EART1105 The Dynamic Planet Oceans Project Assignment Brief 2025

EART1105 Specific requirements of Oceans Project

PART 1 – investigating ancient paleosealevels

Present an annotated image (e.g., photos, satellite imagery) that clearly shows natural, physical evidence for relative sea level change at a local scale. This evidence cannot be from the last thousand years; it must show evidence for sea level change from thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of years ago in Earth’s past. In other words, we are looking for evidence of paleosealevels in deep time.

1.  Choose a timescale to investigate change: …thousands of years ago (Ka), 100’s of Ka, or millions of years (Ma)... Note that your example must look at sea level change that has occurred at least 1,000 years ago in Earth’s past. 

2.  Find an example of local scale sea level variation in that time period. This can be from anywhere in the world. 

3.  What is the natural, physical evidence on Earth that tells us about this local scale sea level variation in that time period? 

Physical evidence is evidence that we can touch with our own hands. It's the evidence we can see with our own eyes. You can go and do some fieldwork outside and actually find this evidence. A satellite orbiting Earth might capture an image of it. You can collect a sample of it, photograph it, or analyse it back in the lab. Go out and photograph it if it’s near Perth. If you know of a really spectacular example from another country, go ahead and use that.

You need to present at least one image that highlights this physical evidence. Are you making a comparison, or are you showing a feature up close? Then perhaps consider showing more than one image...

Your images must clearly convince your reader that there has been a local scale change in relative sea level over your chosen timescale. Think creatively and try to come up with a unique (and scientifically accurate) idea. This physical evidence does not necessarily need to be on a modern-day coastline, but you need to do your research carefully. Remember that the continents have grown and moved around over millions of years in Earth's past.

Hint: a simulation is NOT physical evidence. A simulation is a model. We want to know about the natural, physical evidence that is behind such models. A simulation doesn't just exist; it is created from numerous scientific observations of physical evidence. 

4.Research the process behind the local change in relative sea level at your chosen locality. You need to make sure that the evidence you are presenting for past sea level change is in fact scientifically credible and accurate.  

5.Source one or more high quality images that clearly show the evidence for an ancient paleosealevel that you want to talk about. Your images might include photos or satellite imagery.

6.Accurately annotate your image(s). Annotations are detailed labels. They don’t just label something; they explain it.

Use annotations to clearly explain the physical evidence shown in your image and why it is related to a local change in relative sea level over the time scale you have chosen. Use arrows and lines, text, scale bars, orientation, legends and other symbols to quantify your observations and make comparisons. Your annotated image should look professional, detailed and well thought out (no hand-drawn scribbles). It should include all critical and relevant information. Your annotated image is the most important part of this assignment.

7.  Accompany your annotated image(s) with a concise, scientifically accurate and impactful caption. A caption is a short description that accompanies an image to give the reader some context to what the image is showing. It usually goes at the bottom of the image. All of the images in your Understanding Earth textbook have captions, but these are mostly quite short.

Your caption should contain sufficient detail to explain all the physical evidence shown in your image and why it is related to a local change in relative sea level over the time scale you have chosen. For example, at what point in Earth’s past did this sea level change occur? Where is this evidence located? Does the evidence in your image give some information on how much sea level change occurred (in m)? Is there any other important information your reader might ask about if they saw this picture? Keep your caption short. With excellent annotated figure(s), you will only need a short accompanying caption.

PART 2 – investigating modern sea level change

Analyse ONE tide gauge dataset provided to you on LMS. Present the dataset as a graph and then discuss the specific reasons for the observed change in relative sea level at your chosen locality in the last 100 years.

Each dataset comes from NOAA and contains real, modern-day sea level measurements from tide gauges that are located at various coastlines around the world.

1.Download ONE dataset you wish to work on for this assignment from LMS. There are 4 to choose from. The datasets can be downloaded from: Assignment Instructions & Submissions > Assessment 3 > Oceans Project > Ocean Project part 2 data 

2.  Review the Week 7 workshop activity. Further useful information is provided here on how to investigate and visualise the dataset that you have chosen to work on. 

3.  Review the raw data in your dataset. Create a line graph or scatter plot of monthly mean sea level (in m) against time (as you did in your Week 7 workshop).

4.  Fit a linear trendline to your data and determine the rate of sea level change (in mm/year).

5.  Present this graph, with its trendline and rate of change indicated. Include a legend, an appropriate heading, and label and scale the axes appropriately.

