Description and contextualization of the subject

The aim of the course is to provide the students with a basis which allows them to analyse the biological responses of marine living organisms to environmental changes and viceversa, in the context of a global change situation. The global change is conceived as any environmental trend and change (past, present or future) which affects a substantial part of the global environment and can be due to many factors, including the ones mediated by biological agents. The main factors consider both how the marine organisms and ecosystems respond to change factors and viceversa, and how the biota acclimates and adapts to the main environmental stressors due to global change, including the environmental and evolutionary aspects involved. To that end, a substantial part of the course deals with the analysis of the physical environment in which these changes appear.

Learning outcomes of the subject

At the end of this topic, the students should be able to apply and understand multidisciplinary approaches to the concept of ocean health.

The students are expected to apply traverse ways of thinking.

The students must be able to use different qualitative and quantitative tools for ocean studies.

The students must learn how to apply rational thinking to the different problems faced by the problem of ocean global change.

Ordinary call: orientations and renunciation

Students must attend all the sessions, teaching is face to face.



The active participation (and its quality) in round tables will be assessed. Active participation will be evaluated with a 15% of the total grade for each roundatble.



The students must make a short presentation about a paper related to the course and prepared in groups of two to three students. This activity will be evaluated as 55% of the total grade.



The grading policy indicated in this guide might be changed if health authorities require so. In that case, the changes will be announced with ample time, considering the strategies and tools needed to allow the students to be evaluated with equity and justice.

Extraordinary call: orientations and renunciation

The students who do not pass during the first call have the option to take a written exam at the end of June. In this exam, many multiple choice questions about the topics covered during the lectures will be presented to the student.



The grading policy indicated in this guide migh be changed if health authorities require so. In that case, the changes will be announced with ample time, considering the strategies and tools needed to allow the students to be evaluated with equity and justice.

Temary

1. Global atmospheric and aceanic changes. Introduccion: past, current and future global changes, greenhouse gases, ozone, solar radiation, ocean warming and acidification.



2. Anthropocene. Introduction: growth of human population and global change; urban development, land use and economic activity, large-scale and long-term trends in marine pollution.



3. Biological adaptations and evolutionary processes. Introduction: environmental stress as driver of the biological response to global change. Global scale, multiple and changing sources of stress, tolerance, resistance and defense mechanisms of biota in extreme, evolving and altered environments. Changes induced by global changes in morphology, physiology, phenology and life-cycle of species and their ecological and evolutionary consequences.



Trends in biodiversity. Introduction: morphological vs functional biodiversity. Loss of biodiversity and biogeographical changes; interactions between hosts and parasites and infectious diseases; biological invasions, paleorecords of changes and trends in global biodiversity; evolutive consequences of microevolutionary trends and biodiversity.

Bibliography

Compulsory materials

The handouts, research papers, software and datasets used in the course and made available to students by means of egela.

Basic bibliography

I. Sokolova, Temperature regulation, In Encyclopedia of Ecology, edited by Sven Erik Jørgensen and Brian D. Fath, Academic Press, Oxford, 2008, pp. 3509–3516



I. Sokolova, Poikilotherms, In Encyclopedia of Ecology, edited by Sven Erik Jørgensen and Brian D. Fath, Academic Press, Oxford, 2008, pp. 2851–2854



IPCC, 2023: Synthesis report of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6)[Hoesung, L. et al.] https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/



IPCC, 2019: IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, V. Masson-Delmotte, P. Zhai, M. Tignor, E. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Nicolai, A. Okem, J. Petzold, B. Rama, N.M. Weyer (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, 755 pp. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157964.



IPCC, 2021: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change[Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S.L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M.I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J.B.R. Matthews, T.K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekçi, R. Yu, and B. Zhou (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, In press, doi:10.1017/9781009157896.



IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, 3056 pp., doi:10.1017/9781009325844.



IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M. Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. doi: 10.1017/9781009157926



S. Díaz et al. (2019) Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Journals

Science



https://www.sciencemag.org/







Nature Climate Change:



https://www.nature.com/nclimate/







Environmental Research Letters:



https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/1748-9326







Global Environmental Change:



https://www.journals.elsevier.com/global-environmental-change







Climate Dynamics:



https://link.springer.com/journal/382







Climatic Change:



https://link.springer.com/journal/10584







Science of the total environment:



https://www.journals.elsevier.com/science-of-the-total-environment

Links

https://www.ipcc.ch/