MARINE BIOLOGY

Type of animal science: Fields of study

Fields of study: Conservation biology, ecology, environmental science, invertebrate biology, marine
biology, oceanography, zoology

Marine biology is the study of the plants, animals, fungi, protists, and microbes that live in the oceans. Because hu-
mans are not well adapted to marine environments, it is difficult to observe and study marine organisms in their nat-
ural surroundings. However, with modern technology such as scuba, submarines, and remote cameras, marine biolo-
gists are gaining considerable information about marine organisms.

their disposal, only 250,000 of approximately 1.8

Principal Terms
AurorRorHs: primary producers; organisms
that are self-feeding; includes photosyn-
thetic and chemoautotrophic organisms
BENTHIC: the area of the ocean floor; organ-
isms associated with the sea bottom
EPIFAUNA : animals that live on the sea floor
HETEROTROPH: consumers; organisms that
must acquire energy by consuming or-
ganic material
INFAUNA: animals that live in the sea floor
INVERTEBRATES:&IIXI~S~~~ lackbackbones
LITTORAL : the area in the intertidal zone; or-
ganisms that live in the intertidal
NEKTON : organisms that are strong swim-
mers and can move against ocean cur-
rents
P E L A G I C : the area of open water in the
oceans; organisms that occur in the
water column
PLANKTON : organisms that drift in the ocean
currents because they have limited
power of locomotion
he earliest known life forms were marine. The
T oceans cover 71 percent of earth’s surface and
have an average depth of 3,800 meters, which
means that they represent 99 percent of the living
space on the planet. Marine biology is the study of
all the organisms that occupy this space. Despite
having 99 percent of the planet’s living space at
million described living species (14 percent) are
marine. While the oceans may lack diversity at the
level of species, they are home to members of
thirty-one of thirty-four animal phyla, about
twice the number of phyla that are found on land
or in freshwater.
Because of its vastness and humans’ inability
to easily visit deep waters, the oceans remain the
least studied habitats on earth. For example, sci-
entists know that giant squid eighteen meters in
length, larger than any other invertebrate, exist
because they have been found in the stomachs of
sperm whales and washed up on beaches. How-
ever, no human has ever seen one of these crea-
tures living in their natural habitats. If this sheet of
paper represented the area of the ocean, the area
directly observed by people would be smaller
than the period at the end of this sentence. Despite
the small amount of study in marine biology, re-
search in these systems has contributed greatly to
the understanding of living systems.
Oceanographers divide the ocean into zones
that have distinct physical characteristics. These
physical conditions, in turn, select for different or-
ganisms that are adapted to the set of conditions.
The benthic realm refers to the sea floor and ex-
tends from the high intertidal zone, where ocean
meets terrestrial land, to depths of eleven kilome-
ters at oceanic trenches, the deepest parts of the
ocean where the ocean floor slowly sinks back in
to the interior of the earth. Organisms that live in,
on, or near the ocean floor are appropriately called

