The Science of Marine Biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of the organisms that live in the sea. The ocean is a vast realm, home to countless strange and wonderful creatures. It is often the beauty, mystery, and variety of life in the sea that attract students to a course in marine biology. Even professional marine biologists feel a sense of adventure and wonder in their studies.
There are also many practical
reasons to study marine biology. Life on earth probably originated in the sea,
so the study of marine organisms teaches us much about all life on earth, not
just marine life. In the late nineteenth century, for example, the Russian scientist
Ilya Metchnikoff discovered cells of the animal immune system by studying sea
anemones and the larvae of sea stars. His discovery underpins a great deal of
modern medical research. Marine life also represents a vast source of human
wealth. It provides food, medicines, and raw materials; offers recreation to millions;
and supports tourism all over the world. Marine organisms can also cause
problems. For example, some organisms harm humans directly by causing disease
or attacking people. Others harm us indirectly by injuring or killing other
marine organisms that we value for food or other purposes. Some marine
organisms erode piers, walls, and other structures we build in the ocean, foul
ship bottoms, and clog pipes.
At a much more fundamental level,
marine life helps determine the very nature of our planet. Marine organisms
produce around half of the oxygen we breathe and help regulate the earth’s
climate. Our shorelines are shaped and protected by marine life, at least in
part, and some marine organisms even help create new land. In economic terms,
it has been estimated that the ocean’s living systems are worth more than $20
trillion a year.
To make both full and wise use of
the sea’s living resources, to solve the problems marine organisms create, and
to predict the effects of human activities on the life of the sea, we must
learn all we can about marine life. In addition, marine organisms provide clues
to the earth’s past, the history of life, and even our own bodies that we must
learn to understand. This is the challenge, the adventure, of marine biology.
Marine biology is not really a
separate science but, rather, the more general science of biology applied to
the sea. Nearly all the disciplines of biology are represented in marine
biology. There are marine biologists who study the basic chemistry of living things,
for example. Others are interested in whole organisms: the way they behave,
where they live and why, and so on. Other marine biologists adopt a global
perspective and look at the way entire oceans function as systems. Marine
biology is thus both part of a broader science and itself made up of many
different disciplines, approaches, and viewpoints.
Marine biology is closely related
to oceanography, the scientific study of the oceans. Like marine biology,
oceanography has many branches. Geological oceanographers, or marine
geologists, study the sea floor. Chemical oceanographers study ocean chemistry,
and physical oceanographers study waves, tides, currents, and other physical
aspects of the sea. Marine biology is most closely related to biological
oceanography, so closely, in fact, that the two are difficult to separate.
Sometimes they are distinguished on the basis that marine biologists tend to
study organisms living relatively close to shore, whereas biological
oceanographers focus on life in the open ocean, far from land. Another common
distinction is that marine biologists tend to study marine life from the
perspective of the organisms (for example, studying how organisms produce
organic matter), while biological oceanographers tend to take the perspective
of the ocean (for example, studying how energy or organic matter cycles through
the system). In practice there are so many exceptions to these distinctions
that many marine scientists consider marine biology and biological oceanography
to be the same.
A marine biologist’s interests
may also overlap broadly with those of biologists who study terrestrial
organisms. Many of the basic ways in which living things make use of energy,
for example, are similar whether an organism lives on land or in the sea. Nevertheless,
marine biology does have a flavor all its own, partly because of its history.
(References - Marine biology / Peter Castro, Michael E. Huber. — 7th ed.)
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