Description

In this course, students will be introduced the main chemistry behind contamination in the coastal zone. Chemical interactions on the interface of the sea, land and air will be explained as well as transport of pollutants. The state of the coastal zones in the world will be discussed, as well as regional, national and international monitoring practices and programs. An introduction to designing monitoring program will be presented. Further, an insight into our own life style and the effects we have on the environment will be discussed. At the end of the course, students should have a broad overview over the main environmental hazards towards coastal zones, both natural and man made. The yshould be able to recognize major pollutants and have an understanding of their source, transport and effects on the ecosystem. Students should be familiar with main methods for detecting environmental hazxards and means of monitoring them.

Special focus will be on:

• Effects of persistant organic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals on living organisms, with special emphasis on sea-birds
• Environmental chemistry, where students gain insights into chemical analyses and ecotoxicology
• Hands-on demonstration of the effects of contamination on living organisms

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will:

• have gained an understanding of the chemical composition of coastal waters and the various natural processes and human activities which have an influence there
• have gained basic knowledge to design monitoring programmes and assess the results obtained
• have become familiar with the variety of coastal issues which are important in different parts of the world and international efforts and conventions relating to coastal water quality management

Assessment

TBA

Instructor

Lorraine Gray received her PhD from Napier University, Edinburgh, while somehow managing to swap her Scottish winters for Australian summers to do the survey work. She studied the impact of endocrine disrupting chemicals and sewage effluent on the behaviour and morhology of the male mosquitofish, both in the laboratory and in the field.

She then went on to teach ecology in further education in Scotland. In 2004, she moved to Shetland to work for Shetland Islands Council surveying and mapping contaminated land. She also had a short contract environmental auditing the Council, before taking up a post at the NAFC Marine Centre.

For the past six years she has been responsible for taking the Shetland Marine Spatial Plan from inception through to implementation. One of the keys to success of the Plan was securing stakeholder involvement, and this included mapping fishing grounds through one-to-one interviews and workshops with the local fleet. Lorraine retains direct involvement with developers, planners, regulators and other stakeholders to advice on site selection and to facilitate pre-application consultation.

Guest lecturer

Further reading