ISG COURSES (HISTORICAL)

Course	Course Title	Professor(s)	Last Offered	Project Description
MEES718A	Long-term Change in the Patuxent Estuary	Laura Lapham, Ryan Woodland, Jeremy Testa, and Carys Mitchelmore	Fall 2017	Students from the ISG "Long-term Change in the Patuxent Estuary" presented a poster summarizing their synthesis of long-term patterns in water quality, phytoplankton dynamics, benthic communities and finfish at the Maryland Water Monitoring Council Annual Conference in December 2017.
MEES708K	Scientific Basis for a Chesapeake Headwaters	Andrew Elmore, Eric Davidson, and Bob Hilderbrand	Fall 2015
MEES718A	Finding Facts in the Day After Tomorrow	Hali Kilbourne	Spring 2018	The 2004 movie "The Day After Tomorrow" was a sci‐fi thriller about the effects of a shutdown in Meridional Atlantic Overturning Circulation (AMOC) that froze the northern hemisphere into a new Ice Age. The reality is that AMOC is a key driver of global climatic and biogeochemical variability, with important impacts on carbon cycling and ecosystems, including many fisheries in the north Atlantic. Through the recent efforts of the US‐AMOC team and UK‐RAPID program, AMOC has been observed to have greater variability than we previously thought. Measurements since 2004 indicate a decreasing trend in AMOC flow intensity. Is this the beginning of a global warming induced AMOC slowdown or shutdown? Many new paleoclimate studies seek to provide insight into AMOC variability over the last 1000‐10,000 years, but the results are not always consistent. We will put together a review paper of modern and paleo observations of AMOC with the goal to put modern AMOC changes into their historical context with the best available data, as well as to summarize how we might clarify remaining questions and ambiguities.
MEES718B	Global Crisis of Coral Reefs	Carys Mitchelmore and Hali Kilbourne	Fall 2018
MEES718C	Nutrients in the Choptank River	Jeffrey Cornwell	Fall 2018
MEES718D	Diseases and Population Dynamics of Marine Organisms	Michael Wilberg and Eric Schott	Fall 2019	Students in Diseases and Population Dynamics of Marine Organisms developed a review paper on the effects of diseases in the Chesapeake Bay. The paper was published as a review in Estuaries and Coasts
MEES718E	Plastic Pollution: From Land and Ocean	Helen Bailey and Carys Mitchelmore	Fall 2019
MEES718D	Ocean Deoxygenation	James Pierson and Clara Fuchsman	Spring 2020	The students contributed a number of sections to the page, including sections on the effects on organisms, specific microbial interactions, and a number of figures.
MEES718F	Shellfish Aquaculture and the Environment	Matthew Gray and Louis Plough	Spring 2020	As a final class project, we produced an opinion article that was published in Aquaculture Environmental Interactions. The paper argues that shellfish aquaculture, which is arguably the most sustainable source of animal protein, is uniquely positioned to benefit from ecolabels by increasing profits for growers while simultaneously informing customers about their numerous ecosystem benefits.
MEES718W	Classic Readings in Ecology	Katia Engelhardt	Fall 2017
MEES718G	Synthesizing Oceanographic Data: Case Study on the Southern Mid-Atlantic Bight	Judith O'Neil, Gregory Silsbe, and Jian Zhao	Fall 2020	Throughout the course, students worked together to assemble and analyze a variety of physical, biological, and chemical oceanographic data along the Mid-Atlantic Bight. Class discussion focused on bridging these disparate datasets to better understand the physical and chemical drivers regulating seasonal to interannual patterns of satellite-derived chlorophyll a, a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, throughout the Mid-Atlantic Bight.
MEES718J	Synthetic Biology and Biodiversity Conservation	Allen Place and Todd Kuiken	Spring 2021	With the advent of synthetic biology, CRISPR, gene drives and other gene editing technologies; understanding the scientific, technical, ethical, and societal implications around biotechnologies is more important than ever. The recent report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature stated that; “these new and rapidly evolving technologies create exciting opportunities in many fields, including new kinds of conservation, but they also raise serious questions and complex challenges”. Understanding these complexities requires a convergence of disciplinary study and thinking. Integrating knowledge from a variety of fields, cultures, and ethics. This course will enable students to examine these complexities and how scientists, technology developers, funders, businesses, regulators, and society at large contemplate their development and use.
MEES718	Developing an Environmental Justice Index for the Chesapeake Watershed Report Card	Bill Dennison and Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen	Spring 2021
MEES718I	Invasive Species Management	Emily Cohen and Katia Engelhardt	Fall 2021	The products for this course will include a mini-symposium to managers of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and 2-page synthesis pages on the impact of invasive species management on natural communities within Maryland.
MEES708L	Ecological Forecasting in Practice	Jeremy Testa and Bill Dennison	Spring 2016