Module 1 - Principles of Oceanography and Marine Biology Class Notes

PRINCIPLES OF OCEANOGRAPHY AND
MARINE BIOLOGY
E Omoregie
Department of Natural and Applied Sciences
Namibia University of Science and Technology
PRINCIPLES OF OCEANOGRAPHY AND MARINE

BIOLOGY
• The Oceanic Environment – A Review
• Ecological and Evolutionary Principles in the Marine
Environment
MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 2
1
The Oceanic Environment – A Review

▪ Oceanography covers a wide range of topics, including marine life
and ecosystems, ocean circulation, plate tectonics and the geology of
the seafloor, and the chemical and physical properties of the ocean.
▪ The three main disciplines within oceanography:
▪ Physical Oceanography → Study of physical conditions
and physical processes within the ocean, especially the motions
and physical properties of ocean waters.
▪ Chemical Oceanography → Study of everything about the
chemistry of the ocean based on the distribution and dynamics of
nutrients (in the forms of elements, isotopes, atoms and
molecules).
▪ Biological Oceanography →Study of life in the oceans: their
distribution, abundance, and production of marine species along
with the processes that govern species' spread and development
2
Ocean planet
72% of surface is water

Life present 10x longer than on land

Ecological zones of aquatic environment
The aquatic environment is conveniently

divided into:
 Marine (Seas, Oceans) = Saltwater
 Freshwater (Inland waters: Rivers,
Springs, lakes, etc) = Low salt
concentration
 Brackishwater (Estuaries, lagoons) =
Region of salt and freshwater mixing
3
Zones of the Marine Environment

Zones of the Marine Environment

4
Zones along the bottom (substratum)
 Supratidal zone (Splash zone): This is technically not part of the marine
environment (since it is never submerged by water. It is included here as
where the marine and land habitats meet.
 Intertidal zone: Area submerged by water at high tide but exposed at low
tide.
 Subtidal zone: Bottom, lying along the continental shelf, varying in depth
considerably from few meters to approximately 200 meters. It is never
exposed.

Zones along the bottom (substratum)
 Bathyal zone: Bottoms ranging between 200 meters and 3000 meter deep.
 Abyssal zone: Bottoms ranging between 3000 meters and 7000 meters.
 Hadal zone: Bottoms more than 7000 meters.
10
5
Classification of the Marine Environment
Classification by light
 Photic (zone of light penetration) and
 Aphotic (zone which does not receive any light = total darkness)
❑ All phytoplankton need light to

photosynthesize and can only thrive/survive
in the photic zone
❑ Some bacteria and very few zooplankton do
not need light and so could inhabit the
oceans down to the deep-sea floor
11

Classification by location
 Water and sea floor divided into specific zones:
 pelagic (water zone) and
 benthic (floor zone)
 By water depth divided into

 coastal (adjoining area of water and land on the surface),
 neritic (immediately after the coastal, but not beyond the

intercontinental zone),
 oceanic (deep water zone)
➢ Each of these zones has distinct physical and chemical characteristics
12
6
Classification by Inhabitants of Zones
❖ Plankton (Pelagial)
❖ Nekton (Pelagial)
❖ Benthos (Benthal)
13
Plankton (Pelagial)
 Floaters and drifters, have to move with water currents
 Could be microscopic plants and animals and bacteria
(free, attached); range from microscopic size to several
meters in length (jellyfish)
 Plants and photosynthetic cyanobacteria = phytoplankton
Animals = zooplankton; bacteria = bacterioplankton
 Also differentiation according to size: pico-, nano-, micro-,
meso-, macro-, megaplankton.
14
7
Nekton (Pelagial)
 Free swimmers, can overcome currents and move against them
 Mostly animals (large crustaceans, fish, mammals)
15

Benthos (Benthal)
 Attached to, on, or in the sea floor
 Plants and animals and bacteria (range from microscopic size to several
meters in length (Laminaria)
 Also include the infauna (Living in burrows on bottom)
16
8
Chemical distinction between marine and
freshwater
The major distinction between marine and freshwater is in their salinity content
❑ When water falls to earth, it is chemically pure. In any event, it normally

carries relatively few dissolved chemicals.
❑ Rain water → very low salinity.
❑ As the water flows towards the oceans, it dissolves more and more
molecules of various sorts from the rocks and soil it passes over (a process
called weathering).
❑ Coastal areas such as estuaries have salinity reflecting the mixture of fresh
and salt water.
❑ Other areas that allow water to leave only by evaporation may also have salt
water. For instance, some inland lakes (e.g. Dead sea, great salt lake, etc.)
17

freshwater
The major distinction between marine and freshwater is in their salinity content
❑ It also picks up materials released from plants and animals, either as waste
products or through decay of their bodies.
❑ Since water does not leave the oceans except by evaporation (removes only
water), these materials accumulate in the oceans, and the oceans have a
salinity much greater than that of freshwater.
❑ The salinity of freshwater increases as it flows to the oceans
18
9
freshwater
❑ Marine is called salt water because most of the dissolved substances are
just that - salts,
➢ simple ionic compounds that typically disassociate completely into
positive and negative ions in water.
➢ The most abundant of the salts found in marine is sodium chloride

