Objectives:Days 01 - 05

• Describe the history of the marine sciences • Evaluate the living and non-living factors that

define the marine ecosystems. • Explain the formation of the oceans

Unit 1: Introduction to Marine Ecology

Unit 1.1: Marine Ecology overview and history

1.1.1- Science and Marine Biology• Oceans cover 71% of the earth, and affect

climate and weather patterns that in turn impact the terrestrial environments.

• Oceans are very important for transportation and as a source of food, yet are largely unexplored;

• Commonly said that we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the deepest parts of the oceans!

• Oceanography is the study of the oceans and their phenomena and involves sciences such as biology, chemistry, physics, geology, meteorology.

• Marine biology is the study of the organisms that inhabit the seas and their interactions with each other and their environment.

1.1.2 - Brief History of Marine Biology

• Marine biology is a younger science than terrestrial biology as early scientists were limited in their study of aquatic organisms by lack of technology to observe and sample them.

• The Greek philosopher Aristotle was one of the firsts to design a classification scheme for living organisms, which he called “the ladder of life” and in which he described 500 species, several of which were marine.

• The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder published a 37-volume work called Natural History, which contained several marine species.

• Little work on natural history was conducted during the middle ages, and it wasn’t until the late 18th century and early 19th century that interest in the marine environment was renewed, fueled by explorations now made possible by better ships and improved navigation techniques.

• In 1831, Darwin set sail for a 5 year circumnavigation on the HMS Beagle, and his observations of organisms during this voyage later led to his elaboration of the theory of evolution by natural selection.

• In the early 19th century, the English naturalist Edward Forbes suggested that no life could survive in the cold, dark ocean depths, but he was proven wrong when telegraph cables were retrieved from depths exceeding 1.7 km deep, with unknown life-forms growing on them.

(Deep sea Jellyfish)

• Modern marine science is generally considered to have started with the HMS Challenger expedition, led by the British Admiralty between 1872 and 1876.

• During a circumnavigation that lasted 3.5 years, the Challenger sailed on the world’s oceans taking samples in various locations. The information collected was enough to fill 50 volumes that took 20 years to write up.

• The samples taken during the Challenger expedition led to the identification of over 4,700 new species, many from great depths, and the chief scientist, Charles Wyville Thomson, collected plankton samples for the first time.

• The Challenger Expedition was the start of modern marine biology and oceanography and is still to date the longest oceanography expedition ever undertaken.

• However modern technology has allowed us to sample organisms more easily and more effectively and to quantify things more accurately. Scuba diving and submersibles are used to directly observe and sample marine life; remote sampling can be done with nets, bottles and grabs from research vessels, and satellites are used extensively for remote sensing.

1.1.3- Why Study Marine Biology?

So why all this effort?

• Turn to a neighbor and create a short list of why we might want to study the ocean.

• Take 2 min

What did you get?

My list(may not be comprehensive)

• 1.4.1. To dispel misunderstandings about marine life

• Though many people fear sharks, in reality 80% of shark species grow to less than 1.6m and are unable to hurt humans. Only 3 species have been identified repeatedly in attacks (great white, tiger and bull sharks). There are typically only about 8-12 shark attack fatalities every year, which is far less than the number of people killed each year by elephants, bees, crocodiles or lightning.

• 1.4.2. To preserve our fisheries and food source• Fish supply the greatest percentage of the world’s protein

consumed by humans. About 70% of the world’s fisheries are currently overfished and are not harvested in a sustainable way. Fisheries biologists work to estimate a maximum sustainable yield, the theoretical maximum quantity of fish that can be continuously harvested each year from a stock under existing (average) environmental conditions, without significantly interfering with the regeneration of fishing stocks (i.e. fishing sustainably).

• 1.4.3. To conserve marine biodiversity• Life began in the sea 3.1 to 3.4 billion years ago,

and about 80% of life on earth is found in the oceans. A mouthful of seawater may contain millions of bacterial cells, hundreds of thousands of phytoplankton and tens of thousands of zooplankton. The Great Barrier Reef alone is made of 400 species of coral and supports over 2000 species of fish and thousands of invertebrates.

