Students requiring accommodations as a result of a disability must contact the Centre for Students with Disabilities (778-782-3112 or csdo@sfu.ca).

 

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 471

Special Topics: Reproductive Ecology of Marine Invertebrates

 

Summer 2005

 

Instructor:  Michael Hart

Room B8222

Phone:  291-4473 email:  mike_hart@sfu.ca

 

Prerequisites: permission of instructor; BISC 306 (Invertebrate Biology) and BISC 400 (Evolution) recommended.

 

Background:  The majority of marine invertebrates (like most marine fishes) have a planktonic stage in the life cycle. The larval stages are often the product of broadcast spawning of sperm, or both sperm & eggs, into the plankton. The resulting offspring are small, vulnerable, and must feed and grow in the plankton before reaching a size at which they can live as tiny versions of the adult (a juvenile). Often this larval period is long and results in widespread dispersal of larvae. In many taxa, these larval stages are so different from adults that they are not initially recognizable as belonging to the same phylum. Such larvae often have morphological, physiological, and behavioural specializations for their planktonic lives, which are followed by a dramatic and catastrophic metamorphosis to the adult habitat and lifestyle. Variation in the extent of such larval specializations is correlated with differences in mating systems, fertilization ecology, clutch size, offspring mortality rate, and other ecological aspects of early development.

 

Description:   This class is intended to introduce students to topics, concepts, and a few methods involved in the study of larval ecology & evolution. The class meets once each week for 3 hrs. Most meetings will be tutorial discussions (each with one or more with student leaders) of papers from the larval ecology literature. Background material will come from an older but comprehensive review volume (L. R. McEdward, 1995, Ecology of Marine Invertebrate Larvae). A few meetings will be laboratory introductions to larval diversity (from plankton collections) or methods for studying reproductive ecology (especially fertilization ecology). Details of the organization of both tutorials and labs will depend on class size.

 

No required text.

 

Evaluations and grades are based on tutorial participation (40%), lab participation (10%), and a term paper (50%).