(NaCl).
❑ Since an equal number of positive and negative ions are added in such
cases, most salts do not change the pH appreciably, unless one of the
components happens to be H+ or OH-.
19

freshwater
❑ Marine environment ranges in salinity (approximate value → 35 g/kg or
3.5%) (35000 ppm or 35 ppt or 35 ppu).
❖ ppm – parts pre million
❖ ppt – parts per thousand
❖ ppu - practical salinity unit
➢ Places like the Great Salt Lake, dead sea, certain tidal pools, etc., can
have higher salinities;
➢ Most freshwater systems have dramatically lower salinities.
20
10
freshwater
In marine, the ions are dominated by
 Cl- (19.353 g/kg),
 Na+ (10.76 g/kg),
 SO4-2 (2.712 g/kg),
 Mg+2 (1.294 g/kg),
 Ca+2 (0.413 g/kg),
 K+ (0.387 g/kg),
 HCO3- (0.142 g/kg), and
 Br- (0.067 g/kg),
 Other ions are present in trace
amounts, including gold.
21

freshwater
 The salinity of water is important to organisms for two main reasons:
 osmoticity and
 density.
 The more saline a water body is, the more dense it becomes (inverse
relationship).
 Salt water is more dense than freshwater, thus, it is easier to float in salt water.
 This also means that freshwater flowing into the ocean tends to remain on the
surface for some time, and, further, that it takes some energy (tides, wind,
currents) to get the two to mix effectively.
 It is not uncommon in estuaries for freshwater to lie on top of saltwater in
layers.
22
11
freshwater
Osmotic Relations
 The more saline solution is hypertonic (or hyperosmotic) in relation to the
other, or that the less saline solution is hypotonic (or hypoosmotic) in
relation to the other.
 If the salinities were the same, they would be isotonic (isosmotic).
 Osmoticity can be defined as simply a comparison of the salinities of two

solutions → it is a relative term.
23
Circulation in the Open Sea: Patterns and Causes

Introduction
 Water circulation patters in the open sea is an important factor controlling all
life processes in the marine environment
 Water circulation patterns determines the following:
 Physical, biological and chemical parameters of the marine environment
 Nutrient availability to all organisms
 Distribution, abundance and diversity of marine organisms
 etc.
Two factors interact to produce ocean circulation:

▪ Planetary wind system and the
▪ Earth’s rotation
The earth’s rotation causes a deflection in surface current direction

called the Coriolis effect, which affect water flow on many geographic
scales
24
12
• As the earth rotates once a day on its axis eastward

• The Coriolis effect causes a deflection to the right for water
traveling in the Northern Hemisphere and causes a deflection to the
left for water traveling in the Southern Hemisphere
• The main oceanic surface currents are therefore determined by the
Coriolis effect.
The Coriolis effect deflect moving

objects such as water particles.
The black dash arrows shows the
part if un-deflected. The further
away from the equator, the more
the deflection.
https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-
content/nova/clouds/v/hurricanes
25

• Winds and the Coriolis effects combine to cause upwelling, which brings
nutrient-rich deeper water to the surface
• Downwelling (opposite of upwelling – water moving downward to replaced
water moved up during upwelling)
The relationship of the

ocean surface Upwelling of coastal water caused by
currents to planetary winds combined with Coriolis effects
wind system
26
13
• Winds and the Coriolis effects combine to cause upwelling, which
brings nutrient-rich deeper water to the surface
Upwelling
demonstration
Video clip on ocean

currents
27

• Sea water density, an important property
affecting vertical movement of water, is
controlled mainly by salinity and
temperature.
• Water density increases with decreasing
temperature and increasing salinity
• Because of it’s salinity content, sea
water is more dense than freshwater
Seawater temperature as a function of

depth and density (thermohaline
profile)
28
14
Waves and Shoreline

• Wind that moves over the water surface produces a set of waves,
which appear on the surface as a series of crests and troughs,
moving in the direction of the wind.
The wave height is

proportional to the
wind velocity,
duration of the wind,
and the distance
over which the wind
acts.
29