6.  Below your graph of data, answer the following questions based on your data analysis and further research: 

• Examine the monthly fluctuations in your dataset. What do these reflect?
• Is the relative sea level rising, falling or remaining consistent for this location? At what rate (in mm/yr)?
• How does the tide gauge dataset from this locality compare with the global average sea level trend?
• What are the reasons for the observed type of change (rise or fall) and magnitude of sea level change at your location? Be specific.

This will require you to do some research into your locality. A lot of different factors lead to sea level change. As you will know from your Week

7 workshop, sea level change is occurring at different rates across the Earth, and sea level is not always rising! The causes of relative sea level change at one locality are unlikely to be exactly the same at another locality. Vague or over-generalised answers about the causes of sea level change will score poorly. 

PART 3 – Ocean chemistry changes during sea level change

Analyse sedimentary phosphorus dataset provided to you on LMS. Present the dataset as a graph and then discuss and answer the below questions.

You are given a set of data which are measurements of the phosphorus concentration in marine sediments deposited over the last 400,000 years. The phosphorus concentration in these sediments reflects the relative concentration of phosphorus in the oceans at the time the sediments were deposited, assuming that ocean salinity has remained the same. The data were collected using a spectrophotometer which measures the relative light intensity from light passed through liquid samples, which can be converted to phosphorus concentrations using standard samples of known phosphorus concentration.

Download the dataset to work on for this assignment from LMS. The dataset can be downloaded from: Assignment Instructions & Submissions > Assessment 3 > Oceans Project > Ocean Project part 3 data 

1.  Plot the phosphorus standard values against their intensities after subtracting the blank value from each intensity reading.
2.  Fit a linear trendline to your data and identify the equation of the line as y = mx + c, where y is the standard value and x is the intensity.
3.  Using the equation from the trendline calculate the phosphorus concentrations from the unknown sample intensities.
4.  Create a scatter plot of the phosphorus concentrations (in ppm) against time. Also, do the same for the sea level data provided alongside the intensity data. Note, the unknown sample intensity data and relative sea level data share the same ages.
5.  Present both graphs. Include a legend, an appropriate heading, and label and scale the axes appropriately.

6.  Below your graph of data, answer the following questions based on your data analysis and further research:

6.1  Examine the phosphorus fluctuations in your dataset. Describe the data and how the phosphorus fluctuations compare with the sea level reconstructions.
6.2  Explain the biological pump and its role in cycling phosphorus in the ocean.
6.3  If the changing sea levels result from expansion of glaciers at the poles, how might this affect ocean salinity and how does this affect your ocean phosphorus concentration reconstructions? Read Part 3 carefully.

EART1105 Format of Oceans Project

For the Oceans Project you need to research and prepare a short report in response to the specific requirements outlined below.

The topic is sea level and associated ocean chemical changes. Information about local evidence for sea level change and ocean chemistry is found in the Week 7 and 10 pre-recorded concept lectures. The seminars in Weeks 7, 8 and 10 on sea level change and ocean chemistry will also provide key information. We will also reinforce some of these sea level concepts in the Week 7,8 and 10 workshops. Now it is up to YOU to also do some research. This task is worth 30% of your overall unit grade.

Your submission is limited to 3 single-sided A4 pages, not including your reference list. Other than the page limit, there is no strict structure to the layout or format of your report. However, page 1 should predominantly feature your annotated image of physical evidence for ancient sea level change, and page 2 should predominantly feature your plot of modern tide gauge data and your interpretation of this data, and page 3 should predominantly feature your plot of sedimentary phosphorus and sea level data. Your reference list can go on a separate, fourth page. More specific information on each of these tasks is provided below.

Referencing

You should reference all of your sources of information, including any data, imagery and maps, in a reference list.  For this report, you should also use in-text citations to reference your sources of information (where they are not your own observations). Your references should be formatted according to the APA referencing style: The University of Western Australia Your sources of information must be scholarly.

This means information from scientific journal articles, such as the ones you can find via Google Scholar. We will also allow institutional and government websites such as the Bureau of Meteorology, Geoscience Australia, university research webpages, CSIRO website and so on.

Marks will be lost for weak and unreliable or biased sources of information (e.g., collaborative websites such as Wikipedia, and media/news articles). Accuracy and credibility of the scientific information you present in your report is really important!

If you are unsure about the quality of your sources, ask your workshop demonstrator for help. Unsure about what any of this means and where to start? Come to your Week 7 to 10 workshops and review the Week 7 to 10 Monday seminar and pre-recorded lectures.