1. komponenta

Lecture type	Total
Lectures	30
Practicum	30

* Load is given in academic hour (1 academic hour = 45 minutes)

The aim of the course is to to provide students with an in?depth understanding of the diversity, functional roles and ecological interactions of microorganisms in different marine ecosystems (plankton, benthos, extreme environments) and with their contribution to biogeochemical cycles.
Special emphasis is placed on understanding the effects of natural and anthropogenic environmental changes on microbial communities, as well as on developing skills in the critical analysis of scientific papers and in computer-based processing of ecological data from marine systems.

SYLLABUS

Lectures

1. Introductory lecture; diversity and ecological significance of microorganisms in marine ecosystems
2. Methods for studying microorganisms in the sea - an interdisciplinary approach
3. Photosynthetic prokaryotes - cyanobacteria, aerobic anoxygenic autotrophs
4. Chemolithoautotrophs - bacteria and archaea
5. Heterotrophic bacteria; the microbial food web, metabolic diversity of bacteria, proteorhodopsin
6. Protists in marine ecosystems
7. Coccolithophores
8. Diatoms in phytoplankton and phytobenthos
9. Fungi in marine ecosystems
10. Ecological role of viruses in the sea
11. Ecology of microorganisms in the pelagic environment effects of climate change
12. Ecology of microbial communities in sediments - mobile seabeds, microbiomes of macroalgae and seagrasses
13. Microbial communities on hard bottoms, microbiomes of marine invertebrates (corals, sponges)
14. Microbial communities of marine vertebrates; the role of microbial ecology in conservation biology
15. Microorganisms as "hidden engineers" in the restoration and protection of marine ecosystems

Practical classes

The practical part is carried out by students on computers and includes methods of graphical presentation and statistical interpretation of physico-chemical data and data on the abundance of different microbial fractions of plankton collected during field research of the Laboratory for Algology. Students will acquire practical skills in using software for graphical presentation and in applying basic and multivariate statistical methods

1. Microbial ecology of the oceans, Kirchman, D.L.,, Wiley-Liss, New York., 2000.
2. Fitoplankton u ekološkom sustavu mora., Viličić, D., Školska knjiga, Zagreb, 2003.
3. Ekologija morskog bakterioplanktona, Šolić, M.,, Institut za oceanografiju i ribarstvo, Split., 2000.