Marine Biodiversity and Resource Management

This unit examines marine biodiversity, habitats, and the technologies and policies used to monitor, use, and protect ocean resources. Students investigate human–ocean interactions — from shipping, fisheries, and deep-sea mining to renewable energy and conservation — and practice designing monitoring plans and management responses to real-world threats.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze case studies of human–ocean interactions (e.g., shipping, fisheries, tourism, deep-sea mining, and ocean energy) to determine ecological impacts and economic contributions and to quantify associated ecosystem services
• Apply ocean monitoring technologies and sampling methods (e.g., remote sensors, deep-sea cores, habitat surveys) to design and justify a monitoring plan for a selected marine habitat
• Demonstrate identification and describe the ecological roles of major marine taxa and habitats (including cetaceans, seabirds, pinnipeds, cephalopods, echinoderms, crustaceans, reptiles, seagrass meadows, salt marshes, and reefs) through species profiles and food-web diagrams
• Evaluate conservation, enforcement, and management strategies (e.g., law enforcement, protected areas, sustainable seafood choices, pollution mitigation, and alternative solutions) for selected threats and propose evidence-based recommendations