Course Dates
June 17, 2024 to June 30, 2024
Prerequisites
None.
Equivalent Note
Cornell students: this course is equivalent to BioEE 1610 and fulfills the following requirements (just like BioEE 1610):
- Core Course requirement for Biology majors; this course is equivalent to BioEE 1610 and fulfills core course requirement
- CALS Graduation requirement for Introductory Life Sciences/Biology
- CALS Graduation requirement for Physical and Life Sciences
- Ecology Course requirement for Science of Natural & Environmental Systems (SNES) majors
- Introductory Biology Lecture requirement for Biology & Society majors
- Required Biology course for Science of Earth Systems (SES) majors
- Intro Bio requirement for Biological Engineering students
ALL STUDENTS: See the Financial Support & Scholarships page for details about a course-specific award which can be applied towards the cost of enrolling in Ecology and the Marine Environment and other select SML courses for summer 2024.
Course Description
This course provides an introduction to ecology, covering interactions between marine organisms and the environment at scales of populations, communities, and ecosystems. The course culminates with a field-based research project with students working in the intertidal zone of Appledore Island and test concepts and theories learned in the classroom.
Students taking this course will:
- Gain knowledge about how plants and animals cope with environmental variation through a variety of adaptations;
- Develop a basic understanding of biogeographical patterns of species distributions and the application of the theory of island biogeography;
- Learn the major pathways and mechanisms of nutrient cycling and the human impacts on these cycles.
Course Numbers
Cornell: BIOSM 3330 (3 Credits)
UNH: MEFB 506 (4 Credits)
Faculty
Dr. Carolyn Keogh
Dr. Carolyn (Carrie) Keogh is a parasite ecologist interested in parasite distributions and the relationships between host-parasite co-evolution. As a member of the faculty in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Emory University, she teaches courses on a wide range of topics from general ecology and marine ecology as well as a course on invasive species biology. Dr. Keogh brings extensive field experience to her teaching at SML that includes study areas in the intertidal zone across the Mid Atlantic and Gulf of Maine as well as northwestern Pacific Ocean. She first came to Appledore Island as an undergraduate researcher examining host-parasite interactions between Littorina snails and trematode parasites. Most recently, Dr. Keogh was on island in 2019 as one of the lab's Scientists in Residence.
Dr. Jan Factor
Professor, School of Natural and Social Sciences, Purchase College SUNY
Dr. Jan Robert Factor earned his Doctorate in Zoology from Cornell University in 1980, which was followed by a Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Smithsonian's Marine Station in Ft. Pierce, Florida (a field station of the National Museum of Natural History) and a Lectureship at Cornell. A member of the faculty of Purchase College, State University of New York, since 1982, Dr. Factor is now Professor of Biology, Chair of the Biology Program, and Director of the Microscopy Laboratory.
Dr. Factor is editor of the standard reference text on the American lobster, Biology of the Lobster Homarus americanus (Academic Press, 1995).
His long-standing relationship with the Shoals Marine Laboratory (Appledore Island, Isles of Shoals, Maine) includes being a Core Faculty member during summers since 1981. He currently teaches in the Evolution and Marine Diversity and the Ecology and the Marine Environment courses there.
Dr. Rick Zechman
Associate Dean, College of Natural Resources and Sciences, Humboldt State University
Rick Zechman is a graduate of Louisiana State University (Ph.D.), University of New Hampshire (M.S.) and University of North Carolina, Wilmington (B.S.). Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University, Rick was a Professor of Biology at Fresno State for 16 years, where he taught courses in botany, phylogenetics and evolution, and marine biology. In addition, Rick has taught field marine science courses at Shoals Marine Lab (Cornell University) for over 20 years. He moved to Cal Poly Humboldt in 2012, attracted by Humboldt’s strength in marine science, natural resources, and field-based instruction. Rick enjoys fishing, hiking and anything outdoors with his family, and plays a variety of stringed instruments.