BIOEE 4930

Marine Invertebrate Biodiversity

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2014-2015.

Marine Invertebrate Biodiversity will be a west coast, advanced version of my previous Shoals course, BIOSM 3730 - Biodiversity and Biology of the Marine Invertebrates. It will take advantage of the vastly greater species diversity of marine invertebrates in the Salish Sea of the Pacific Northwest, the huge variation in easily accessible field habitats and the excellent research-oriented facilities of Friday Harbor Laboratories. Like BIOEE 3730 - [Biodiversity and Biology of the Marine Invertebrates], the course will be a survey of phyletic diversity of all the marine invertebrates but will be more in depth in exploring class and order-level diversity within each phylum. The excellent running seawater facilities in each laboratory will allow detailed behavioral and morphological observation of different invertebrates. Students will be exposed to lectures and labs focused on each group and be responsible for weekly video summaries and notebook recordings of their observations.

When Offered Spring.

Prerequisites/Corequisites Prerequisite: Intro Biology or equivalent.

Comments This course is part of an off campus program at Friday Harbor Marine Labs that provides field research experience for advanced students in marine biology. You must apply to be accepted to the program by contacting the course coordinator Reyn Yoshioka (rmy27@cornell).

• 1.1 students learn all the characteristics of each phylum. 1.2 students learn the phylogenetic relationships within phyla. 1.3 students learn key aspects of the life history in many of the phyla.
• 2.1 students collect all their own field specimens on low tides and so understand the habitats they come from. 2.2 students study the behavior of animals in the field.
• 3.1 Students learn the major organ system in each phylum and class of invertebrate. 3.2 students learn different body plans and taxonomy in high diversity sites.

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