• The wave height is proportional to the wind velocity, duration of the
wind, and the distance over which the wind acts.
• Wave height (H) is the vertical distance of crests from the troughs
• Wavelength (L) is the distance between the crests, trough or other
specified points
• Period (T) is the time between successive crests
• Velocity (V) is the speed at which a crest travels
The variables V, L and T are related by the equation
V = L/T
30
15
Tides
• Tides on sea surfaces are caused by the gravitational effects of the
moon and the sun
https://www.youtube.co https://www.youtube.com/w
m/watch?v=-lG3AtF0Qvc atch?v=oewqNVNanak
31

Tides
• Tides on sea surfaces are caused by the gravitational effects of the
moon and the sun
High tide Low tide
https://www.youtube.co https://www.youtube.com/w
m/watch?v=-lG3AtF0Qvc atch?v=oewqNVNanak
32
16
Estuaries
• An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of water that has a free
connection with the open sea, but whose water is diluted by freshwater from
inland rivers.
• Water circulation in estuaries depends on the amount of river discharge,
tidal action, and basin morphology.
Basic estuarine flow

• Generally in estuaries, low-density (less saline) river water flows
downstream and above a more dense (saline) seawater from the sea.
• With wind action and tidal movement, mixing occurs at all depth causing a
saline content ranging from values between freshwater and seawater.
33

Estuaries
Relationship between wave

actions and salinity in estuaries
34
17
Ecological and Evolutionary Principles in the Marine
Environment
35
Ecological and Evolutionary Principles in the Marine Environment
What is Ecology?
▪ Ecology is the study of interactions between organisms and their environment and the
effects of these interactions on the distribution and abundance of the organisms.
▪ In essence, Marine Ecologists will study the distribution and abundance of marine
organisms and the mechanisms that cause the distributional patterns.
▪ The role of resources is very important in the study of ecology.
▪ All marine organisms (both animals and plants) require resources (nutrients) that are in
short supply.
▪ A resource is any material whose level of availability in the natural environment can limit
growth, survival or reproduction
▪ Food, space and dissolved inorganic nutrients are all potentially limiting resources in
the marine environment
▪ Resources that are depleted and no longer available are non-renewable, while those
that will continue to become available are renewable.
36
18
What is Ecology?
Assignment 1:
▪ Using your knowledge of Ecology, briefly explain the ecological
meaning of population, community and ecosystem and how they
are applied in marine environment.
▪ Submission Date: 15 August 2022 (after 07:30 lecture)
37
Ecological Hierarchy
▪ Ecological processes are studied at many levels of a hierarchy
Individual Population Community Ecosystem Biosphere
▪ Individual level → An organism that is physiologically independent; example, single snail

or colony of coral. At individual level, the marine ecologist seeks to understand how
marine organisms survive under varying physiological conditions, finding shelter and
food, avoid predators, etc.
38
19
Interactions on the Scale of Individual Levels

▪ Many marine ecological interactions occur between individuals and may be classified on
a plus-minus-zero system, depending on whether a species benefits, suffers because
of, or is not particularly affected by the interaction
▪ Plus (+) → the interactions benefit a species of interest
▪ Minus (-) → the interactions harms the species
▪ Zero (0) → interactions have no effect on the species
Type Nature of interaction Plus-minus-zero
classification
Predation Beneficial to one and detrimental to the other +-
Parasitism Beneficial to one and detrimental to the other +-
Competition Beneficial to one and detrimental to the other, or detrimental to + - or - -

both individuals
Territoriality Beneficial to one and detrimental to the other Beneficial to one and + - or - -
detrimental to the other, or detrimental to both individuals
Commensalism Beneficial to one, but no effect on the other +0
Mutualism Beneficial to both individuals ++
39

▪ Territoriality → maintenance of home range which is defended to protect either a
feeding area, breeding site or nest site
▪ Example → breeding territories by many species of bottom dwelling fish
40
20

▪ Predation → Mobile and stationary predators search for prey, using chemical,
mechanical and visual stimuli. Some lure prey by using various deceptions.
▪ A predator must locate prey organisms, entrap them, and have the means to ingest
and assimilate them.
▪ Natural selection process and predator-prey relationship are important concept in
successful distribution and abundance of marine organisms.
▪ Example: prey selection strategy of the crab feeding on mussels
41

▪ Predation
▪ Prey selection strategy of the crab feeding on mussels
→ choice of a best best-sized prey is a good example
of optimal foraging approach.
▪ Studies have found that the crab (Carcinus maenas)
benefit more feeding on medium sized mussel than
larger ones.
▪ A larger mussel will provide more meal, but the length of
time to crack open the mussel, makes it more profitable to
select medium sized mussels (in terms of energetic return in
joules obtained per second)
Note:
▪ Predator avoidance is an essential principle for survival of prey
organisms
▪ Predator avoidance increases individual fitness and is therefore
enhanced by natural selection.
Theoretical cost-benefit analysis
▪ Marine prey organisms avoid predation by means of crypsis,
for size selection
deceit, escape mechanisms and shelter.
42
21

