Field Practices in Marine Monitoring

This aims at providing the students with the expertise for field work at sea, enabling the students to acquire the skills needed for the monitoring activities. The field course deals with practical issues on monitoring the marine environment, through both remote and direct techniques, i.e., the use of sampling devices (niskin water samples, benthic grabs, splash cameras). It will offer the opportunity to experience the design of a sampling strategy using the main techniques and protocols that marine biologists apply in the field. The course will include either sample collection from a vessel (e.g. water, sediments, plankton, benthos, nekton), either experimental activities, i.e., on the hard (e.g. rocky) and/or soft (e.g. Beach) marine habitats (mussel watch and translocation experiments, caging). The course includes lectures (2, 16 hours) and practical training in the field and in the lab (4 ECTS, 32 hours). The students will acquire practical skills for monitoring strategies. The peculiarity of the practical activities will require developing skills of interaction and coordination within a workgroup.

Course contents

Description of the main sampling techniques for environmental monitoring. Sampling from the research vessel using van Veen grabs, Niskin bottles, box-corer or multiple corer, and splash camera. Practical experiences for the samples treatment, preservation, preparation and sorting of samples of seawater, sediments, benthos, intertidal and coastal organisms, mussel watch monitoring. Use of multi-parametric probe (e.g. CTD), and sampling nets for zooplankton and macro and micro plastics, sediment corer, caging experiments.

Final competences

1. The students know the main techniques and methodologies for specific case 1studies, in either research activities, monitoring or conservation issues.
2. The scope of the course is to offer students the theoretical and practical knowledge on more common sampling methodologies for the marine environment.
3. They learn, touching by hands, the requirements needed to become a marine biologist both in the field, acquiring good competences in sampling and monitoring techniques, and in the lab.
4. All the activities are focussed on the 11 descriptors required the European Marine Strategy Directive to define the Good Environmental Status.

Further course information can be found here: https://studiekiezer.ugent.be/2026/studiefiche/en/C004350