SMS 491: Estuarine Oceanography

Syllabus- May term 2011

Instructors: Larry Mayer and Emmanuel Boss

Contact info: LM – Darling Center ext. 237, email lmayer@maine.edu

EB – 356-9147, email emmanuel.boss@maine.edu

Course goals:

•     Learn the fundamental concepts, terminology and applications of estuarine oceanography.

•     Learn tools of studying complex estuarine systems, including field, lab, and data analysis techniques

•     Improve communication skills.

Student responsibilities: attend and participate in classes, read assigned reading material, submit assignments.

Assessment: quizzes (final) (25%), Homeworks (25%), project (presentation, writeup, particip. – 50%)

Reading:  Reading material will be provided as needed posted on this web site and on the reserve shelf in the library.

Meals: 7:30/12/5:30

H1N1: In the event of disruption of normal classroom activities due to an H1N1 swine flu outbreak, the format for this course may be modified to enable completion of the course.  In that event, you will be provided an addendum to this syllabus that will supersede this version.

If you have a disability for which you may be requesting an accommodation, please contact either me or Ann Smith, Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities (Onward Building, 581-2319), as early as possible in the term.

Syllabus, subject to change, (last updated 05/27/2011):

Picture from different 2011 class activities can be found at:

http://www.stacyknapp.com/stacyknapp.com/Photos/Pages/Estuarine_Oceanography.html

Week	date	activity             AM                        PM		Assignment/ additional material
I	Thu. May 12	0830-0945h  Introduction: people, Syllabus.  Morphology Lecture [PDF]   1045-1200h  Lecture (Hydrodynamics) [PDF]   1200-1300h  lunch   1300-1330h  ODV: Use tutorial (PDF) to install ODV (http://odv.awi.de/), load CTD data already in an easy format (data_text_file) and explore data.   1330-1430h  Carter Newell presentation and concept mapping (PDF)   1430-1700h  CTD/sensor arrays and Secchi disk off boat	Project, teams, instrumentation	Readings and web resources For Morphology: Day et al. (1989), Chap. 2 See all the world rivers at: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/04/water/water-animation  http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_estuaries/est04_geology.html For Hydrology: Day et al. (1989), Chap. 2 http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_estuaries/est05_circulation.html http://www.dnr.nsw.gov.au/estuaries/factsheets/physical/movement.shtml Estuary classification: http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/99673/excerpt/9780521899673_excerpt.pdf Animation of lateral circulation cells at: http://getm.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=111&Itemid=42:Pause  the flow at various stages of ebb and flood and look at lateral flow. Homework 1(PDF) Data for homework (text_file_st1, text_file_st2, text_file_st3, text_file_st4, Excel logfile)
	Sat. May 14	Stuff in the water, project design (PDF)		NOAA chart of Kennebec, Sheepscot and  Damariscotta estuaries: http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/13293.shtml
II	Tue. May 17	Primary production[PDF]	Team project development
	Wed. May 18		secondary production [PDF] Project work, load up vessel
	Thu. May 19	Damariscotta  cruise   Cruise picture		Cruise log [Word] Files from SBE 19+: cast0, cast1, cast2, cast3, cast4, cast5, cast6, cast7, cast8 All data, ready to be uploaded to ODV. Readme file describing how to interpret the data in the '.cnv' files [PDF]
	Fri. May 20		Quick visit to Mayer lab to see nutrient analysis, lunch or middle afternoon
III	Mon. May 23	Kennebec cruise		cruise log [Word] Files form SBE 19+:cast0, cast1, cast2, cast3, cast4, cast5. All data ready to be uploaded to ODV. Readme file describing how to interpret the data in the '.cnv' files [PDF]
	Wed. May 25	Sediments [PDF], modeling	Complete projects
	Fri. May 27	Coring cruise	Synthesis,, presentations, final