Deep-Sea Biology Course
This is the third time the University of Oregon has offered a course in deep-sea biology to graduate students and qualified undergraduates. In the past, this course has been offered in the Gulf of Mexico (2003) and the Bahamas (2008). The course is taught at sea, with students participating in every aspect of a research cruise and making dives to the ocean floor. Each student writes his dive experiences in a blog for this web site and participates in various group research projects. The lecture portion of the class takes place either out on the deck at night (students sit in lawn chairs and professors project Powerpoint against the white bulkhead of the ship) or in the lab during daytime submersible dives. This year’s deep-sea course extends beyond the cruise and includes the following lectures:
Deep-Sea Biology Course
Fall 2009, Gulf of Mexico
Tentative Lecture Schedule
During the cruise:
September 25: The history and technology of deep-ocean exploration (Young)
September 26: Ecology of deep reefs and seamounts (Young)
September 27: Geology of the Gulf of Mexico (Carney)
September 28: Chemosynthetic ecosystems and organisms (Young)
September 29: Ecology of the brine-pool mussel bed (Arellano)
October 1: Picophytoplankton and other microbes of the deep sea (Wood, Goodwin)
October 2: Heterotrophy in the deep-sea benthos (Young)
October 3: Elasipoda: masters of the deep (Carney)
October 4: Seasonality and periodicity in the deep sea (Young)
After the cruise:
October 9: Larval development, dispersal, and ontogenetic migration (Young)
October 16: Zonation and the origin of deep-sea faunas (Young)
October 23: work on projects
October 30: work on projects
November 6: Piezophysiology (Young)
November 13: More on the ecology of hydrothermal vents (Young)
November 20: Whale falls, wood falls and oxygen minima (Young)
November 27: Thanksgiving
November 4: Anthropogenic Impacts in the deep sea (Young)
November 11: Final (hand in projects)