MARINE BIOLOGY

Marine Biology is the study of ocean plants and animals and their ecological relationships.

The scientific study of marine biology dates from the early 19th cent. and now includes laboratory study of organisms for their usefulness to humans and the effects of human activity on marine environments.

About 71% of the surface of this planet is covered by salt water. The water depth averages 3.8 km (2.4 miles or 12,500 feet!) with a volume of about 1,370 x 106 km3. Since life exists throughout this immense volume, the oceans constitute the single largest repository of organisms on the planet. These organisms include members of virtually all phyla and are tremendously varied.

We have approximately 1.7 million identified species up to possibly 10 or even 100 million total species on Earth. Of the 1.7 million, if we initially ignore viruses, bacteria, fungi, arachnids, insects and half the protozoans and plant species, we are left with approximately 500,000 species considered "marine".

Marine organisms may be classified (according to their mode of life) as nektonic, planktonic, or benthic. Nektonic animals are those that swim and migrate freely, e.g., adult fishes, whales, and squid. Planktonic organisms, usually very small or microscopic, have little or no power of locomotion and merely drift or float in the water. Benthic organisms live on the sea bottom and include sessile forms (e.g., sponges, oysters, and corals), creeping organisms (e.g., crabs and snails), and burrowing animals (e.g., many clams and worms). Seafloor areas called hydrothermal vents, with giant tube worms and many other unusual life forms, have been intensively studied by marine biologists in recent years.

The distribution of marine organisms depends on the chemical and physical properties of seawater (temperature, salinity, and dissolved nutrients), on ocean currents (which carry oxygen to subsurface waters and disperse nutrients, wastes, spores, eggs, larvae, and plankton), and on penetration of light. Photosynthetic organisms (plants, algae, and cyanobacteria), the primary sources of food, exist only in the photic, or euphotic, zone (to a depth of about 300 ft/90 m), where light is sufficient for photosynthesis.

Since only about 2% of the ocean floor lies in the photic zone, photosynthetic organisms in the benthos are far less abundant than photosynthetic plankton (phytoplankton), which is distributed near the surface oceanwide. Very abundant phytoplankton include the diatoms and dinoflagellates (see Dinoflagellata). Heterotrophic plankton (zooplankton) include such protozoans as the foraminiferans; they are found at all depths but are more numerous near the surface. Bacteria are abundant in upper waters and in bottom deposits.

Columbia Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia Britannica






WATER INDEX PHYSICAL SCIENCES INDEX ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ALL FILES CRYSTALINKS MAIN PAGE