Level: Graduate

Instructor: Kenneth W. Able

Course overview:
This course will integrate aspects of the phylogeny, morphology, life history, ecology and behavior of fishes, the most diverse group of living vertebrates. The course will include detailed treatments of representative estuarine marine and freshwater fishes during the egg, larval and juvenile stages. Course components may include: lectures, laboratory and field exercises, trips to ichthyological museums in the region, discussions of papers and preparation of an extensive paper. The primary goal of this course is to expose students to the complexities in the early life history of fishes. This course will emphasize student learning through hands-on techniques and development of their own concepts based on original research from the literature and the student's laboratory and field studiesat the Rutgers University Marine Field Station. The course will use a single text (Able and Fahay. 1998) as a baseline for original studies of these and other species that will enhance our existing knowledge of this poorly known component of the life history.

Prerequisites: Ichthyology or permission of the instructor

Catalog Description:
Ontogeny of fishes with emphasis on the first year of life, particularly aspects of phylogeny, morphology, ecology and behavior in estuarine and marine environments.

Course credits: 3

Text book:
Able, K.W. And M.P. Fahay. 1998. The First Year in the Life of Estuarine Fishes in the Middle Atlantic Bight. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ

Format:
Lectures/discussions and field and laboratory exercises. Grades based on student presentations and original paper on the early life history and ecology of a selected species, or assemblage as derived from intensive studies during the course of the semester.

Class meetings:
Intensive gatherings lasting all day on Fridays that will provide an introduction to the study of the early life history of fishes, extensive field and laboratory exercises on the techniques used to do these studies, and complementary field trips to ichthyological museum (Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia) and fish-rearing facility (National Marine Fisheries Service Laboratory, Sandy Hook).

Location:
All regular class meetings will be held at the Rutgers University Marine Field Station (RUMFS), which is located in the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) at Mullica River-Great Bay, near Tuckerton, New Jersey. This location is chosen because of the extensive ichthyological library, preserved fish collections, laboratories with microscopes, possibilities for collecting additional material in natural habitats in the immediate vicinity of RUMFS and access to long-term sampling locations. The NERR is the location of some of the most extensive studies of the early life history of fishes on the east coast of the U.S.