Environmental Quality Indicators

Year
1
Academic year
2023-2024
Code
02043525
Subject Area
Marine Biology and Global Change
Language of Instruction
Portuguese
Other Languages of Instruction
English
Mode of Delivery
B-learning
Duration
SEMESTRIAL
ECTS Credits
6.0
Type
Elective
Level
2nd Cycle Studies - Mestrado

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

The general concepts and theoretical questions will be approached through face to face lectures, supported by audio-visual means, and also through lectures at distance (B-learning). Transposition to practice will be achieved through exercises utilizing adequate software. Afterwards, the students will work on their own projects, partially inspired in environmental situations identified during field work and papers reading, and will present reports in the course mini-seminars. These reports will be considered in evaluating the students’ performance, together with a written exam.

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge regarding the concept of ecological indication and understanding of the process of proposing, evaluating and efficiency its applicability, as well as comprehension of the ecological indicators’ conception and efficiency of quality indicators taking into account different problems, objectives, observation scales, and types of biomes and ecosystems.

Skills to utilize environmental quality indicators as tools for environmental monitoring and management.

Skills to select and apply the most adequate environmental quality indicators to different situations, both when raw data are already available (more frequent) and when the previous selection of the indicators to be used can precede the sampling design and strategy (optimal situation).

Skills to apply calculation methods and statistical software to estimate environmental quality indicators.

Skills to utilize the acquired knowledge in the expected daily practice of a professional in the field of Biology.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

Environmental Quality Indicators introduces the concept of Indicator and its applicability as monitoring, assessment, and management tool in different types of biomes and ecosystems. Ecosystems’ disruption processes due to human activities are contextualized at the light of systems’ ecology principles, exploring its interpretative and integrative power and approaching indispensable theoretical concepts on ecosystems’ functioning and integrity, human-environment interactions, and ecological criticality.

General concepts of indication theory are approached, and the characteristics of good ecological indicators and at different levels of integration are analysed.

The process of selecting and applying the most adequate ecological indicators for each case objectives is explained and illustrated, including: a) Development, application, and evaluation of ecological indicators; b) Indicator systems; c) Metrics; d) Measuring methodologies; e) Fields of application.

Head Lecturer(s)

João Carlos de Sousa Marques

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Laboratory work or Field work: 20.0%
Project: 30.0%
Frequency: 50.0%

Bibliography

Bastianoni, S. J. C. Marques, F. Müller, B. Patten, R. E. Ulanowicz, S. E. Jørgensen, E. Tiezzi, S. N. Nielsen (editor) & B. D. Fath (editor), 2019. A New Ecology: Systems Perspective. 2nd Edition, Elsevier, 316 pp. ISBN 0444637575 (ISBN13: 9780444637574).

Jørgensen, S. E, J. C. Marques & S. N. Nielsen, 2016. Integrated Environmental Management: A transdisciplinary approach. CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, Boca Raton, 369 p (ISBN – 13:978-1-4987-0510-3).

Marques, J. C., F. Salas, J. Patrício, J. Neto & H. Teixeira, 2009. Ecological Indicators for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Assessment - A User Guide. WIT PRESS, 208 p

Marques, J. C., 2019. Coastal systems in transition: The game of possibilities for sustainability under global climate change. Ecological Indicators, 100: 11-19.

 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.10.055).

List of other selected papers, updasted each year, including case studies and reviews.