Department of Ocean & Earth Sciences

Field and laboratory experiences in oceanography including hands-on experience using equipment and methods suitable for middle and secondary education professionals. Course will provide understanding of oceanic processes using simple field and laboratory experiments. Not available for credit for OES majors and minors.

This course will present basic ecological principles relevant to water pollution and ecotoxicology. Topics will include runoff, eutrophication, water and sewage treatment, industrial waste, oil pollution, pesticides, and plastics in the sea. Case studies provide focal points for consideration of issues in making decisions and setting policy. This is a writing intensive course.

Physics of the ocean: properties of seawater and their distribution; water mass formation; mass and energy flows; waves; tides; models; estuarine and coastal processes. An elective for science and engineering majors.

This course is designed to introduce students to Matlab programming and to develop skills utilizing this program for data analysis.

Chemical composition of the ocean and the chemical, biological, geological and physical processes controlling it.

An examination of the development of the earth as a habitable planet, from its origin to human impacts on global biogeochemical cycles on land, and in the oceans and atmosphere.

This course examines geochemical processes at and near the Earth’s surface, focusing on the concentration, speciation and reactivity of elements in soils, waters, sediments and the atmosphere. The course examines both the thermodynamic and kinetic controls on these processes, and the role of biology as a mediator (or facilitator) of these processes. Anthropogenic impacts on natural geochemical processes are also examined.

Causes, nature, measurement and analysis of water waves and tides. Mathematical and graphical application to wave and tide problems.

The course will consist of brief lectures and hands-on laboratory exercises, in which students will learn to build, use, and debug electronic devices relevant to ocean and earth science applications. Topics covered will include circuit theory, power supplies and budgets, transducers and amplifiers, computerized data acquisition, instrument control, signal conditioning and resolution.

Chemical cycling in lakes and reservoirs, and interactions with biological and physical processes; quantitative modeling of lake geochemistry.

The course integrates remotely sensed and field techniques for scientific investigation and practical management of coastal environmental systems. Spatial modeling of coastal processes and management tools using geographic information system (GIS).

Topics covered will include the occurrence and movement of surface and subsurface water, the nature and distribution of permeable rocks and strata, field techniques used in ground-water studies, and the flow of ground-water to wells.

This web-based course will provide a practical introduction to oceanography for earth science teachers. It is particularly aimed at current science teachers attempting to become certified in earth science education. Topics will include discussions of geological, biological, physical and chemical oceanography. Not available for credit for OES majors and minors.

Introduction to the physics of the earth, including plate tectonics, volcanism, earthquakes and seismology, gravity, the earth's magnetic field, geophysical remote sensing, and mantle convection.

A qualitative and quantitative description of physical processes in the Earth and environmental sciences. Topics include stress and strain, plate elasticity and flexure, heat flow, fluid mechanics, material rheology, and groundwater flow. Emphasis will be placed on developing an understanding of Earth dynamics using real-world examples, including numerical exercises.

Marine organisms and their relationship to physical and chemical processes in the ocean. Laboratory study of local marine organisms, marine ecosystem and sampling techniques. Includes identification, data analysis and field trips.

This course introduces students to the basic oceanographic instruments used to obtain and analyze information by investigating different locations in the Chesapeake Bay. Data obtained with these instruments will be processed and analyzed using the data analysis techniques discussed in class. The data will then be used to answer a particular question related to the temporal and spatial variability in a natural system.

This course will explore the ecology of marine organisms using molecular techniques and data. Molecular ecology covers a wide variety of sub-disciplines, including genetics, physiology, ecology, and evolution. The course will explore basic theory in population genetics, ecology, and evolution and cover nucleic acid techniques and their applications.

Students will be introduced to the science underpinning mitigation of human-induced changes in the Earth system, including but not limited to climate change and sea level rise, and adaptation to the impacts of these changes. The course will cover the environmental hazards and the opportunities and limitations for conservation, mitigation and adaptation. Cross listed with BIOL 566.

