Course description

Tropical Coastal Ecosystems include mangrove, seagrass, and coral reefs ecosystems. The complex physical benthic structure of these ecosystems facilitates enormous trophic and ecological partitioning such that a huge number of species from almost all animal phyla are found in these habitats. In addition, they provide essential coastal protection by absorbing a large proportion of the energy stores in waves and stabilising sediment. These ecosystems are, however, under acute risk from decay due directly to human activities. This course will provide knowledge pertinent to 1) the geological history, structure and distribution of the ecosystems, 2) building and sustaining coral reefs in an oligotrophic ocean, and 3) ecological functions of mangroves and seagrass ecosystems.

The course will include a field trip to Heron Island Research Station. Due to a limited number of places available on Heron Island, there will be a selection process for the field trip where students enrolled in the Marine Science/Marine biology major will be given preference and all remaining places will be allocated based on merit using the student's overall GPA as the criterion. Students who do not attend the trip to Heron will complete an online field-based experiment that will require them to be present at the St Lucia campus. Students will be notified of the outcome of the process by the end of the second week of semester 2. All enquiries to enrol to be addressed to biologyadmin@uq.edu.au.

Archived offerings