Classes by Andrew Bakun

by REPCE students, on November 4, 2013

Thanks to the partnership between the Ocean Observatory of Villefranche-sur-Mer and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Andrew Bakun came to Villefranche this year again. This professor from the university of Miami, one of the main specialists in fisheries dynamics, gave four lectures incorporated within the framework of the master students' course. Their overall topic was physical-biological interaction in the ocean, focusing on variability in complex adaptive systems. This meeting happened during the course: "response of pelagic ecosystems to environmental changes". His four lectures were complementary, in order to understand the mechanisms acting at the population level under anthropic and environmental forcings. To do so, several ecological concepts (news for most of us) were presented. They were more based on physical contribution than most of the concepts developed in this unit, and were illustrated by historical examples. It was also instructive because Andrew Bakun gave classes different from our usual courses, trying to rise questions more than give answers. Finally, this was a great opportunity for us to improve our knowledge and see a different pattern from the French way of teaching.