• 1.4.4. To conserve the marine environment• Each year, three times as much rubbish is dumped into

the world’s oceans as the weight of the fish caught. There are areas in the North Pacific where plastic pellets are 6 times more abundant than zooplankton. Plastic is not biodegradable and can kill organisms that ingest it. Many industrial chemicals biomagnify up the food chain and kill top predators. Some chemicals can bind with hormone receptors and cause sex changes or infertility in fish. Understanding these links allow us to regulate our emissions better. 5

• 1.4.5. To conserve the terrestrial environment• Coral reefs use CO2 dissolved in seawater as the source of

carbon for their calcium carbonate skeleton. Coral reefs therefore have the ability to reduce the amount of CO2 dissolved in the oceans and consequently in the atmosphere, which has important implications for the entire biosphere. Conservation of coral reefs is therefore important for the reduction of greenhouse gases and global warming, and for the conservation of other ecosystems. Many marine habitats, such as coral reefs and mangroves, also serve to directly protect the coastlines by acting as a buffer zone, reducing the impact of storm surges and tsunamis which may threaten to inundate human settlements.

• 1.4.6. For medical purposes• Because the architecture and chemistry of coral is

very similar to human bone, it has been used in bone grafting, helping bones to heal quickly and cleanly. Echinoderms and many other invertebrates are used in research on regeneration. Chemicals found in sponges and many other invertebrates are used to produce several pharmaceutical products. New compounds are found regularly in marine species.

• 1.4.7. For human health• Several species of plankton are toxic and

responsible for shellfish poisoning or ciguatera. Understanding the biology of those species allows biologists to control outbreaks and reduce their impact on human health.

• 1.4.8. Because marine organisms are really cool• Many fish are hermaphrodites and can change sex during

their lives. Others, including several deep-sea species, are simultaneous hermaphrodites and have both male and female sex organs at the same time. The blue whale is the largest animal to have ever live on earth and has a heart the size of a Volkswagen Beatle. An octopus recently discovered and as of yet unnamed has the ability to mimic the color and behavior of sole fish, lion fish and sea snakes, all toxic animals, which greatly reduces its likelihood of encountering predators.

END.

1.2 Fundamentals of Ecology

1.2.1 - Study of Ecology

• Ecology (from Greek Oikos meaning home) is the study of interactions of organisms with each other and with their environment.

• Ecosystems are composed of living organisms and their non-living environment; while the biosphere includes all of the earth’s ecosystems taken together.

• The environment is all the external factors that act on an organism:– physical (abiotic): temperature, salinity, pH,

sunlight, currents, wave action and sediment– biological (biotic): other living organisms and their

interactions e.g. competition and reproduction.

• The habitat is the specific place in the environment where the organism lives; e.g. rocky or sandy shore, mangrove, coral reefs. Different habitats have different chemical and physical properties that dictate which organisms can live there.

• Niche: what an organism does in its environment – range of environmental and biological factors that affect its ability to survive and reproduce– physical: force of waves, temperature, salinity,

moisture (intertidal)– biological: predator/prey relationships, parasitism,

competition, organisms as shelter– behavioral: feeding time, mating, social behavior,

young bearing

1.2.2 - Environmental Factors that Affect the Distribution of Marine Organisms

Maintaining Homeostasis• All organisms need to maintain a stable internal environment

even though their external environment may be changing continuously.

• Factors such as:– Internal temperature,– salinity, – waste products – water content

• all need to be regulated within a relatively narrow range if the organism is to survive.

• This regulation of the internal environment by an organism is termed homeostasis.

• The ability to maintain homeostasis limits the environments where an organism can survive and reproduce.

• Each species has an optimal range of each environmental factor that affects it. Outside of this optimum, zones of stress exist, where the organism may fail to reproduce.

• At even more extremes lie zones of intolerance, where the environment is too extreme for the organism to survive at all

Figure 1.2.1. Optimal range of conditions for organisms.

