The course will focus on UK freshwater and coastal aquatic environments and will be delivered by a combination of lectures, seminar sessions and fieldwork. Students will take part in a week-long fieldtrip to the world famous and highly designated North Norfolk Coast in eastern England and will be introduced to the River Glaven catchment as well as to a range of local aquatic species covering fishes, crayfish, invertebrates, birds, mammals and plants. Lecture emphasis will be placed on field survey techniques, species identification training and key contemporary aquatic conservation and restoration issues. Follow-up lectures and seminars will focus on conservation biology, restoration ecology, practical conservation and its dilemmas and stakeholder engagement especially linked to aspects highlighted by the fieldwork.

The overall aim will be to immerse students in the world of contemporary aquatic conservation and restoration, with a blurring of the apparent boundaries between different freshwater and coastal settings. Further aims include:

to introduce freshwater and coastal environments of the North Norfolk coast via fieldwork
	to introduce ecological and conservation survey methods
	to provide identification skills for a variety of aquatic organism groups including fishes, crayfish, invertebrates, saltmarsh and freshwater plants and amphibians
	to introduce students to key issues in the freshwater and coastal conservation and restoration scene
	to demonstrate the importance of integrating different aquatic habitats into landscape- and catchment-scale conservation approaches
	to highlight the importance of stakeholder engagement to successful aquatic conservation
Due to COVID-19 updates, there may need to be changes to planned field trips for this module. This will depend on travel restrictions, social distancing measures, and the availability of the relevant venues. We will keep you updated if any changes need to be made and on alternative options, as successfully used in 2020-2021.