Using VENUS in a New Lab for EOS/GEOG 110 at UVic

Duncan Johannessen (SEOS, University of Victoria)

This fall (2010) the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences (SEOS) put together a new lab for our first year Oceans and Atmosphere course (EOS/Geog 110). The first part of the lab involved working with a simple phytoplankton, zooplankton and nutrients computer model developed by Dr. Neil Banas at the University of Washington. His model can be used online and has a very clear user interface making it easy to use in the classroom (http://coast.ocean.washington.edu/~neil/NPZvisualizer/). The simulation is interesting and interactive and quickly allows you to raise some useful questions about this ecosystem and its dynamics. We felt that students could gain further insights and remember the activity better if they could compare the model results to real world observations. At this point students were directed to look at images from the Zooplankton Acoustic Profiler (ZAP) instrument on the VENUS network. These images were acquired from the VENUS website and are publicly available and can be easily found by network node location.

With the first image, students had to identify zooplankton daily migration patterns, and figure out the reason for this migration. By looking at a year’s worth of monthly images, students were able to identify seasonal changes in hours of daylight as well as phytoplankton and zooplankton population changes. Looking at more than one year of data provided the opportunity to discuss inter-annual variation and other factors that can affect plankton populations and bloom timing.

Feedback on the lab so far has been extremely positive. Students really enjoyed taking the theoretical knowledge provided to them in previous lectures and labs, and applying that to the interpretation of real data. Many students commented that this was the most satisfying lab of the term and helped them to realize how much they had actually learned. The animated discussions taking place between student pairs as they worked through the exercise satisfied me that they were all thoroughly engaged in the activity. I look forward to bringing more VENUS and NEPTUNE data into the SEOS labs.

Web interface of the NPZ model by Dr. Banas (UW). Ecosystem model simulates Nutrients, Plankton and Zooplankton. By adjusting various parameters, students can see how the structure of the ecosystem changes with time and trophic levels.