oceanography. The subjects will vary depending on student demand and availability of instructors. Can be repeated for credit when topics change.

Prerequisites:
Graduate standing, instructor's consent

• Teacher: Lara Ferry-Graham
• Teacher: Erika McPhee-Shaw