Courses taught:

Adaptations to the Marine Environment 7200

This course provides an overview of the fascinating adaptations displayed by marine organisms to the diversity of distinct habitats in the oceans, or adaptations to be able to tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions. My section covers the composition, properties and behaviour of seawater and biochemical adaptations to environmental stressors.

Chemical Oceanography 2610/2100

This provides an introduction to the fundamental chemical properties of seawater and the processes governing the concentrations of elements and compounds in the oceans. It is an introduction to the sources, distribution, and transformations of chemical constituents of the ocean, and their relation to biological, chemical, geological, and physical processes. Topics include: controls on average concentration of chemicals in the ocean; vertical and horizontal distributions of ocean constituents; air-sea interactions; production, export, and remineralization

Marine Chemistry 3600

My section of the course provided an introduction to the processes governing concentrations of elements and compounds in seawater. It showed applications of analytical techniques discussed in the first half and provided a context in which such analytical techniques are used.

 

Marine Analytical Chemistry 6191

The Chemical Oceanography section was the same as taught in Chem 3600. Additional classes were given to discuss and demonstrate techniques for lipid analyses, and the biogeochemistry of organic matter in seawater was discussed in detail.

 

Biological Oceanography 7531/7100

My section of the course provided an introduction to the fundamental physical and chemical properties of seawater. The processes governing chemical concentrations in the oceans and their interactions with biological processes were examined.

 

Physiological Ecology of Phytoplankton 7541

My section reviewed pathways of carbon metabolism as well as the chemical structures and importance of the various end products. The biochemistry of the dinoflagellates and the use of lipids in algal chemotaxonomy was then examined in more detail. Finally, the effects of light, temperature and nutrients on the biochemical composition of phytoplankton was discussed.

 

Research Methods in Marine Science 7535

The general principles of sampling and analysis were discussed. The students are then taken out on a research cruise and taught how to operate a CTD, and Niskin and GO-Flo samplers. In the laboratory they are taught how to perform nutrient, lipid class and fatty acid determinations.

 

Earth and Ocean Systems 6001

Students were introduced to the physical and chemical properties of water and seawater and then shown how elements and compounds cycle through the oceans and connect to other parts of global cycles. Finally, the environmental chemistry of embayments is discussed in detail.

 

Advanced Finfish Aquaculture 6100

My section of the course focused on lipid nutrition. Students were introduced to lipid structures and nomenclature and then the current literature on lipid biochemistry as it applies to aquaculture was reviewed.

 

Sampling, Trace Analysis and Chemometrics 6153

Areas covered were: Errors and repeatability, fixed and relative bias, precision, calibration, experimental design, cluster analysis and principal components analysis.

 

Environmental Seminar 6010

This seminar course is primarily intended to provide a forum for student discourse of the environmental science problems they have chosen for their respective research projects. It is also a vehicle to develop skills in critically examining project proposals and/or research results of colleagues.

 

Aquatic Lipid Biogeochemistry 6201

This is a seminar and reading course covering procedures for lipid extraction and analysis (instrumental and statistical), and the fate and effects of lipid compounds in the dissolved, colloidal and particulate fractions of water and in food webs leading to humans.

 

Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology 6002

Environmental chemistry is the study of the sources, reactions, transport, fates and effects of natural and man-made substances in air, water, and soil, and how they are affected by human activity. My section discusses the following topics: atmospheric chemistry, soil and water chemistry, marine chemistry, analytical chemistry, and chemometrics.

 

Finfish Aquaculture 6100

Students were introduced to the breadth of aquaculture science and the variety of animal and plant species cultured; however, the primary focus was on finfish aquaculture in Canada. Basic aspects of aquaculture were covered, including production systems, environmental interactions and various facets of the culture, physiology, feeding, breeding, health and biology of finfish species currently of interest in aquaculture.