Oceanography 320: Aquatic Pollution

Spring 2008

MWF 8:30-9:20

MSB 315

 

Course Instructors:             Dr. Eric Heinen De Carlo        

Office:                          MSB 510                                

Telephone: 956-5924     email: edecarlo@soest.hawaii.edu

 

Syllabus

Date		Topic	Chapter
Jan	14	Introduction, Course objectives
	16	Food chain theory	1
	18	Food chain theory	1
Jan	21	Holiday: M. L. King Day	-
	23	Primary production	2
	25	Primary production	2
Jan	28	Primary production	2
	30	Physical factors affecting production	3
Feb	1	Cultural eutrophication	4
Feb	4	Cultural eutrophication – Lake Washington Draft of 1st paper due to instructor for review	4
	6	Cultural eutrophication –Kaneohe Bay	4
	8	Sewage treatment – primary	6
Feb	11	Sewage treatment – secondary	6
	13	Sewage treament – tertiary and alternatives	6
	15	Non-Point source pollution, urban runoff Review of 1st paper draft returned to students	5
Feb	18	Holiday: Presidents’ Day	-
	20	NPS-Urban runoff	5
	22	Pathogens Final version of 1st paper due to instructor	7
Feb	25	Pathogens in water supplies	7
	27	Pathogens in water supplies	7
	29	Catch up day	-
Mar	3	Video: Waters of Ayole	-
	5	First  Exam	-
	7	Student Presentation Work Day (in class)	-
Mar	10	Pesticides	10
	12	Pesticides, DDT	10
	14	Pesticides, Alternatives	10
Mar	17	Student Presentations	-
	19	Student Presentations	-
	21	Holiday: Good Friday	-
Mar	24	Spring Break
	26	Spring Break
	28	Spring Break
Mar	31	Thermal Pollution Draft of second paper due for peer review	11
Apr	2	Thermal Pollution Draft of 2nd paper assigned to students for peer review	11
	4	Thermal Pollution	11
Apr	7	Metals - General Concepts Peer reviews of  2nd paper  due to instructor	12
	9	Metals - Mercury	12
	11	Metals - Cadmium	12
Apr	14	Metals - Lead Final version of 2nd paper due to instructor	12
	16	Metals in Urban Honolulu, Discussion	-
	18	Oil Pollution	13
Apr	21	Oil Pollution	13
	23	Oil Pollution	13
	25	Acid Deposition	15
Apr	28	Acid Deposition	13
	30	Acid Deposition	15
May	2	Groundwater Pollution	16
May	5	Groundwater Pollution	16
May	7	Groundwater Pollution	16
May	9	Optional Exam Review Session	-
May	16	Final Examination, 07:30-09:30

 

NOTES:

 

This course is not particularly difficult if you have had general introductory  courses in CHEMISTRY and BIOLOGY as well as the prerequisite (OCN 201). Students who have not successfully completed these courses will be at a disadvantage, because mastery of material from these courses will be assumed during class presentations and discussions. If you have not had the prerequisites for this course you will be responsible for getting up to speed on the material on your own so as not to inconvenience the rest of the class.

 

The course syllabus and some other limited information (including old exams from the professor who wrote our textbook) are available on the OCN 320 website: http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/oceanography/courses.html

 

Your grade in the course will be based on (unannounced) periodic quizzes (15%), a midterm exam (20%), a final exam (25%), and a series of “formal” research papers and classroom presentations worth a combined (40%).

 

Quizzes will be based partly on material previously covered in classroom lectures and partly on the assigned readings (i.e., material not yet covered in class).

 

Exams will test student knowledge of the material covered in classroom lectures and the assigned textbook readings (the latter may not necessarily be repeated/discussed in class). The first exam will cover the material covered in the time between the beginning of the course and the exam and the second exam will cover primarily material presented after the first exam. Exams will include multiple choice, true/false and fill in the blank questions, short (quantitative) problems and short essays.

 

A combined total length of at least 20 pages is required for the research papers.

 

The research papers must be on the topics described below but the group classroom presentations will be on topic(s) of your choice. However, the topics must be pre-approved by the course instructor. Information presented in your research papers must be based on a minimum of three peer-reviewed papers from the scientific literature. The course text, web sites, newspapers, etc. can be used as references to supplement the minimum required peer reviewed journal articles. A portion of your grade on the papers will depend on the appropriate use/citation of acceptable references. Some links and references are provided to help you get started on the two papers.

