Marine Sciences and Technology: focus in Living Marine Resources Science and Management
College or University: University of Massachusetts
Type of degree: M.S.
Brief overview of program: Living marine resource science and management deals with the interactions between marine organisms (organisms that occupy the marine environment for at least a portion of their life-cycle) and their living and non-living environment and with humans. This is a heterogeneous and comprehensive approach and includes a wide range of categories including examination of the individual, species (population biology), and the ecosystem. Studies of individuals examine their climatic tolerance, life cycle, resource requirements and survival. Studies of the population or species, defined as a reproductively isolated group of individuals occupying a specific area, examine spatio-temporal density of organisms (number of individuals per unit area at certain spatial coordinates at a certain point in time), the rate of increase or decrease of a population and the parameters that and emigration. Presently management strategies for many marine species use this perspective and examine how fished populations respond to different harvest strategies.
With the resent increase in our knowledge of marine ecology, resulting from our understanding of the physical processes underlying some of the large-scale biological phenomena and our ability to make continuous fine-scale biological measurements plus the urgency to apply this knowledge in a way that preserves and enhances our use of the ocean's living resources, studies examining the marine ecosystem and their implementation into management strategies are becoming increasingly important. These studies attempt to examine the whole system of associated organisms together with the physical factors of their environment and then examine the influence of harvesting on that system. Further, the economics driving human activity and the social impact of different management strategies must be considered. The development of aquaculture and concern for habitat in the form of marine protected areas add another aspect to studies in living marine resource science and management.
Website: Click here for program website
Program Point of Contact: Mathew Barlow
Email: Mathew_Barlow@uml.edu Department: Environmental, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences Institution address: University of Massachusetts School of Marine Sciences 265 Riverside Street
Lowell,MA 01854 Phone: 978 934 3898
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