Research Methods for Fish, Marine and Freshwater Biology

Course Description:

Current methods in studying aquatic organisms and ecosystems will be introduced, with case studies drawn from active research projects. Topics include: tagging, age and growth derived from otoliths and scales, analyses of morphological features, food web analysis and construction, usage of stable isotopes and fatty acids in food web studies, population genetics, eDNA and metabarcoding, otoliths chemistry in stock identification, population models, temperature reconstruction derived from sediment cores, remote sensing, telemetry, acoustic and sonar use, experimental methods, ecosystem and evolution modelling, behavioural ecology and biodiversity analysis and molecular methods for detecting genetic composition and organismal traits. Each session will include theoretical background of work, detailed description of methodology, their strength and weaknesses, and examples of analyses and results. Some sessions will be arranged to juxtapose either different methodologies used to address the same problems, or how the same methods can be applied to study different organismal groups or distinct ecosystems.