In this class, students will discover what makes a leader for sustainability. They will consider a range of global and local crises from a leadership point of view in the context of sustainability science, which addresses the development of communities in a rapidly changing social, economic, and environmental system-of-systems environment. The course will be based on taking a problem-motivated and solution-focused approach to the challenges considered. The course includes a service learning project focusing on a leadership experience in solving a real-world environmental problem.

This course will examine recent developments in paleo-proxy calibration and their application in reconstructing Late Cenozoic climate history. Students will read several papers covering the theoretical basis and empirical evidence supporting some of the most common proxies used in paleoclimatology/paleoceanography each week. Each week will begin with a lecture on the topic, followed by an in-depth discussion. Students will be required to present two of the weekly topics and lead the class discussion.

Lectures, field and laboratory studies. An investigation of a selected problem in physical, geological, chemical, or biological oceanography.

Geobiology and the associated field of biosedimentology reflect the interdisciplinary approach to environmental problems, questions related to Earth history, and the exploration of extraterrestrial worlds. The course elaborates our understanding of geobiology and biosedimentology by conducting a study on benthic cyanobacteria and their influences on sedimentary processes in marine environments. Study area is Fisherman’s Island, located close to Norfolk, VA. The course includes aspects of astrobiology (the “sister of geobiology”), and discusses the evolution of life on Earth.

Introduction to descriptive and dynamical physical oceanography. Properties of sea water; distribution of temperature, salinity and density; water, salt, and heat budgets; techniques for describing the ocean; circulation and water masses of the world's oceans and coastal waters.

Instructor approval required. Introduction to concepts and theories of numerical ocean models and their applications in physical oceanography, computational fluid dynamics, environmental problems and ocean forecast systems.

Provides basic knowledge for conducting field experiments in physical oceanography. Fundamentals of experimental design and sampling theory. Standard methods of data reduction, analysis, and reporting.

The goal of this class is to introduce students to the Python programming language, and to equip them with basic coding, data management and version control skills that will allow them to get more research done in less time and with less pain (computationally-speaking).

Chemical properties of seawater; chemical composition of the ocean including major and trace elements, dissolved gases, micronutrient elements, and organic compounds; processes controlling this composition.

Basic analytical chemistry of seawater; field work in chemical oceanography.

An introduction to the geochemistry of marine sediments, with an emphasis on nutrient (C,N,P,S) and trace element cycling in marine sediments.

Chemical dynamics within water and sediments of estuaries, salt marshes, and the continental shelf; river-sea, air-sea, and sediment-water interactions; modeling techniques.

Survey of marine and terrestrial geology and geophysics; plate tectonics and basin formation; marine sediments and sediment dynamics; marine depositional environments and depositional systems; marine stratigraphy dynamics and the formation of marine basins.

Techniques used to calculate components of water budgets and groundwater fluxes in coastal systems, including wetlands, tidal rivers, estuaries, and shelf waters. Hydrologic criteria used to delineate wetlands. Many lab exercises will require field work in local wetlands and coastal systems.

Attributes of marine sediments; main sedimentary facies zones in marine and coastal environments (deep sea, shelf, tidal flats, lagoons, barrier islands); modern depositional systems versus ancient depositional systems; reefs (brachiopoda, corals, sponges, foraminifers, etc); traces and trace fossils.

Dynamics of rotating, stratified fluids, geostrophic adjustment, potential vorticity, Ekman layers, gravity waves, and large scale ocean circulation.

Marine organisms and their interactions with the physical and chemical environments of the sea; primary production, population ecology, nutrition, reproduction, and marine biogeography; related laboratory exercises.

This course considers the physical oceanography of estuaries. In particular, it explores how circulation and mixing in estuaries are influenced by atmospheric forcing, tidal forcing, coastal influences and bathymetric variability. Topics to be treated include classification of estuaries, typical steady dynamical balances, transport of salt and other quantities, mixing, and time-space scales of variability.

Many societal challenges are “wicked problems,” i.e., social or cultural problems that are difficult or impossible to solve. The class will introduce the students to the theory of wicked problems, engage them in transdisciplinary approaches to address such problems using collaborative strategies such as participatory modeling combined with conceptual and agent-based models. Scenario-based simulations and visualizations will be used to explore possible futures and to create foresight related to wicked problems.