1000

benthic organisms, and represent 98 percent of all
marine creatures. The pelagic realm of the ocean
refers to the open ocean, basically the space be-
tween the benthos and the sea surface. Pelagic or-
ganisms, representing the remaining 2 percent of
marine species, live in the water column. The pe-
lagic zone can be divided into the photic and
aphotic zones, a distinction that is especially im-
portant for photosynthetic organisms. The photic
zone is the shallow part of the ocean that receives
enough sunlight to support photosynthesis,
which is about two hundred meters deep in the
clearest waters, and as shallow as three meters in
turbid coastal waters. The aphotic zone is where
there is not enough light to support photosynthe-
sis, and extends from the bottom of the photic
zone to the ocean floor.
Organisms of the Open Ocean
Pelagic creatures can be further categorized into
plankton, which drift around in the ocean cur-
rents, and nekton, which are capable of swimming
against currents. Photosynthetic plankton live in
the photic zone and are called phytoplankton.
These algae form the base of the food web in
the open ocean and are eaten by zooplankton
(heterotrophic plankton including protists and
small crustaceans such as copepods). Zooplank-
ton are eaten by small fishes, which are eaten by
larger fishes, which are eaten by sharks, birds of
prey, and people. The open ocean food web is one
of the longest food webs known, partly because it
starts with the smallest photosynthetic organ-
isms.
The largest animal migrations on earth occur
every day in the open oceans, in a process called
die1 vertical migration. Zooplankton, midwater
fish, squid, and krill migrate to shallow waters
at night and then return to the dark depths dur-
ing the day. The main reason for this daily migra-
tion is probably to feed, and to avoid being eaten.
Food densities are highest in the shallow pro-
ductive waters, so these predators move to the
shallows to feed at night. Because they would be
susceptible to their own visually oriented preda-
tors in the well-lit shallows, they return to the
Marine biology ?? 1001
dark depths during the day to avoid being eaten.
In the aphotic zone, there are only hetero-
trophic organisms that are supported mostly by
organic material that rains down from the lit envi-
ronments above. These animals live in darkness,
with the exception of light produced by the ani-
mals themselves, called bioluminescence. It is
common for sea creatures (especially ones at inter-
mediate depths) to house luminescent bacteria
within their tissues, which are able to produce
light for communication, as a lure to attract prey,
or to light their bottom surface to conceal their sil-
houette against the dimly lit background from
above. Anglerfish are deep-sea predators that
attract prey near their mouths by dangling a
bioluminescent lure in front of their head.
The density of organisms in the deep sea is low.
Because of this low density, a long period of time
can pass between meals, or between encounters
with the opposite sex. To deal with the problem
of infrequent meals, deep-sea creatures are often
gigantic compared to shallow-water relatives.
Large size allows for storage of food reserves that
sustain the animals between meals. Predatory fish
also have large mouths and stomachs that allow
them to take full advantage of any meal, regard-
less of size. To overcome the problem of rare
mates, the miniature males of some anglerfish
have the unusual adaptation of attaching them-
selves to the female, where they live the rest of
their lives as parasitic sperm producers.
Organisms of the Bottom
Most marine species are found at the ocean floor.
They occur in such familiar marine habitats as
mud flats, sand flats, beaches, coral reefs, kelp for-
ests, and the rocky intertidal. The main primary
producers in benthic habitats are macroscopic
seaweeds that grow attached to the bottom or mi-
croscopic algae that grow within the tissues of ani-
mals such as corals, sponges, and bryozoans. Ben-
thic animals include mobile creatures such as fish,
crabs, shrimp, snails, urchins, sea stars, and slugs.
Additionally, there are numerous animals that,
unlike familiar terrestrial animals, never move
around as adults. These sessile animals include
1002 ?? Marine biology
Oases on the Deep Ocean Floor
Although animal life exists on the ocean floor,
much of that zone is barren, with relatively few ani-
mals distributed at large intervals. One of the most
exciting discoveries in marine biology during the
last quarter of the twentieth century occurred in 1977
with the discovery of abundant animal life in the re-
gions immediately surrounding four hot water gey-
sers on the ocean floor. These hydrothermal vents,
located in the eastern Pacific Ocean at a depth of ap-
proximately 2,700 meters, boasted a spectacular va-
riety of species all located within a few meters of the
vent. The geyser is caused when water is heated by
Earths mantle and rises rapidly through the cooler
waters above. Water in the geyser reaches tempera-
tures of 8 to 16 degrees Celsius, as opposed to the
surrounding water, which is about 2 degrees Cel-
sius. This warm water is also rich in dissolved hy-
drogen sulfide gas, which serves as a source of en-
ergy for bacteria at the vent. The bacteria, in turn, act
as food for the various animal species in the area of
barnacles, sponges, oysters, mussels, corals,
gorgonians, chrinoids, hydroids, and bryozoans.
The commonness of sessile animals in the ma-
rine benthos suggests that it is a successful way of
life. These animals’ lifestyle combines facets of
plant and animal lifestyles. Sessile invertebrates
are plantlike in that they obtain some of their en-
ergy from sunlight (the animals themselves do not
photosynthesize, but they house photosynthetic
symbionts), they are anchored in place, and they
grow in a modular fashion just as the branches of a
tree do. They are animal-like in that they capture
and digest prey and they undergo embryonic de-
velopment, often involving metamorphosis. In
fact, nearly all benthic animals start life in the pe-
lagic realm, drifting around as planktonic larva,
dispersing to new habitats as they develop and
feed. After a few hours to weeks of pelagic living,
they sink to the ocean floor to complete life as
adults.
Being stuck in one place presents special chal-
lenges for sessile animals, including food acquisi-
the vent. Similar hydrothermal vents, each with a
population of animals surrounding it, have since
been discovered at other sites in the Atlantic and Pa-
cific Oceans.
The largest animals located at these vents include
large clams and mussels and several species of tube
(vestimentiferan) worms. Other species include
crabs, snails, segmented w orms and spaghetti
worms, so called because of their appearance. Many
of these species had not been previously observed or
described. All vent communities appear to have sim-
ilar types of organisms in association, but not always
the same species. Current estimates indicate that the
life span of the vents is quite short (probably in the
tens of years) and that when the vent dies, so do the
animal communities surrounding it. How these
vents are located and colonized by organisms living
on the deep ocean floor is just one of many interest-
ing questions concerning these deep-sea oases that
remain to be answered.
tion, predator avoidance, and mating. Sessile ani-
mals feed by having symbiotic algae and by
filtering organic particles from passing water cur-
rents. Like plants, sessile animals use structural
and chemical defenses against predators, and
have tremendous regenerative abilities to recover
from partial predation events. Most benthic ani-
mals mate via external fertilization: Sperm and
eggs are spawned into the water column and fer-
tilization occurs outside the body of the female.
Amazingly, sessile barnacles must copulate to
achieve internal fertilization. These animals in-
crease their reproductive success by being her-
maphroditic, thus assuring that any neighbor is a
potential mate; being gregarious to assure a high
density of mates; and by having a penis long
enough to deliver sperm to an individual seven
shell lengths away.
Trophic Cascades and Keystone Predators
Marine organisms live in environments that are
foreign to humans, and they have lifestyles that
1004 ?? Marine bio lo gy