 

1.      The impact of land-derived nutrient inputs on coastal water quality and primary productivity

 

The focus of this paper  is to be on cause and effect relationships between land-derived (natural or anthropogenic) inputs of freshwater, suspended sediment and their associated nutrient loads on the primary productivity of coastal waters. Some starting points include:

 

http://www4.nationalacademies.org/cp.nsf/0/aa5b5207213b01d18525658e001083d9?OpenDocument

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/oceanography/edecarlo/

http://www.cefas.co.uk/eutwork/abstract2.htm

http://www2.dmu.dk/1_Viden/2_Miljoe-tilstand/3_vand/4_Charm/charm_meetings.htm

 

Caraco, N. F. 1995. Influence of human populations on phosphorus transfers to aquatic systems: A regional scale study using large rivers. Phosphorus in the global environment. Chichester, John Wiley & Sons. 235-244.

 

Cheroske A.G., Williams, S.L., and Carpenter, R.C. 2000. Effects of physical and biological disturbances on algal turfs in Kane‘ohe Bay, Hawai‘i. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 248:1–34.

 

Cox, D.C. Fan, P. F., and Chave K.E. 1973. Estuarine pollution in the State of Hawaii; Volume 2: Kaneohe Bay study. University of Hawaii Water Resources Research Center.

 

De Carlo, E.H., Hoover, D.J., Young, C.W., Hoover, R.S. and Mackenzie, F.T. Impact of storm runoff from subtropical watersheds on coastal water quality and productivity. Applied Geochemistry (2007) 22:1777-1797, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2007.03.034

 

Hoover, D. 2002. Fluvial nutrient fluxes to Oahu coastal waters: Land use, storm runoff, and impacts on coastal ecosystems. Dissertation, Department of Oceanography, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu. 437pp.

 

Laws, E.A. and Allen, C.B. 1996. Water quality in a subtropical embayment more than a decade after diversion of sewage discharges. Pacific Science, 50(2):194-210.

 

Laws, E.A., Ziemann, D. and Schulman, D. 1999. Coastal water quality in Hawaii: The importance of buffer zones and dilution. Marine Environmental Research 48:1-21.

 

Rabalais, N. 2004. Eutrophication. Chapter 21, pp. 819-865 in A. R. Robinson, J. McCarthy and B. J. Rothschild (eds.), The Global Coastal Ocean: Multiscale Interdisciplinary Processes, The Sea, Vol. 13, Harvard University Press.

 

Rabalais, N. N., N. Atilla, C. Normandeau and R. E. Turner. 2004. Ecosystem history of Mississippi River-influenced continental shelf revealed through preserved phytoplankton pigments. Marine Pollution Bulletin 49: 537-547.

 

Ringuet, S. 2003 Biogeochemical impacts of storm runoff on water quality in southern Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. M.S. Thesis, Dept. of Oceanography, University of Hawaii.

 

Ringuet, S. and Mackenzie, F.T. (2005) Controls on nutrient and phytoplankton dynamics by storm runoff events, southern Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. Estuaries.28:327-337

 

Scavia, D., N. N. Rabalais , R. E. Turner, D. Justic, and W. J. Wiseman, Jr. 2003. Predicting the response of Gulf of Mexico hypoxia to variations in Mississippi River nitrogen load. Limnology & Oceanography 48: 951-956.

 

Smith, S.V., Kimmerer, W.J., Laws, E.A., Brock, R.E., and Walsh, T.W. 1981. Kaneohe Bay sewage experiment: Perspectives on ecosystem responses to nutritional perturbation. Pacific Science. 35:379-395.

 

Turner, R. E. and N. N. Rabalais. 2004. Suspended sediment, C, N, P, and Si yields from the Mississippi River Basin. Hydrobiologia 511: 79-89.

 

Turner, R. E. and N. N. Rabalais. 2003. Linking landscape and water quality in the Mississippi River basin for 200 years. BioScience 53: 563-572.

 

2.      Water quality in Urban Environments (a focus on the Ala Wai Canal watershed in Honolulu is recommended but not required)

 

http://www.iwla.org/sos/restoration.html

http://www.rarehawaii.org/

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/oceanography/edecarlo/current/watershed/watershed.html

http://www.alawaicanalproject.net/

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/oceanography/courses_html/OCN%20320/AlaWaiReport.pdf

 

Beltran, V.L. and De Carlo, E.H. Variability of particulate metal concentrations during storm events in streams of a subtropical watershed. Chapter 15 in “Environmental Chemistry”, E. Lichtfouse, S. Dudd, S. Robert, Eds. (Springer Verlag), 2005, 153-176.

