375:445 PROBLEMS IN AQUATIC ENVIRONMENTS SYLLABUS

Department of Environmental Sciences

Fall 2000. Tues. & Thurs. 4:30 - 5:50 p.m., ESNR 223

 

Prof. Kathleen Irwin Keating, Ph.D. Lab. 932 - 8012 (Messages arrive LATE!)

Fax: 932 - 8644 E-mail: kkeating@rci.rutgers.edu (works)

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES:

- You have been here for at least two years - bite the bullet, get a computer account. I know it can be frustrating. We keep Tums/Rolaids in the lab. If you want help getting started, visit. We will help you establish the account (it is free). At least one E-mail message to me, identified with your account name is REQUIRED before you receive a grade. Besides, I will "bug" you until you try. If you have had an account since the day you arrived, help someone with less chutzpah to establish theirs.

Since the images from lecture will be on the net for our convenience during review, some reading assignments are on the internet, and a listing of assignments will be available (for that day when you realize that you have lost the assignment sheet - again), the absence of a computer account will lessen your access to course materials. That being the case, don’t wait until the last week of the term to set up an account!

- One mid-term; one final; reading assignments in lieu of text (be sure you can at least provide a reasonable response to any question included on an assignment sheet); at least one short essay.

  • - Be here! Take notes! You will not have a text on which to fall back. Your notebook and computer access really will help you study.
    •
  • - Because it is my habit to hand out sheets of information (at least partially due to the absence of a suitable text), it is practical to maintain notes for this course in a three ring notebook. You could

    roll them up and stuff them, randomly, into crevices, but you may be responsible for their contents at some later date - say, around mid-term, or perhaps during finals’ week.

    •

    • In case you want to fight!! We could have a NEWSGROUP? It is surprising how few
    folks will take a chance and make a statement on a topic for which they have strong opinions.

    TEXT: While no text is "required" and random questions, taken solely from a textbook, will not appear on exams, the following texts are recommended specifically because they are

  • - unusually informative,
    - excellent sources for lecture review and for additional information on many of the topics covered,
    - relatively inexpensive for their technical content.
    •
  • Gleick, Peter. 1993. WATER IN CRISIS: A Guide to the World's Freshwater Resources
    Oxford University Press, N.Y. xxiv and 473.
    Laws. Edward. 1993. AQUATIC POLLUTION: An Introductory Text (2nd ed.)
    Wiley Interscience, N.Y. viii and 611.

    • 375:445 PROBLEMS IN AQUATIC ENVIRONMENTS - SYLLABUS

    (page 2/2)

    COURSE DESCRIPTION

    INTENT: To explore, to better understand, some of the problems associated with aquatic environments which impose restrictions on human activities and, or, which are the results of human activities. Considering the worldwide limits of water suitable for our activities (mostly non-saline), is it not intriguing that we deposit so great a concentration of undesirable materials in those waters (mostly non-saline) most convenient to us?

    Global Problems

    I. Water as a resource -- Dimensions and limits of the Hydrosphere - the amount of water currently and ultimately available for human use; limited supply and limitless demand, politics, agriculture, industry and salt (most, 97%, of the water on earth is "salty".) GEOGRAPHY makes a difference. So does HISTORY!
     
    II. Resources in aquatic environments -- Who has the right to make the rules, to claim the benefits? Law of the Sea; Fisheries Conservation and Management Act; over-fishing; nodules and other mineral resources; our fellow travelers- whales and other aquatic mammals. HISTORY makes a difference. So does geography!
     
    III. Plankton: What is it? Upwellings; El Nino: Eutrophication; Krill; Toxic blooms/Red tides (allelochemistry); (lunch?)

    Local Problems

    IV. Pollution: Inorganic pollutants (heavy metals); Organic pollutants (pesticides, oil, N.Y. Bight;); Temperature (power generation)
    V. Aquatic Toxicology: Monitoring; Bioassay; (acute, chronic); Culture of aquatic organisms: Testing/aquaculture.