Teacher
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MARCELLI Marco
(syllabus)
The role and importance of the sea and oceans.
I: Oceanic and ecological dynamics and their spatial and temporal scales
Elements of geography and representation of the earth's surface; morphology and evolution of the ocean floor principles. Origin of the sea and oceans and property of marine waters. Principles of chemistry, physics and dynamics of seas and oceans. The boundary conditions and the influence of the environment on the continental coastal marine system. Morphology and dynamics of the coasts.
Marine oceanic and coastal habitats. The benthos zonation and Mediterranean benthic biocenosis: the classifications of Perès Picard and Riedl.
Vertical and horizontal distribution of oceanographic and ecological variables. Marine ecological dynamics: biogeochemical cycles, ecological successions. Spatial and temporal scales of physical and ecological dynamics of marine and oceanic environments: phenomena and processes at the micro, meso and macro scale.
II: Renewable and non-renewable resources, the uses of the coastal zone
The concept of natural resource. Marine renewable resources (fisheries and aquaculture, marine renewable energies) and non-renewable resources (mining and quarrying activities in the coastal and offshore area). The use of the sea and coastline. Categories and classification of coastal uses.
III: The problems of the coastal zone, marine pollution and depositional environments. Principles of protecting and preserving the marine environment. Marine management tools.
Pollution of coastal marine environment: depositional environments and contamination. Classification, destiny and cycles of pollutants. The problem of coastal erosion and the concept of physiographic units. The coastal morphotypes. Dynamics of beaches and beach nourishment. Bioaccumulation and biomagnification, changes in the trophic structure, alteration of biotic communities. Human time scales and scale of human impacts. Residence time. Climate changes. Sustainable development, natural capital evaluation and other management tools. Introduction to marine protection legislation. Case histories of different issues and at different spatial and temporal scales.
IV: Platforms and measuring instruments. Sampling equipment. Experimental methods.
The problem of sampling scales and measuring. The definition of the sampling plan and the identification of the variables to be measured: the marine environment descriptors. Issues related to environmental monitoring. Platforms and data acquisition systems and their relative spatial and temporal scales (research vessels, satellites and airplanes, underwater towed and autonomous vehicles and oceanographic buoys, stations, ARGO and drifters). Measurement tools and methods: physical-chemical characteristics and optical properties of sea water; direct and indirect measures of biomass and primary production; dynamic characteristics. Active underwater acoustic instruments (depth, ecological and geomorphological features of the seabed) and passive instruments (sounds and noise). Equipment and methods for sampling, storage and transport of samples: sea water, phytoplankton and zooplankton, bottom sediments, benthos. Instrumentation and laboratory methods in marine ecology. Methods of direct investigation by diver.
V: The restitution of the information. Data analysis and mathematical models.
The structure of the data. The calibration of the instruments. The calibration of the data. Errors, their causes, data filtering techniques. Statistical data analysis. Methods of information restitution. Databases and GIS. International data exchange and sharing of databases. Theory and application of mathematical models. Limits and opportunities for development.
(reference books)
Course lecture notes by Prof. Marco Marcelli. Other teaching material will be provided during the course, consisting of articles and publications.
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