<note: this is a special topics course. Section A for autumn 2025 is “Ocean Change Biology” and has the content listed below>

We are now living in the Anthropocene, an era marked by an outsized human impact on the planet. This course will focus on understanding how anthropogenic changes impact marine organisms, with a strong emphasis on global climate change. The course will explore drivers of Earth’s climate, organismal responses to climate variations and their ecological implications, as well as mitigation. The course will include interactive lectures, paper discussions, demonstration, computer simulations and guided inquiries.

Microbes dominate every major ecosystem on Earth, including the oceans. They are essential components of marine food webs and are responsible for maintaining the chemical reservoirs that enable life’s processes to proceed. This course will focus on the roles of marine bacteria, archaea and the viruses that infect them. Students will read papers from the primary literature, perform computational analyses relevant to the study of microbes and microbial communities, and learn about the diversity of single celled organisms, their roles in different ecosystems, and about how they catalyze the breadth of chemical transformations that make life possible.  Much of the focus is on model microorganisms from marine systems, but the course will also include topics covering other extreme environments, evolution and some elements of astrobiology.

Registration restrictions: None

Major requirements: Ecology and ecosystems elective, Other marine biology elective, 400-level elective

Minor requirements: OCEAN elective

(not lab)