▪ Predation
▪ Crypsis → Blending with the background: variety of species (many fish,
crustaceans and cephalopods employ chromatophores (cells that rapidly change
their colour)
▪ Deceit → deceptive behaviour: smaller species appearing bigger in size. Example:
several smaller reef fish species having enlarge fins.
▪ Escape mechanisms → employed by several fast-swimming species.
▪ Shelter (microhabitat) → the shell of bivalves becoming home to smaller marine
organism
Examples for this behaviour is a leafy sea

dragon looking like sea weed. The bobtail squid is a critter living in the shallower water using
bioluminescence from bacteria to blend in with its surrounding
43

▪ Predation
▪ Crypsis → Blending with the background: variety of species (many fish,
crustaceans and cephalopods employ chromatophores (cells that rapidly change
their colour)
▪ Deceit → deceptive behaviour: smaller species appearing bigger in size. Example:
several smaller reef fish species having enlarge fins.
▪ Escape mechanisms → employed by several fast swimming species.
▪ Shelter (microhabitat) → the shell of bivalves becoming home to smaller marine
organism
An octopus taking shelter between shells

Escape response of the swimming bivalve mollusc,
Lima hians
44
22

▪ Commensalism
▪ Commensal relationships benefits one species only but do not harm the others
▪ The benefit usually relates to food, substratum or burrow space / shelter.
Part of the burrow of the Echiurid worm (Urechis

caupo) showing the following commensals: the goby
(Clevelandia), the polychaete (Harmothoe) and the
crab (Scleroplex).
45

▪ Mutualism
▪ Mutual relationships benefits all individuals in the interactions
Cleaner wrasses cleaning a larger fish on a

coral reef. The wrasses feeds on the detritus
on the fish, while the larger fish is cleaned in
the process.
46
23

▪ Parasitism
▪ A relationship that the parasite depends on the host for all its nutritional
requirements, thereby affecting the host or even killing the host in the process.
▪ Most marine parasites are invertebrates with complex life cycles.
Marine parasitic trematodes have

complex life cycles with several
intermediate hosts
47
Interactions on the Scale of Community Level (Interspecies Interactions)

▪ The distribution and abundance of species population in a community are
determined by the combined effects of the following processes:
▪ Dispersal of larvae, spores and adults to appropriate habitats
▪ Competition with other species for limiting resources (interspecific competition)
▪ Predation and herbivory
▪ Diseases and parasitism
▪ Disturbance (effects of the environment example: storms, sudden change in
temperature, etc.)
▪ Facilitation of the conditioning of the environment by one species allowing another
species to invade.
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24

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PRINCIPLES OF OCEANOGRAPHY AND

PRINCIPLES OF OCEANOGRAPHY AND MARINE

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 2

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 3

The Oceanic Environment – A Review

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 4

72% of surface is water

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 5

The Oceanic Environment – A Review

The aquatic environment is conveniently

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 6

Zones of the Marine Environment

The Oceanic Environment – A Review

Zones of the Marine Environment

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 9

The Oceanic Environment – A Review

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 10

❑ All phytoplankton need light to

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 11

Classification of the Marine Environment

 benthic (floor zone)

 By water depth divided into

 neritic (immediately after the coastal, but not beyond the

➢ Each of these zones has distinct physical and chemical characteristics

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 12

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 13

Classification of the Marine Environment

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 14

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 15

Classification of the Marine Environment

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 16

❑ When water falls to earth, it is chemically pure. In any event, it normally

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 17

Chemical distinction between marine and

❑ The salinity of freshwater increases as it flows to the oceans

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 18

➢ The most abundant of the salts found in marine is sodium chloride

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 19

Chemical distinction between marine and

❖ ppt – parts per thousand

❖ ppu - practical salinity unit

➢ Most freshwater systems have dramatically lower salinities.

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 20

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 21

Chemical distinction between marine and

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 22

 Osmoticity can be defined as simply a comparison of the salinities of two

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 23

Circulation in the Open Sea: Patterns and Causes

Two factors interact to produce ocean circulation:

The earth’s rotation causes a deflection in surface current direction

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 24

• As the earth rotates once a day on its axis eastward

The Coriolis effect deflect moving

Circulation in the Open Sea: Patterns and Causes

The relationship of the

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 26

Video clip on ocean

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 27

Circulation in the Open Sea: Patterns and Causes

Seawater temperature as a function of

MAB702S: Marine Biology 3B 28

Waves and Shoreline