Practical ecological modelling and analysis for coastal and marine management | - CCMAR -
 

Practical ecological modelling and analysis for coastal and marine management

 

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The coastal areas are complex, dynamic systems with habitats that support highly diverse biological communities including phytoplankton, zooplankton, macrophytes, invertebrates, fish, birds, and mammals. The field of geographic information systems (GIS) is concerned with the description, explanation, and prediction of patterns and processes at geographic scales. Thus, GIS as providing a gateway to science and problem solving (geographic information systems 'and science' in general), and because we relate available software for handling geographic information to the scientific principles that should govern its use.

This innovative advanced practical course will consist on applying geospatial analysis to marine ecological problems. The course will train participants in the use of Marine Geospatial Ecology Tools (MGET), a GIS-integrated framework for ecological analysis. MGET is an open source geoprocessing toolbox designed for coastal and marine researchers and GIS analysts who work with spatially-explicit ecological and oceanographic data in scientific or management workflows. MGET includes over 250 tools useful for a variety of tasks, such as downloading popular oceanographic datasets in GIScompatible formats, identifying fronts and eddies in satellite images, building statistical habitat models from species observations and creating habitat maps, modelling biological connectivity by simulating hydrodynamic larval dispersal, and building grids that summarize fishing effort, CPUE and other statistics.

The course will consist of lectures followed by computer exercises that demonstrate analysis techniques using real ecological and oceanographic datasets. Both theoretical and practical topics will be addressed, but the emphasis will be on practical applications of MGET and ArcGIS software to research problems in marine ecology.

The Course will be given by Dr. Jason Roberts (Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab (MGEL)- USA)

Further information:
http://mgel.env.duke.edu/
http://mgel.env.duke.edu/proj/marine-geospatial-ecology-tools/

Local Organization by: Francisco Leitão (ECOREACH - Centre of Marine Sciences (CCMAR))

Location: Sala 2.31a - Edf. 7 - Campus de Gambelas UAlg

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Day 1: Introduction to marine geospatial analysis; Acquiring and manipulating oceanographic data; Identifying and mapping oceanographic features; Acquiring species observations from
bioinformatics databases.

Day 2: Mapping species biodiversity; Modelling and mapping species distributions.

Day 3: Modelling and mapping fishing effort and efficiency; Modelling biological connectivity via hydrodynamic larval dispersal.

Keywords: Ecological modelling; fisheries effort modelling; oceanographic features modelling; conservation planning; mapping and visualization.

Target audience: Researchers in general; students (Licensure students Master & PhD). Attendees should be familiarised with ArcGIS environment; Knowledge of marine biology, oceanography, and statistics is recommended.

Nº days: 3 days
Nº hours: 20 hours
Limit of Participants: 20

Fees
Before 30 June
Price Participant 190€
Students (licensure degree; Master; PhD 160€
After 30 June
Price Participant 220€
Students 180€
Lunch event(not included in the Course Fee)
Last day of the course 13€

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Calendar (Date 11/12/13 July 2011):
Morning: From 09:00 - 12:30 (Break: 10:45-11:00h)
Afternoon: From 14:00 - 17:30 (Break: 16:15-16:30h)
Lunch not included (*Participants should inform when registering if they want to attend to lunch event in the last day of the course; Price
13€);

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