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ECOL380 Ecology and Management of Rivers and Lakes

Credits (ECTS):10

Course responsible:Susanne Claudia Schneider

Campus / Online:Taught campus Ås

Teaching language:Engelsk

Limits of class size:28 students. See "Note".

Course frequency:Annually

Nominal workload:Structured teaching: ca. 50 hours. The students own efforts such as report writing, seminar preparations, studying for oral exams etc.: ca. 200 hours.

Teaching and exam period:This course starts in Spring parallel. This course has teaching/evaluation in Spring parallel, .

About this course

The course covers the most important physical and chemical environmental variables in running waters, followed by topics such as energy flows and other major processes in freshwaters, eutrophication, organic pollution, acidification, climate change, hydropower, ecosystem services, and bioindication including the EU Water Framework Directive. The students give a seminar on selected parts of the syllabus. A field excursion followed by laboratory exercises provides a practical introduction to watercourse investigations.

Learning outcome

Knowledge The students will after the course be able to explain the most important ecological processes in rivers and lakes (with a focus on rivers) and apply this knowledge to relevant topics in watercourse management. The students will be able to assess ecological status of a water body, and critically assess own and published results.

Skills The students will after the course be able to acquire detailed knowledge from scientific articles, give a presentation on a topic related to watercourse management, and critically discuss scientific results.

Competence The students should after the course be able to understand challenges in watercourse management and contribute with solutions.

  • Learning activities
    Lectures by the responsible and contributing teachers. The students prepare a topic and give a seminar for the other participants of the course. There will be a one-day field trip followed by two days in the laboratory, resulting in a group report on the ecological status in a Norwegian watercourse.
  • Teaching support
    The teacher is available for support both directly and by e-mail during office hours.
  • Prerequisites
    VANN210, or equivalent
  • Assessment method
    Oral exam.

    Oral exam Grading: Letter grades Permitted aids: A1 No calculator, no other aids
  • Examiner scheme
    An external examiner is used for the oral exam.
  • Mandatory activity
    • Mandatory attendance on the first course day (due to the restricted number of places).
    • Seminar on a selected part of the syllabus.
    • Field trip and laboratory work which is the basis for a group report.
    • The seminar and the group report that has to be judged as passed.
  • Notes
    Registration for the course no later than 20. january. After this, the 28 places in the course will be distributed.
  • Teaching hours
    Lectures, seminars, field work, laboratory work: 50 hours
  • Preferential right
    M-ECOL, M-NF and M-MILJØ.
  • Admission requirements
    Special requirements in Science