Physical Environmental Factors

• Sunlight plays an essential role in the marine environment. Photosynthetic organisms are the base of nearly every food web in the ocean and dependant upon sunlight to provide energy to produce carbohydrate molecules. Light is also necessary for vision as many organisms rely on this to capture prey, avoid predation, communicate and for species recognition in reproduction. Excessive sunlight can however be detrimental to some life forms, as it may increase desiccation in intertidal areas

Sunlight

Temperature• Most marine organisms are ectotherms, unable to control their

internal body temperature, therefore gaining or loosing heat from their external environment, and as such are increasingly active in warmer temperatures. Marine mammals and birds on the other hand are endotherms and maintain a constant internal temperature through their metabolism and anatomical adaptations such as insulation. The temperature of shallow subtidal and intertidal areas may be constantly changing and organisms living in these environments need to be able to adapt to these changes. Conversely, in the open oceans and deep-seas the temperatures may remain relatively constant so organisms do not need to be as adaptable.

Salinity• Salinity is the measure of the concentration of dissolved organic

salts in the water column and is measured in parts per thousand (‰). Organisms must maintain a proper balance of water and salts within their tissue. Semi-permeable membranes allow water but not solutes to move across in a process called osmosis. If too much water is lost from body cells, organisms become dehydrated and may die. Some organisms cannot regulate their internal salt balance and will have the same salinity as their external environment; these are termed osmoconformers. These organisms are most common in the open ocean, which has a relatively stable salinity. In coastal areas where the salinity may change considerably, osmoregulators are more common.

Pressure

• At sea level, pressure is 1 atm. Water is much denser than air and for every 10 meters descent below sea level the pressure increases by 1 atm. Thus the pressure at 4,000 m will be 401 atm and in the deepest part of the oceans at nearly 11,000 m the pressure will be about 1,101 atm. The pressure of the water may affect organisms that both live in or visit these depths. Organisms found in the deep oceans require adaptations to allow them to survive at great pressures.

Metabolic Requirements• Organisms need a variety of organic and inorganic materials to

metabolize, grow and reproduce. The chemical composition of salt water provides several of the nutrients required by marine organisms. Nitrogen and phosphorous are required by all photosynthesizing plants or plant-like organisms. Other minerals such as calcium are essential for the synthesis of mollusk shells and coral skeletons. Although nutrients are essential for life, excessively high levels of nutrients in sea water can cause eutrophication. This process of nutrient enrichment can lead to vast algal blooms which eventually die and start to decompose. The decomposition may deplete the availably dissolved oxygen in the water, killing fish and other organisms.

•END.

Distribution of Marine Communities

• Marine communities can be designated by the regions of the oceans which they inhabit. In the water column, known as the pelagic zone, the area of water overlying the continental shelf is known as the neritic zone whereas the area above deep ocean basins is known as the oceanic zone. The organisms that inhabit the pelagic division exhibit one of two different lifestyles. Plankton drift with the currents whereas nekton are active swimmers that can move against the currents. The benthic realm can be divided into the intertidal area, the continental shelf and the deep. Organisms in the benthic division are either epifauna, organisms that live on the sediment or infauna, organisms that live within the sediment.

Figure 2.3. Various regions of the ocean.

Oceanic Zones

Oceanic Zones

• Several factors used to divide the ocean in to distinct life marine zones

– light availability– distance from shore– water depth

Zones of Light Availability

photic (light) zone: upper part of the ocean where light penetrates

• euphotic zone is the topmost part of the ocean where light is strongest

aphotic zone: lower part of the ocean where very little or no light penetrates

Photic Zone

• euphotic zone is where nearly all of primary production from photosynthesis occurs

• highest concentration of plants– Algae, phytoplankton, and sea grass

• most ocean fish live in this zone

Plants and Animals of Photic Zone

Aphotic Zone

• no living plants• high pressure, low temperatures• animals survive by eating detritus or other

animals• animals must adapt to living with no light

Zones: Distance from the Shore

intertidal zone: where land an ocean overlapneritic zone: seaward from the low tide line, the

continental shelf out to the shelf breakoceanic zone: beyond the continental shelf

Life in the Neritic Zone

• well oxygenated water• low water pressure• stable temperature and salinity levels• home to photosynthetic life– phytoplankton– sargassum

