Education
Ocean/Envir 260, Autumn 2007
The Puget Sound Ecosystem: Water and Watersheds
Welcome to the Puget Sound Ecosystem
Instructors: Richard Strickland & John Lombard
311 Ocean Teaching Bldg.
(206) 543-3131
Box 357940
This is the PRISM administrative page for Ocean/Envir 260, Autumn 2007. The instructional web page for students in the course is located at courses.washington.edu/ocean260.
This course is being offered jointly by the School of Oceanography and the Program on the Environment for lower-division non-science and environmental majors. The course can be taken for 3 credits (T-Th lectures only) or 5 credits (includes computer labs and field trips on Friday afternoons). There are no prerequisites. Readings will come from online and CD materials and a printed course pack. Please follow the link at right to view the draft syllabus.
Course Description
This course is an overview of the Puget Sound land and water ecosystem. The Puget Sound ecosystem is vitally important to the region, and it is facing serious problems. Two species of salmon and the resident Orca whale are listed as "Threatened." Governor Gregoire recently instituted a special agency for Puget Sound recovery. The course plan will follow case studies of the human impacts on aquatic habitats in the Puget Sound watershed, matched with restoration efforts of local, state, tribal, and federal governments.
The course grows out of a major UW program called PRISM, the Puget Sound Regional Synthesis Model, which has provided important materials to the governmental efforts in habitat restoration and water quality. This program is integrated across several departments on campus and has both a research focus and an educational component. The course adapts the research materials of PRISM and other resources to create teaching materials.
The course offers both NW and I&S credit. It will look at the physical and biological relationship of Puget Sound to the surrounding watershed. It also will look at how the Puget Sound ecosystem is governed and what roles individual citizens (such as students) play in its decline and could play in its recovery.
Instructional Goals
- Learn integrated science of the Puget Sound aquatic environment (freshwater & marine) and its watershed
- Learn impacts of human alteration of the Puget Sound ecosystem, using salmon as an indicator species
- Learn legal & political framework for human management of the Puget Sound ecosystem, using threatened species as a guiding principle
- Learn individual citizens' roles in affecting and managing the Puget Sound ecosystem
- Learn how scientists study the Puget Sound ecosystem (using field work and computerized tools such as mapping and modeling) to provide guidance for management
