The final exam is comprehensive . You are responsible for all materials covered in class, as well as readings, discussions, and topics covered during laboratory sessions. The exam format will be similar to the midterms: The first questions will be short-answer, general information questions to probe your understanding of terms and concepts. The second set of questions will be half-page essay questions that require original, critical thinking. The final set of questions are page-long essays that will require a synthesis of ideas developed in the course.

Although a cumulative exam requires a extensive review of course materials, you should focus on synthesis.... that is, strive to understand how material learned during one part of the course relates to ideas learned at other times... Remember, the ultimate goal of this course is to understand the diversity of marine organisms and how this diversity relates to the marine environment. In addition to the two study guides that were provided before each midterm (links below), I've outlined some of the major themes from last part of this term below... As with previous exams, you should understand concepts that underlie these themes and be able to give real-life examples when appropriate.

A reminder of some of the topics we covered:

The study guide for the first midterm

The study guide for the second midterm

Topics since the second midterm:

Marine Communities (excluding coral reefs, which were covered prior to the second mid-term)

Temperate Marine Communities

Polar Marine Communities

Deep Sea Communities

Open Ocean Communities

For all of these you should be familiar with the basic abiotic and biotic factors that define the community. Part of that relates to where they occur on the planet (e.g., polar seas are at very high latitudes, deep sea communities are abyssal, etc.). You should also be able to identify the members of important trophic groups in each of these communities (e.g., who are the primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, etc) and how they interact within a food web.

Human impacts on the marine environment

Overfishing

Understand basic terms associated with fisheries, including: stock, and stock assessment, landings, effort, catch/unit effort, maximum sustainable yield, by-catch, targetted fisherey, tragedy of the commons, etc.

Be familiar with examples of threatened fisheries

Be familiar with strategies for fisheries conservation, recoverey, and management.

Be sure to read the pdf on Marine Reserves

Mariculture: positive and negative examples.

Habitat degradation

Know some examples of habitat degradation and their consequences for marine life and humans

Concepts to be familar with: coral bleaching, mangrove deforestation, cyanide and dynamite fishing, the effects of dams on anadromous fishes, dead zones, trawl scars

Pollution

Various types of pollutants and their effects

Global climate change from green house gas emissions and the impact on marine ecosystems with regard to:

Acidification

Sea level change

Sea temperature change

You should also be familar with the basic way that imacts of different types may arise from a particular human activity... for example, trawl fishing may overharvest targeted fish stocks and also kill other species via by-catch while also damaging bottom habitats.