Animals and Plants of the Neritic Zone

Oceanic Zone

• larger creatures• life decreases with increasing depth• widest array of life (because it is a very broad

area)

Animals of the Oceanic Zone

Water Depth

pelagic zone: open ocean of any depthbenthic zone: includes any sea bottom surfaceabyssal zone: subdivision of benthic zone;– deep– extremely high water pressure– low temperatures

Benthic Zone

• low oxygenation of water• low temperatures• animals here feed on detritus or other animals• little or no plant life (depending on depth of

water

Animals of the Benthic Zone

Abyssal Zone

• floor of deepest parts of ocean• most bizarre animals found here• incredible water pressure• absolutely no light• very cold temperatures• hard to survive

Animals of the Abyssal Zone

•END

Biological Environmental Factors

Competition• occurs when organisms require the same limiting resources such as food, space or

mates. Interspecific competition occurs between organisms of different species whereas intraspecific competition is between organisms of the same species.

• Competition for resources prevents different species from occupying exactly the same niche as one will always outcompete the other with several possible results: local extinction (also known as competitive exclusion), displacement of the less successful competitor or selection for speciation that would lessen the competition. To efficiently share a common resource, organisms may have unique anatomical and behavioural specializations to subdivide a niche. This is commonly seen on coral reefs.

• For example, groupers, damselfish and soldierfish are all plankton feeders, but they do not directly compete with each other. Groupers feed close to the reef, damselfish make short forays into the water column and soldierfish feed mainly at night. Another method to lessen competition is to take advantage of a resource not in demand by other species, e.g. angelfish are one of the only reef fish that eat sponges.

Predator-Prey Relationship• may determine the abundance of different trophic levels. The amount of

vegetation in a given area may determine the number of herbivores which in turn may limit or be limited by the amount of primary consumers and so on and so forth up the trophic ladder. If the population of primary consumers becomes large and consumes many of the herbivores, then the vegetation of the area may thrive in a process known as a trophic cascade. This would be an example of a top-down processes in which the abundance of prey taxa is dependent upon the actions of consumers from higher trophic levels. Bottom-up processes are functioning when the abundance or diversity of members of higher trophic levels is dependent upon the availability or quality of resources from lower levels. For example, the amount of algae produced determines the amount of herbivorous fishes produced, and this in turn determines the amount of piscivorous fish the ecosystem will support.

A keystone predator

• is an organism whose effect on the biological diversity of an area is disproportionate to its abundance; for instance an organism such as the ochre sea star

• (Pisaster ochraceus) in the intertidal zone of western North America that makes it

• possible for many other organisms to live through its predation on the mussel.

Symbiosis• occurs where organisms develop close relationships to

each other, to the extent that one frequently depends on the other for survival. There are three types of symbioses:– (a) Mutualism: both organisms benefit from the relationship;

e.g. corals and zooxanthellae; clownfish and sea anemones– (b) Commensalism: one organism benefits while the other is

not harmed but doesn’t benefit; e.g. remoras and sharks– (c) Parasitism: parasites live off a host, which is harmed; e.g.

worms in digestive tract

1.2.3 - Populations and Ecology

• Population: a group of organisms of the same species that occupies a specific area.

• Different populations are separated from each other by barriers that prevent organisms from breeding.

• Biological community: populations of different species that occupy one habitat at the same time. The species that make up a community are linked in some way through competition, predator/prey relationships and symbiosis.

• There are many ways in which a population can increase in size, including reproduction and immigration. When populations or organisms have sufficient food or nutrients and are not greatly affected by predation, they will grow rapidly. A typical growth pattern for a population is one in which the original growth is exponential until an equilibrium point at which food becomes scarce or predator effect increases. The population growth levels off at an overall population of organisms which the environment can sustain, known as the carrying capacity of the environment (Figure 2.2). The carrying capacity is a dynamic point which may fluctuate with changes in resource availability and predator behavior. Predator abundance often mirrors prey abundance with somewhat of a lag in time.

Population growth

Figure 2.2. Typical population growth.

1.2.4 - Ecosystems

• Ecosystems include the biological communities and their physical environment, for example coral reefs, mangroves, rocky shore, sandy beaches, estuaries, kelp forest or the open ocean. Important interactions between different ecosystems often exist.

