About our course

Investigate a largely unexplored underwater realm

Exploring our Oceans. See how the ocean is connected to our everyday lives

We invite you to investigate the deepest parts of our oceans, exploring an underwater world that has been unknown for most of human existence. Study our online course, for free, from anywhere in the world with leading ocean explorers.

What lurks beneath?

In this four week interactive course, you will see how the ocean depths are no longer out of reach and how they are connected to our everyday lives. We will engage you in our expedition findings and share our knowledge on the least touched areas of our oceans. Join a global debate on the future of our oceans!

Together we’ll look at the animals that swim in these dark waters, the creatures that live on the seabed and the makeup of the underwater environment they live in.

Professor Rachel Mills, University of Southampton says: “We look forward to you joining us online for four weeks of deep ocean exploration. Whether you are a student wanting a taster of our oceanography degrees or are a lifelong learner with a passion for our oceans, we’ll introduce this exciting science to you in an accessible way.”

The University of Southampton with FutureLearn ran its first Massive Open Online Course in Oceanography – Exploring our Oceans – between February and March 2014. The course is continuously evaluated and updated after each run.

4 Responses to "About our course"

Lawrence E. Stevens, PhD says:

November 3, 2020 at 4:46 pm

Greetings,

I am preparing a manuscript for the World Encyclopedia of Biomes on the ecological integrity of the world’s springs, and am inviting springs ecosystem experts from around the world to co-author by contributing brief synopses on the status of springs in their region of study, country, subcontinent, or continent. The distribution, uses, and status of seafloor vent springs is a large gap for this manuscript, and I am inquiring whether you and your colleagues there would be interested in contributing in co-authorship. We have brought together most of the world’s renowned springs authorities for this manuscript, and your contribution would be most deeply appreciated. The deadline for submission of the brief write-ups (300-500 words) is 1 December, with a submission deadline to World Biomes before the end of 2020. Apologies for the tight timeline, but the write-ups can be quite brief.

If you agree to participate, please send along your full name, contact information, including affiliation information, as you wish to see it on the manuscript, as well as your ORCID number.

Please keep your paragraph to <500 words (not including references). Concepts for co-authors to include in their summary text on the status of springs ecosystems by study region include, but are not limited to:

• Study area name, land area, array and hydrogeology of aquifers
• Number, density, and types of springs in the landscape
• Estimated or known percent of springs affected by human activities (percent used for potable water, agriculture including livestock and irrigation, industrial including mining, recreation, etc.
• Ecological integrity or health of springs (by percent affected, if known, in the following categories): devastated, very poor, poor, moderate, good, very good, and pristine
• Potential impacts of climate change, if studied
• 1-2 case studies of springs imperilment from your landscape
• 1-2 case studies of sustainable management or springs rehabilitation efforts
• Other brief, relevant comments on your region’s springs
• Please include references on springs distribution, status and management in your study area.

We have very little room in the manuscript for figures and tables, but please feel free to include relevant figures (maps, photographs, etc.) and tables that can be included into the Supplementary Materials section.

I look forward to hearing from you, and please let me know if you have questions.

Best wishes, stay well, and please vote,

Larry Stevens, Director
Springs Stewardship Institute
Museum of Northern Arizona
3100 N. Ft. Valley Rd.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
(928) 380-7724 mobile

Improving springs ecosystem ecology and stewardship.

Colorado River Basin: The 627,824 km2 Colorado River basin (CRB) in the American Southwest is equally divided between the upper basin Colorado Plateau and the lower CRB Basin and Range geologic province (Stevens et al. 2020). With elevations ranging from sea level up to 4,365 m in the Rocky Mountains, the aquifers of this arid river basin include surficial basalts and deeper sandstone and karstic strata, conformably perched in the upper basin, but highly deformed in the lower basin. A total of 20,872 springs are reported in the CRB, co-dominated by rheocrene, hillslope, and helocrenes, and with a globally significant concentration of hanging gardens in the upper basin but few limnocrenes or geysers. Those springs support at least 330 CRB springs-dependent species (SDS), and Montezuma Well in central Arizona supports six unique SDS (Blinn 2008), the highest point-source concentration of endemic SDS in North America. While pristine springs are found in many CRB national parks, springs outside the parks have a long history of intensive use for livestock watering. Estimates of ecological impairment exceed 70% on private ranches and federally and state-managed forests and rangelands. Climate change impacts in the CRB may reduce winter snowpack at higher elevations and increase evapotranspiration at middle and lower elevations, reducing infiltration and springs discharge. However, wildfire may reduce forest cover in middle and upper elevation landscapes, potentially increasing infiltration. An example of an imperiled spring is Roaring Springs in Grand Canyon, a karstic gushet fed by snowmelt through sinkholes on the Kaibab Plateau to the north and which, through a complex pipeline and pumping system, provides potable water for several million visitors to this world renowned national park (Tobin et al. 2017). Pakoon Springs, a large springs complex in northwestern Arizona was successfully rehabilitated after more than a century of intensive cattle and ostrich ranching (Burke et al. 2015).

References Cited
Blinn, D. 2008. The extreme environment, trophic structure, and ecosystem dynamics of a large, fishless desert spring: Montezuma Well, Arizona. Pp. 98–126 in Stevens, LE, Meretsky VJ, editors. Aridlands Springs in North America: Ecology and Conservation. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Burke KJ, Harcksen KA, Stevens LE, Andress RJ, Johnson R.J. 2015. Collaborative rehabilitation of Pakoon Springs in Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, Arizona. Pp. 312-330 in Huenneke L, van Riper C III, Hayes-Gilpin KA, editors. The Colorado Plateau VI: Science and Management at the Landscape Scale. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Stevens LE, Jenness J, Ledbetter JD. 2020. Springs and springs-dependent taxa in the Colorado River Basin, southwestern North America: geography, ecology, and human impacts. Water 12, 1501; doi:10.3390/w12051501.
Tobin, B.W.; Springer, A.E.; Kraemer, D.K.; Schenk, E. 2017. Review: The distribution, flow, and quality of Grand Canyon springs, Arizona (USA). Hydrogeology Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-017-1688-8.

Reply
Jack says:

October 5, 2015 at 5:11 pm

I absolutely enjoy reading about how these creatures interact, and how they live in the different environments beneath the surface of the ocean.

Reply
David Crossley says:

August 31, 2015 at 8:01 pm

I am recently retired and class myself as a “lifelong learner”. I love the sea and everything about it and I want to learn more and find out how I can help preserve this wonderful environment and all the life that exists within the oceans.

Reply
Wasiem Tharwat says:

October 27, 2014 at 7:17 pm

It’s a wonderful unknown world under water and I’m engaging to know more about this world.

Reply

Investigate a largely unexplored underwater realm

Exploring our Oceans. See how the ocean is connected to our everyday lives

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