University Course Schedules

Examples of Course Options for First-Year marine science graduate students at UT-Austin

CORE COURSES

MNS 481C. Marine Ecosystem Dynamics (Chris Biggs / Ken Dunton)
Taught Every Fall

Interactions between organisms and the physical processes that regulate productivity and distribution of marine life in oceanic and coastal ecosystems. Four lecture hours a week for one semester. Prerequisite: Graduate standing; and either consent of instructor or the following: six semester hours of coursework in biological sciences chosen from Biology 311C, 311D, and the equivalent; and Chemistry 301 and 302, or the equivalent.

MNS 482C. Marine Biogeochemistry (Zhanfei Liu / Mark Lever)
Taught Every Fall

Study of chemical, biological, geological, and physical processes that influence cycling of bioactive elements in marine waters and sediments. Four lecture hours a week for one semester. Prerequisite: Graduate standing; and either consent of instructor or the following: Physical Science 303 and 304, or the equivalent; Chemistry 301, 302, 310M (or 610A), and 310N (or 610B), or the equivalent; and six semester hours of coursework in biological sciences chosen from Biology 311C, 311D, and the equivalent.

MNS 483C. Adaptations to the Marine Environment (Lee Fuiman / Peter Thomas)
Taught Every Spring

The physiological basis for organismal and population-level responses to marine environments. Four lecture hours a week for one semester. Prerequisite: Graduate standing; and either consent of instructor or the following: six semester hours of coursework in biological sciences chosen from Biology 311C, 311D, and the equivalent; and Chemistry 301 and 302, or the equivalent.

MNS 191. Seminar in Marine Science: Scientific Communication (Chris Biggs)
Taught Every Spring

Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas
Recent advances in the marine sciences, discussed by students, faculty and staff members, and guest lecturers. Topics to be announced. Must be taken twice to fulfill degree requirements.

ADVANCED COURSES

(All advanced courses are taught on an alternating year schedule)

*The Graduate Studies Committee of the Department of Marine Science will periodically add or delete advanced courses from this list depending upon program needs and faculty workloads. Students are required to enroll in a minimum of six hours of MNS advanced courses and are encouraged to communicate with their thesis advisor in the selection of advanced courses. Course Title and Description are updated the semester prior to their listing for the fall or spring semester.

Fall Semester (Odd Years)
MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Marine Environmental Microbiology - Mark Lever

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Marine Populations and Fisheries - Lee Fuiman

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Open-Source Geospatial Informatics - Jessica O'Connell

Spring Semester (Even Years)

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Marine Trophic Ecology - Jordan Casey

MNS 293. Topics in Marine Science: Marine and Organic Geochemistry - Zhanfei Liu

MNS 382. Principles of Marine Science: Estuarine Ecology - Ken Dunton

Fall Semester (Even Years)

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Reproductive Physiology of Fish - Peter Thomas

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Aquatic Toxicology and Risk Assessment - Kristin Nielsen

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Coral Reef Ecosystems/Coral Reef Biology - Simon Brandl

Spring Semester (Odd Years)

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Environmental Physiology of Fishes - Andrew Esbaugh

MNS 193. Topic 7. Topics in Marine Science: Marine Botany - Ken Dunton

MNS 382. Marine Community Ecology - Jordan Casey or Simon Brandl

FALL 2024

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Coral Reef Ecosystems/Coral Reef Biology - Simon Brandl
Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

Coral reefs are the most diverse marine ecosystems but are threatened by a wide range of anthropogenic stressors. In this course, students will learn about the most important ecological concepts that underpin their understanding of coral reef ecosystems. Furthermore, by reading and discussing a variety of literature related to coral reefs, students will identify crucial questions we have yet to address and develop a broad comprehension of emerging research frontiers in coral reef biology. The course is based on reading primary literature and various discussion-based formats. 

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Aquatic Toxicology and Risk Assessment - Kristin Nielsen
Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

This class will explore theory and risk assessment methodologies used by scientists, regulatory agencies, and industry to evaluate the impacts of anthropogenic activities on aquatic and aquatic-dependent receptors, as well as human health.

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Reproductive Physiology of Fish - Peter Thomas

Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

Environmental and endocrine control of reproduction in teleost fishes including the role of hypothalamus/pituitary/gonadal axis, neuroendocrine pathways, genomic and nongenomic steroid actions, ovarian cycle, and gamete physiology.

SPRING 2024

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Marine Trophic Ecology - Jordan Casey
Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

This course focuses on trophic interactions in marine communities. It will provide an overview of seminal publications in trophic ecology and explore analytical techniques used to track ingestion and nutrient exchange among marine organisms, including behavioral observations, cutting-edge molecular techniques, and statistical modeling. Students will present and lead discussions on notable, recent publications. As a final project, they will write a proposal involving trophic ecology in their study system of interest.

MNS 193. Topic 7. Topics in Marine Science: Marine Organic Chemistry - Zhanfei Liu
Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

Marine Organic Geochemistry is the study of the transformations of organic matter from its origins in biological organisms through its preservation in marine environments. This course will introduce you to the field of marine organic geochemistry and its applications to understanding the sources and fates of organic matter in the water column of marine systems as well as that deposited in modern and ancient sediments. The course will be a combination of lectures and discussions.

MNS 382. Estuarine Ecology - Ken Dunton
Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas. Taught face-to-face. Not video-linked.