 

Dashiell, E. P. 1997. Ala Wai Watershed Water Quality Improvement Project Management and Implementation Plan. Vol. I.  Honolulu City and County Steering Committee.

 

De Carlo, E. H. and Spencer, K.J. Sedimentary records of anthropogenic inputs of heavy metals to the Ala Wai a small man-made estuary in Honolulu, Hawaii. Pacific Science, (1995) 49(4), 471-491.

 

De Carlo, E.H. and Anthony, S.S. Spatial and temporal variability of trace element concentrations in an urban subtropical watershed, Honolulu, Hawaii. Applied Geochemistry (2002), 17:475-492.

 

De Carlo, E.H., Beltran, V.L., and Tomlinson, M.S. Composition of water and suspended sediment in streams of urbanized subtropical watersheds in Hawaii. Applied Geochemistry, (2004) 19(7):1011-1037.  doi:10.1016/j.apgeochem.2004.01.004   

 

De Carlo, E.H., Tomlinson, M.S., and Anthony, S.A.. Trace elements in streambed sediments of small subtropical streams on Oahu, Hawaii: Results from the USGS NAWQA Program. Applied Geochemistry, (2005), 20(12):2157-2188 doi:10.1016/j.apgeochem.2005.08.005  

 

McMurtry, G. M., Wiltshire, J. C., and Kauahikaua, J. P. 1995. Heavy metal anomalies in coastal sediments of O`ahu, Hawai‘i. Pacific Sci. 49(4), 452-470.

 

Spencer, K. J., De Carlo, E. H., and McMurtry, G.M. Isotopic clues to the sources of natural and anthropogenic lead in sediments and soils from Oahu, Hawaii. Pacific Science, (1995) 49(4), 492-510.

 

Sutherland, R. A. 2000. Bed sediment-associated trace metals in an urban stream, Oahu, Hawai‘i. Environmental Geology, 39(6), 611-627.

 

Sutherland, R.A. and Tolosa, C.A. 2000. Multi-element analysis of road-deposited sediment in an urban drainage basin, Honolulu, Hawaii. Environmental Pollution 10: 483-495.

 

Sutherland, R.A., Graham Pearson, D. and Ottley, C.J. 2007. Platinum group elements in road deposited sediments in two urban watersheds, Hawaii. Applied Geochemistry 22:1485-1501.

 

Tomlinson, M.S. and De Carlo, E.H. The need for high-resolution time series data to characterize Hawaiian streams. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA), (2003), 39:1, 113-123.

 

Students are to turn in drafts of the full-length papers by dates specified in the syllabus for preliminary (anonymous peer-) review (by fellow students). Final versions of the papers are due one week after return of the edited draft to the students, NO EXCEPTIONS. Grades for late submissions of the drafts and/or final versions of papers will be reduced by 5% per calendar day up to a maximum of 50% grade reduction.

 

The course instructor will review the draft submission of the first term paper and provide students with comments as necessary. Students are expected to pay careful attention to the nature and type of editorial comments so that they are prepared to “peer review” another student’s draft of the second paper. In cases where the instructor thinks the draft is totally inadequate a meeting between the student and instructor will be required to discuss how to rewrite and improve the paper.

 

3.      Group Classroom Presentation: This assignment is designed to provide students with the opportunity to develop their organizational, collaborative, and presentation skills.

 

As part of this assignment students will team up in groups of three or four to develop a 10-12 minute power-point presentation on a relevant (and pre-approved) aquatic pollution topic of their choice. All students in each group are expected to participate in all aspects of the assignment. Students will prepare a handout of the powerpoint slides as well as an extended text outline (lesson plan) that includes more in-depth or supplementary information not covered thoroughly during the classroom presentation. The extended text outline should be on the order of three to four pages in length and include relevant (peer-reviewed) references for supplementary reading. The final exam may include questions from the student classroom presentations.

 

Students must adequately complete all writing assignments to pass this course, i.e., a grade of F will automatically be given to anyone who does not meet the writing and classroom presentation requirements, regardless of the number of points achieved on quizzes and exams.