Available for pass/fail grading only. May be repeated for credit. Student participation for credit based on the academic relevance of the work experience, criteria, and evaluative procedures as formally determined by the department and Career Development Services prior to the semester in which the work experience is to take place.

1-3 credits.

An advanced investigation in a selected problem in physical, geological, chemical, or biological oceanography under the direction of the faculty of the Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

An advanced investigation in a selected problem in physical, geological, chemical, or biological oceanography under the direction of the faculty of the Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

Any semester; hours to be arranged; variable credit. 1-9 credits per semester. M.S.-level research.

Any semester; hours to be arranged; variable credit. 1-9 credits per semester. M.S.-level work primarily devoted to the writing of the thesis.

This course is designed for incoming graduate students in environmental science disciplines (e.g. oceanography, geography, ecology, geology, biology, etc.) to introduce modern computing software, programming tools and best practices that are broadly applicable to carrying out research in the environmental sciences. Material covered will include an introduction to Unix, programming using commonly used open-source languages (Python and R), version control and data backup, and data visualization tools for environmental data and making maps. Students will also be introduced to high performance computing and tools for analyzing 'big data' on remote clusters. This course is not discipline specific and is designed to be accessible to any students who want to work with environmental data.

A study of the basic techniques used to model and analyze time series of oceanographic data. These include temporal spatial and frequency/wave number domain techniques.

This is an advanced computational analysis course designed to introduce students to data management and analysis methods commonly used in data science applications. The data analysis portion of the course will be primarily based on machine learning methods. The course will also give an overview of a selection of scientific databases which host freely available oceanographic data and output from numerical model simulations. This course is not discipline specific and will be useful for any students who want to work with data efficiently and gain experience in data management, proper techniques in developing analytical pipelines and applying machine learning to their research.

Emphasis is on the construction of working ocean models, both vorticity-stream function and primitive equation models analyzed, mostly finite difference techniques, implicit and explicit schemes, staggered grids, discussion of ocean general circulation models.

The regional oceanography of the major ocean basins, marginal seas, and coastal oceans. Seasonal and interannual variability. Heat and salt cycles.

Dynamics of rotating stratified fluids. Inertial waves, equatorial dynamics, coastal dynamics, dynamic instability.

The course covers the distribution, abundance, and biogeochemical activities of microorganisms in the oceans, with emphasis on prokaryotic microbes and viruses. Symbioses with higher organisms, and applied aspects of marine microbiology, including biofouling and corrosion, invasive species, and marine biotechnology are also addressed.

This course focuses on the causes (forcings) of climate change; natural response time of the climate system; interactions and feedbacks; and the geologic record in climate change.

An introduction to the major questions in the management of marine fisheries: abundance, estimation, distribution, recruitment and optimum yield. Topics are presented within the context of fisheries management, marine productivity and population ecology, all of which shape the direction of the primary literature.

This course is focused on the theory and techniques of mathematical model development for marine ecosystems. The course is designed to provide an understanding of how to parameterize interaction among components of marine food webs and interaction of food web components with physical environments.

Sedimentary processes in different coastal zones will be described: carbonate, evaporitic, and clastic depositional systems. We will conduct a small research project along the coast of Virginia. Field trip required.

This class will focus on biologically mediated elemental cycling in aquatic systems. Assimilatory and dissimilatory biological processes involving auto- and heterotrophic organisms frequently mediate elemental cycling of these elements. Inorganic compounds and dissolved and particulate organic material will be discussed in terms of their biological reactivity and turnover times in aquatic systems and their contribution to elemental cycling on a variety of temporal and spatial scales. Also included is the issue of how community structure and function alter biogeochemical cycles.

This course examines the physics, chemistry, biology and ecology of photosynthesis by aquatic organisms. Topics include light harvesting, energy transfer, carbon metabolism and biosynthesis and their ecological consequences.

The course covers the physics of light transmission through the aquatic medium as affected by scattering and absorption, the optical properties of seawater, suspended particles of living cells, underwater vision and ocean color.

Techniques for presenting scientific data at professional meetings and seminars. Practical experience and feedback from discussions with visiting speakers.