This class is offered during the May Term (part of the Spring Semester). Class meets the entire month of May and is co-listed with the undergraduate course, Estuarine Ecology, MNS 352C. The course content includes the general ecological principles of estuarine environments in Texas, including physiography hydrography, and plant and animal community structure and productivity. There is a substantial field component that includes two or three major field trips.  The course also includes two flags, for inquiry and writing. Graduate students are expected to write a major research paper, present a lecture to the class on a marine ecological topic of their choosing, and lead field expeditions.

MNS 382. Marine Community Ecology - Simon Brandl
Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

This course aims to provide students with a holistic understanding of the assembly and functioning of marine communities. Students will learn about existing and emerging theories and concepts in community ecology and gain insight into traditional and modern techniques to study marine communities, from visual censuses to molecular approaches. The course includes quantitative training and practical components using the statistical software R, designed to foster an understanding of basic statistical concepts in community ecology and their thoughtful implementation.

FALL 2023

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Marine Environmental Microbiology - Mark Lever
Held at the Marine Science Insitute in Port Aransas.

Technological breakthroughs over the past decades have changed our ability to study microbial communities and microbially-driven processes in the environment. In this seminar class, we will discuss based on state-of-the-art publications and written assignments how recent conceptual, analytical, and experimental advances in the field of environmental microbiology are transforming our understanding of how marine ecosystems operate.

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Marine Populations and Fisheries - Lee Fuiman
Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

Many marine scientists are charged with the task of applying the principles of population biology toward the management of exploited populations of marine organisms in an effort to balance the needs for harvest (commercial or recreational) against sustainability. In this course, students will read and discuss important publications dealing with the principles of marine population biology, including topics such as age and growth, mortality, recruitment stock identification, connectivity, and the contributions of early life stages to population biology.

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Open-Source Geospatial Informatics - Jessica O'Connell
Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

The course will educate students on the subject of open-source geospatial informatics for landscape ecological analysis. Emphasis will be on reproducible research flows that utilize R programming and modeling, with some introduction to Google Earth Engine.

Students should come with a field-derived data set of their own. They will design and implement their own independent remote sensing projects to estimate their field data across a broader spatiotemporal scale. For students without data, I will help direct you towards appropriate existing datasets. Final grades will be derived from a presentation of project results to the class.

Students will be taught model building workflows for landscape prediction, including cross-validation procedures, hyper-parameter tuning, machine learning model building, model averaging, and model validation.

Students should take an R programming course before joining this class. A good one is “R Programming” from Coursera. This is a freely available online class that is part of their R for Data Science series. You can start the “R programming” class on your own schedule and it takes four-weeks to complete.  It is available here:  https://www.coursera.org/learn/r-programming

SPRING 2023

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Environmental Physiology of Fishes - Andrew Esbaugh
Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

Fishes are the most diverse vertebrate group on the planet and live in a variety of different environments. Furthermore, many fish species can transition between very different environments. This class will explore the mechanistic physiology associated with survival in different aquatic habitats and the role of physiology in understanding the impacts of environmental degradation on fish survival and performance. Specific subjects may include the thermodynamics of water and ion balance, pH balance, and respiratory physiology as well as phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental change.

MNS 193. Topic 7. Topics in Marine Science: Marine Botany - Ken Dunton
Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas – Taught face-to-face. Not video-linked.

Marine Botany will introduce students to the marine vegetation of the major coastal biomes of the world, including but not limited to seagrasses, marshes, mangroves, and seaweeds. The purpose of this class is to provide graduate-level inquiry-based exploration on topics including ecology, diversity, natural history, reproduction, photosynthetic strategies, and biotic responses to a warming climate. Field trips will broaden students understanding of the ecology of these systems with respect to habitat, biotic interactions, community structure, and biotic linkages to consumers. The course format consists of seven meetings that include a background lecture followed by field trips to specific vegetation assemblages. Each student is expected to lead one discussion based on assigned readings from the primary literature and write a final paper on a selected topic. The course uses a thematic approach and is divided into two major parts: a section that concentrates on plant photophysiology and ecology and a section on vegetation assemblages. Students will gain a wonderful appreciation and understanding of the diversity of marine plants and their unique strategies of growth, photosynthesis, and reproduction from readings, class discussions, guest lectures, and field trips.

MNS 382. Marine Community Ecology - Jordan Casey
Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

This course aims to provide students with a holistic understanding of the assembly and functioning of marine communities. Students will learn about existing and emerging theories and concepts in community ecology and gain insight into traditional and modern techniques to study marine communities, from visual censuses to molecular approaches. The course includes quantitative training and practical components using the statistical software R, designed to foster an understanding of basic statistical concepts in community ecology and their thoughtful implementation.

FALL 2022

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Coral Reef Ecosystems/Coral Reef Biology - Simon Brandl
Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

Coral reefs are the most diverse marine ecosystems but are threatened by a wide range of anthropogenic stressors. In this course, students will learn about the most important ecological concepts that underpin their understanding of coral reef ecosystems. Furthermore, by reading and discussing a variety of literature related to coral reefs, students will identify crucial questions we have yet to address and develop a broad comprehension of emerging research frontiers in coral reef biology. The course is based on reading primary literature and various discussion-based formats.

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Aquatic Toxicology and Risk Assessment - Kristin Nielsen
Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

This class will explore theory and risk assessment methodologies used by scientists, regulatory agencies, and industry to evaluate the impacts of anthropogenic activities on aquatic and aquatic-dependent receptors, as well as human health.

MNS 193. Topics in Marine Science: Reproductive Physiology of Fish - Peter Thomas
Held at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

Environmental and endocrine control of reproduction in teleost fishes including the role of hypothalamus/pituitary/gonadal axis, neuroendocrine pathways, genomic and nongenomic steroid actions, ovarian cycle, and gamete physiology.