Marine science questions can only be fully understood through approaches that integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines. This course focuses on the physical aspects of marine science, as well as how physical concepts inform and are informed by geology, chemistry, and biology. This course is part of the integrated marine science core sequence. Students will learn and apply the fundamental physical principles govern ocean circulation. This circulation has profound impacts on marine geology, chemistry, and ecology, as sediment, heat, freshwater, nutrients, and algae are carried by currents that vary in scale from creeks to entire coastlines. In this course, students will build intuition about physical oceanographic processes by tying the theory of fluid dynamics to concrete examples; case studies will include oil spills, red tide in the Pacific Northwest, and coastal hypoxia. Discussion about these critical problems will focus on how they intertwine with anthropogenic influences and human society. Particular attention will be paid to physical processes relevant to the coastal waters of the Pacific Northwest, such as estuarine circulation, upwelling, and tidal dynamics. Students will participate in at least one local field trip, during which they will collect physical oceanographic data for the class to analyze. As part of and in preparation for the field trip, the course will address on how the processes studied in class are measured. Students will also gain practical experience in lab work and data analysis in R.
Study of data analysis at an introductory and intermediate level and statistical tests commonly used in the biological and environmental sciences. Descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, regression and correlation, experimental design. Introduction to R and RStudio statistical software.
Using a new data set and cutting edge oceanographic instrumentation, students will apply the basic physics of waves and tides to investigate sea level properties on the Washington coast and across the Pacific Ocean. Topics will include: wave generation, transformation, and breaking; tidal forcing and currents; coastal inundation and sea level rise. Assignments and in-class activities for this class will make use of the Backyard Buoys’ project array of community stewarded wave buoys to investigate these topics. This course will include two field trips to deploy and recover a wave buoy near the Shannon Point Marine Center; students will work with the buoy data during the course.
Focuses on estuarine circulation and its relation to biological and chemical processes in Puget Sound. Students conduct a capstone research project integrating oceanography and public policy. As a capstone, course is for seniors only.