Module Details
The information contained in this module specification was correct at the time of publication but may be subject to change, either during the session because of unforeseen circumstances, or following review of the module at the end of the session. Queries about the module should be directed to the member of staff with responsibility for the module.
Title OCEAN ENVIRONMENTS
Code ENVS266
Coordinator Prof J Sharples
Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences
Jonathan.Sharples@liverpool.ac.uk
Year CATS Level Semester CATS Value
Session 2018-19 Level 5 FHEQ Second Semester 15

Aims

Provide students with a quantitative understanding of oceanographic concepts, applied to key ocean environments.

Provide students with knowledge of how the oceanography of the ocean supports biological production.

Allow students to gain experience in the use of a simple computer model to design and carry out experiments on coastal oceanography.

Provide students with practical experience of making basic, useful calculations applied to coastal oceanography.

Learning Outcomes

Students will acquire knowledge of key concepts in oceanography

Students will learn to appreciate the need to consider a theory''s underlying assumptions when testing its appropriateness as an explanation for a phenomenon

Students will develop skills in framing testable hypotheses.

Students will acquire experience in the use of a simple computer model in testing a hypothesis.

Students will gain experience in reaching quantified answers to problems in the coastal and open ocean.

Students will develop an understanding of how the physics and biology of the ocean are linked

Syllabus
1 
ENVS266 Lecture Timetable
Exact timings will be dependent on when the semester field week occurs and staff availability.
Week 1:
Lecture 1
Introduction: scope of the module; assessments; schematic shelf with key lectures marked; the societal importance of shelf s eas; key contrasts with the open ocean.
Rivers: sources of freshwater, nutrients and contaminants to the ocean; global distribution; anthropogenic perturbations; annual variability in discharge (including monsoonal and Arctic rivers).
Lecture 2
Estuaries: what happens to fresh(er) water when it reaches the sea; stratification and mixing; types of estuary (as a function of mixing and including fjords and inverse estuaries); mean flows in estuaries; 
 
Week 2:
Lecture 3
Coriolis and coastal buoyancy currents (internal Rossby radius and latitudinal constraints of buoyancy flows); dead zones (Louisiana); global delivery of riverine nutrients.
Lecture 4
Waves and resonance: basic equation for a wave (time- and space-variations); shallow and deep water gravity waves (wave speed and group speed for deep water waves); tsunami; fitting a wave into a bathtub; concept of resonance; earthquake-driven waves in Wellington harbour.
 
Week 3:
Lecture 5
Chemistry of estuaries 1.
Lecture 6
Chemistry of estuaries 2. 
 
Week 4:
Lecture 7
Chemistry of estuaries 3.
Lecture 8
Chemistry of estuaries 4.

Week 5:
Lecture 9
Tides 1: the geometry of the problem; the tide generating force; Newton’s Equilibrium Theory and the deep ocean tide; tidal constituents and harmonic analysis.
Lecture 10
Tides 2: tidal wave amplification across the shelf; tidal waves in semi-enclosed seas (forced resonance; amphidromes).
 
Week 6: 
Lecture 11
Tides 3: tidal currents (rather than tidal wave speed); bed friction, current shear and turbulence; sediment maps and bed friction; energy loss from tidal currents; global tidal energy loss and its implications.
Lecture 12
Stratification and mixing: sources of stratification; the potential energy anomaly as a measure of stratificat ion; the heating-stirring competition in shelf seas: heat flux and stratification (PEA); adding in mixing by tides (PEA) and wind (PEA); mixed and stratifying shelf seas (model).
 
Week 7:
Lecture 13
Shelf sea seasonality and primary production: the spring bloom (model); summer storms and nutrient supply (model); the autumn bloom (importance of convective mixing). Introduction to assignment.
< div style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Lecture 14
Mixing in the interior of the water column: the gradient Richardson number; eddy diffusivity and turbulence closure; background mixing; the deep chlorophyll maximum.
 
Content in weeks 8 and 9 could swap, depending on which week is field week in any year.
Week 8:
Lecture 15
Tidal mixing fronts 1: the PEA prediction of frontal position; frontal sections; frontal jets; primary production at fronts; mechanisms supporting primary production (mixing, s/n adjustment, eddies).
Lecture 16
Internal waves; internal tides at the shelf edge and over banks; internal waves as a source of turbulence and mixing; nutrient supplies to the surface at the New Zealand and the Celtic Sea shelf edges (including microstructure measurements).

Week 9: [Note – assignment 1 likely due in by 1200 on Monday week 9]
Fieldwork week. No lectures. Finish assignment.
 
Week 10: 
Lecture 17
Geostrophic currents at the shelf edge; the Taylor-Proudman theorem and the blocking effect of topography; undermining geostrophy (the Rossby number and non-linearity).  Nutrient input and carbon export. The role of shelf seas in the global carbon cycle.
Lecture 18
The main ocean gyres (sub-tropical and sub-polar) and the Southern Ocean circulation. Seasonal and latitudinal changes in the surface mixed layer depth and conse quences for nutrients and primary production.
 
Week 11:
Contingency.

 

Tutorials (1 per week):
Tutorials will be a mix of problem sheets (to gain practice in basic calculations), and practical demonstrations.

Teaching and Learning Strategies

Lecture - 2 lectures per week through the 9 available teaching weeks of semester 2 (the field week is used for assignment completion)..

10 hours directed learning will focus on required reading of basic oceanography, and 12 hours will be spent on module assessed assignments.

Tutorial - 1 tutorial per week through the 9 teaching weeks of semester 2. Tutorials will be used to gain practice with quantitative problem solving, and to provide workshop-type demonstrations of key concepts.

9 hours directed learning focused on understanding the answers to the problems from the problem classes.

Teaching Schedule
  Lectures Seminars Tutorials Lab Practicals Fieldwork Placement Other TOTAL
Study Hours 18
2 lectures per week through the 9 available teaching weeks of semester 2 (the field week is used for assignment completion)..
  9
1 tutorial per week through the 9 teaching weeks of semester 2. Tutorials will be used to gain practice with quantitative problem solving, and to provide workshop-type demonstrations of key concepts.
      27
Timetable (if known) 10 hours directed learning will focus on required reading of basic oceanography, and 12 hours will be spent on module assessed assignments.
  		  9 hours directed learning focused on understanding the answers to the problems from the problem classes.
  		       
Private Study 123
TOTAL HOURS 150

Assessment
EXAM Duration Timing
(Semester)		 % of
final
mark		 Resit/resubmission
opportunity		 Penalty for late
submission		 Notes
Unseen Written Exam  120  Semester 2 examinations period  70  Yes  Standard UoL penalty applies  Exam Notes (applying to all assessments) The assignment will be based on the use of an existing computer model of shelf sea processes. The model will be utilised to (i) develop understanding of the key concepts, then (2) test a hypothesis followed by a write-up of the model findings.  
CONTINUOUS Duration Timing
(Semester)		 % of
final
mark		 Resit/resubmission
opportunity		 Penalty for late
submission		 Notes
Practical Assessment  Report: max 4 sides   Semester 2: available week 7,   30  Yes  Standard UoL penalty applies  Computer model prediction of a coastal sea response to a storm. 

Recommended Texts
Reading lists are managed at readinglists.liverpool.ac.uk. Click here to access the reading lists for this module.
Explanation of Reading List:

Suggested textbook:

Introduction to the Physical and Biological Oceanography of Shelf Seas, Simpson, J. H., & Sharples, J., Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Useful chapters will be identified at key stages of the module.