Producers (autotrophs)• Most producers obtain their energy from the sun or

some form of chemicals. The majority of primary producers photosynthesize using a pigment called chlorophyll, which absorbs the sun’s energy converting it into an organic molecule called glucose (C6H12O6).

• Other autotrophs may be chemosynthetic utilizing the energy from chemical reactions to produce organic compounds. The glucose produced by autotrophs may be used by the organism for its own metabolic needs or is available for higher trophic levels.

Consumers (heterotrophs)• Organisms that rely on other organisms for food are

collectively known as heterotrophs.• Primary consumers are herbivores, feeding on plants.

Secondary consumers are carnivores feeding on the herbivores. Tertiary consumers then feed on the secondary consumers and so on until the top carnivores at the top of the food chain. There are also omnivores which feed on both producers and heterotrophs and then decomposers which feed on all organic matter breaking it back down to simple molecules.

Other energy pathways• Not all energy pathways in the marine environment involve one

organism feeding on another. Through several inefficient feeding and metabolic mechanisms, organic matter is released into the marine environment in the form of Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM).

• These energy rich organic molecules can be incorporated by bacteria and other small plankton which in turn are eaten by larger organisms. In this way DOM, which would otherwise be lost to the environment, is funneled back into the food web. Detritus from faeces and decaying plants and animals is also an extremely important food source for organisms in the marine environment. Detritivores, such as bacteria and zooplankton in the pelagic zone or animals in the benthos, feed on this detritus returning energy back into the food chains.

Food chains and food webs

• Food chains are simple representations of the feeding relationships in an ecosystem. They show one organism feeding on one prey whilst being devoured by one predator. In reality these interactions may be much more complex with one organism feeding on several prey at different trophic levels whilst having several potential predators. This more complex relationship is called a food web.

Trophic levels• Energy flows from the sun through producers to higher

orders of consumers. Energy received from photosynthesis, or from food, is temporarily stored until the organism is eaten or dies and is decomposed. Thus energy storage in an organism can be portrayed as a trophic level. Energy transfer between trophic levels is inefficient; primary producers capture and store less than 1% of the sun’s energy. From there an average of only 10% of the energy is passed on to successive higher trophic levels while the rest is used for feeding, metabolism, reproduction, etc. (Figure 2.4).

Figure 2.4. An energy pyramid, representing the amount of energy or biomass at eachtrophic level.

•END

Biogeochemical Cycling

• This module focuses on the biogeochemical cycles of five of the major elements important to life—carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and oxygen—and their role in climatic change.

Today we will learn more about organic ocean chemistry

1. The biogeochemical cycle is the continuous flow of elements and compounds between organisms and the earth

2. The ocean plays a role in the biogeochemical cycle for elements including carbon and nitrogen

3. As part of the carbon cycle, carbon dissolves into the surface ocean from the atmosphere and is used for photosynthesis

The biogeochemical cycle

The biogeochemical cycle involves the movement of elements and compounds among the land (lithosphere), organisms, air (atmosphere) and the oceans (hydrosphere).

Human activities can affect these cycles

Lithosphere

AtmosphereBiosphere

Hydrosphere

How do elements move through the biogeochemical cycle?

Elements

Organisms use elements as

nutrients and put

nutrients back into the

environment

Elements

Elements travel among air, land and sea

through physical processes

What elements are important to marine life?

• Carbon (C)• Nitrogen (N)• Phosphorus (P)• Silicon (Si)• Iron (Fe)• Trace metals

A trace element exists at LESS THAN 100ppm

Carbon cycling in the ocean: The “biological pump”

• Today we will focus on carbon cycling.• We’ll examine the processes that transfer carbon from the

ocean surface to the deep ocean and throughout the food chain.

Phytoplankton useCO2 for photosynthesis

CO2SomeCO2 is given back off through respiration

Carbon moves up the food chain as primary consumers like zooplankton eat phytoplankton

Carbon moves further up to secondary and tertiary consumers

CO2

Respiration

Decomposition

As phytoplanktondie and decompose,carbon settles to the deep ocean