Beneath the Blue: The Importance of Marine Sediments (FutureLearn)

You will consider the importance of the seafloor and learn about its part in global ecological, chemical and physical processes. You will learn about the vital role that the seafloor plays in providing ecosystem services to society, the current rate at which humans are exploiting seafloor habitats and the need to conserve these systems.

What topics will you cover?

- The composition and global distribution of marine sediments.

- Biodiversity; how it is measured and how it has changed though geological time.

- Scientific illustration and taxonomy (the classification of living organisms)

- Defining and classifying functional groups.

- How humans benefit from, and impact on, marine benthic ecosystem processes.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

- Explain what biodiversity is and how it evolved over geological time

- Discuss why biodiversity is important and how marine communities deliver important services that benefit humans.

- Explore the diversity of marine sediments and how communities of organisms inhabit them.

- Identify marine organisms using a taxonomic key

- Discuss the challenges of measuring and quantifying biodiversity in marine environments

- Demonstrate an understanding of functional groups