An advanced investigation of a selected problem in physical, geological, chemical, or biological oceanography under the direction of the faculty of the Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

This course is designed for incoming graduate students in environmental science disciplines (e.g. oceanography, geography, ecology, geology, biology, etc.) to introduce modern computing software, programming tools and best practices that are broadly applicable to carrying out research in the environmental sciences. Material covered will include an introduction to Unix, programming using commonly used open-source languages (Python and R), version control and data backup, and data visualization tools for environmental data and making maps. Students will also be introduced to high performance computing and tools for analyzing 'big data' on remote clusters. This course is not discipline specific and is designed to be accessible to any students who want to work with environmental data.

A study of the basic techniques used to model and analyze time series of oceanographic data. These include temporal spatial and frequency/wave number domain techniques.

This is an advanced computational analysis course designed to introduce students to data management and analysis methods commonly used in data science applications. The data analysis portion of the course will be primarily based on machine learning methods. The course will also give an overview of a selection of scientific databases which host freely available oceanographic data and output from numerical model simulations. This course is not discipline specific and will be useful for any students who want to work with data efficiently and gain experience in data management, proper techniques in developing analytical pipelines and applying machine learning to their research.

Emphasis is on the construction of working ocean models, both vorticity-stream function and primitive equation models analyzed, mostly finite difference techniques, implicit and explicit schemes, staggered grids, discussion of ocean general circulation models.

The regional oceanography of the major ocean basins, marginal seas, and coastal oceans. Seasonal and interannual variability. Heat and salt cycles.

Dynamics of rotating stratified fluids. Inertial waves, equatorial dynamics, coastal dynamics, dynamic instability.

The course covers the distribution, abundance, and biogeochemical activities of microorganisms in the oceans, with emphasis on prokaryotic microbes and viruses. Symbioses with higher organisms, and applied aspects of marine microbiology, including biofouling and corrosion, invasive species, and marine biotechnology are also addressed.

This course emphasizes the ecology of heterotrophic plankton from bacteria to protists, from metazoan invertebrate plankton to fish larvae. Students will explore the role of plankton groups and species in the context of pelagic ecosystems. Planktonic processes are not only relevant for the ocean ecosystem but also for fisheries, aquaculture, environmental and human health, and global climate. The course consists of lectures, discussion groups on selected reading material, and laboratory demonstrations.

An introduction to the major questions in the management of marine fisheries: abundance, estimation, distribution, recruitment and optimum yield. Topics are presented within the context of fisheries management, marine productivity and population ecology, all of which shape the direction of the primary literature.

This course is focused on the theory and techniques of mathematical model development for marine ecosystems. The course is designed to provide an understanding of how to parameterize interaction among components of marine food webs and interaction of food web components with physical environments.

Sedimentary processes in different coastal zones will be described: carbonate, evaporitic, and clastic depositional systems. We will conduct a small research project along the coast of Virginia. Field trip required.

This class will focus on biologically mediated elemental cycling in aquatic systems. Assimilatory and dissimilatory biological processes involving auto- and heterotrophic organisms frequently mediate elemental cycling of these elements. Inorganic compounds and dissolved and particulate organic material will be discussed in terms of their biological reactivity and turnover times in aquatic systems and their contribution to elemental cycling on a variety of temporal and spatial scales. Also included is the issue of how community structure and function alter biogeochemical cycles.

This course examines the physics, chemistry, biology and ecology of photosynthesis by aquatic organisms. Topics include light harvesting, energy transfer, carbon metabolism and biosynthesis and their ecological consequences.

The course covers the physics of light transmission through the aquatic medium as affected by scattering and absorption, the optical properties of seawater, suspended particles of living cells, underwater vision and ocean color.

Techniques for presenting scientific data at professional meetings and seminars. Practical experience and feedback from discussions with visiting speakers.

An advanced investigation of a selected problem in physical, geological, chemical, or biological oceanography under the direction of the faculty of the Department of Ocean and Earth Sciences.

Any semester; hours to be arranged; variable credit, 1-9 credits per semester. Ph.D.-level research.

Any semester; hours to be arranged; variable credit, 1-9 credits per semester.Ph.D.-level work primarily devoted to the writing of the dissertation.