Current course offerings

Please Note: Course profiles marked as not available may still be in development.

Course description

This course will be offered for the final time in Semester 2, 2025.

Our society is highly dependent on ecosystem services supplied by freshwater, estuarine and marine aquatic ecosystems including the provision of food, water, energy, and recreation and cultural activities. Yet aquatic habitats include some of the most fragile and threatened ecosystems on earth. Cumulative impacts from agriculture, urbanisation, industrial production, invasive species, and climate change have resulted in degradation, fragmentation, and destruction of aquatic environments. Sustainable management of these systems is dependent on understanding the physical, chemical, hydrological and ecological processes in freshwater and marine ecosystems, and their significance for ecosystem structure and function. This course will provide students with the knowledge base necessary to prepare individuals for advanced course work in Environmental Science and employment in the management of aquatic ecosystems. This second level course will develop the systems thinking basis critical to Environmental Science by taking an integrated approach to aquatic environments from glacial ecosystems to deep-sea ecosystems. We will start by understanding where the water that makes up these systems came from, and the broad-scale atmospheric and hydrologic cycles that govern its distribution and movement. This will be followed by four modules covering the physical, chemical, hydrological and ecological characteristics and processes of glacial, freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems. In addition to interactive lectures and expert guest lectures and tutorials, ENVM2003 will include field trips to regional ecosystems where students will engage in interdisciplinary exercises and practical skills training. Through a series of written, oral, laboratory and field exercises, this course will deliver a catchment perspective on the management of aquatic environments with a focus on Queensland and Australian ecosytems.

Archived offerings