The Problem of Ocean Navigation

The epipelagic environment is essentially a fea-
tureless one, without many of the landmarks or
other indicators that might serve as directional indi-
caters for migratory ocean species. Yet many animal
species are known to make long and highly accurate
migrations through the apparently trackless regions
of the world’s oceans.
The best-known example of oceanic migration is
probably in salmon, which as young animals move
from the freshwater streams in which they hatched
out to the open ocean in which they mature. Upon
reaching sexual maturity, the salmon return to their
natal freshwater streams, where they spawn and die.
The later portions of this return migration, when the
animals are moving up the river system and locating
the precise stream in which they were born, has been
the most intensely studied, and the sense of smell
appears to play an important role. However, the sal-
mon are also faced with the difficult navigational
task of locating the mouth of their home river from
the vast expanse of the open ocean. How they ac-
complish this task is completely unknown.
Other astonishing examples of animals making
precise migratory movements are known. Green sea
turtles (Cheloniu mydus) from the Caribbean and
North and South America are known to accurately
navigate to Ascension Island in the middle of the At-
lantic Ocean to lay their eggs. American and Euro-
pean eels leave their freshwater homes in streams
and ponds upon reaching sexual maturity and mi-
grate out to sea. Upon reaching the marine environ-
ment, these animals transform from freshwater eels
to marine deep-sea eels of strikingly different ap-
pearance, and navigate to a region in the North At-
lantic known as the Sargasso Sea, where they spawn
and die.
The cues that are used by these animals in their
migrations are unknown. Although it is tempting to
call this instinctive behavior, instinct is merely a la-
be1 for mechanisms that are unlearned and innate.
These animals are clearly making choices of which
direction to proceed in order to reach their goal, but
the manner in which those choices are made remain
mysterious and fascinating.

Bibliography
Cousteau, Jacques-Yves. The Ocean World. New York: Abradale Press, 1985. Virtually an
encyclopedia of the undersea world, this comprehensive volume covers several as-
pects of marine biology by the famous explorer who first strapped on a scuba cylin-
der to enter the aquatic world. It contains over four hundred photographs, maps, and
diagrams.
Earle, Sylvia A. Sea Change: A Message offke Oceans. New York: G. l? Putnam’s Sons, 1995.
A fascinating autobiographical book by an accomplished marine biologist and deep-
sea explorer who shares a passion for exploration of the sea and warns of looming
dangers to these vast systems.
National Geographic Society. Ocean Drifters. Washington, D.C.: Author, 1993. This vid-
eotape follows a loggerhead sea turtle into the open ocean and examines the wonder-
ful creatures it encounters. Incredible cinematography.
Nybakken, James Willard. Marine Biology: An Ecological Approach. 5th ed. San Francisco:
Benjamin/ Cummings, 2001. An undergraduate textbook that covers marine organ-
isms, their oceanic environment, and their interactions with their biotic and abiotic
environment.
Sumich, James L. An Introduction to the Biology of Marine Life. 7th ed. Boston: WCB/
McGraw-Hill, 1999. A comprehensive, colorful introductory textbook that is geared
toward high school and undergraduate students.