[Coral-List] Coral Reef Ecology field course in Bermuda July 2007

[Samantha de Putron]

****The Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences 
(formerly the Bermuda Biological Station for 
Research) is pleased to announce a Coral Reef 
Ecology field course offering in Bermuda in July 2007.

Course dates: 8-28 July 2007
Course instructor: Dr. Samantha de Putron.
Qualifications:  Open to undergraduates and 
graduate students with strong academic 
credentials.  The course is open only to SCUBA divers.
Course fee: $3,850 (tuition, room and board). 
Scholarship and financial aid available.

Additional details and application procedure 
available at:  http://www.bbsr.edu/Education/summercourses/cre/cre.html
For further information please contact: Jo 
Duyzer, Education co-ordinator, at Jo.Duyzer at bbsr.edu

Course summary:
The Coral Reef Ecology course at the Bermuda 
Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) is comprised 
of lectures, required reading, laboratory 
exercises and field surveys.  The lectures cover 
a broad range of relevant topics in coral reef 
ecology that are supplemented by readings from 
the primary literature with attention given to 
active areas of research. The course is divided 
into 20 lectures (1 to 1.25 hours long), 9 field 
trips (4 hours each), 6 lab sessions (4-5 hours 
each), 6 precepts (1 hour each), 3 or 4 seminars 
by BIOS scientists on current research, a take 
home written exam, and an afternoon of oral 
presentations. An additional 10-15 hours is taken 
to complete the working-group analyses and presentations.

The lab work is focused on training in practical techniques:
• separation of coral tissue from skeleton
• fractionation by centrifugation
• enumeration of zooxanthellae with a haemocytometer
• chlorophyll analysis
• determination of coral surface area
• coral growth determination using a buoyant weighing technique

Various field techniques and subsequent lab 
analyses are used repetitively at different sites 
so that each student has the opportunity to 
become familiar with the following methods:
• video-taping of reef transects to assess community structure
• quantification of reef fish community structure using a visual census method
• quadrat sampling of reef algae, sorting, 
identification and dry weight biomass estimation
• quadrat sampling and measurement of juvenile 
corals to construct size/frequency curves
• quantification of parrotfish and surgeonfish 
feeding rates and social interactions

The laboratory and field work are synthesized as 
final oral presentations that are based on a 
typical format for presenting scientific results 
to an audience and so are designed to provide 
experience in communicating science.


-----------------------------------------------------------
Dr Samantha de Putron
Assistant Research Scientist

Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences
(formerly the Bermuda Biological Station for Research)
Ferry Reach
St Georges
GE 01, Bermuda
Tel: (441) 297 1880 ext 261
Fax: (441) 297 8143
Web: www.bbsr.edu