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Marine Biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of algae, animals and other organisms
that live in the ocean or other marine or brackish body of water. Given that in
biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea
and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the
environment rather than on taxonomy.
Marine life represents a vast resource, providing food, medicine, and raw
materials, in addition to helping to support recreation and tourism all over the
world. At a fundamental level, marine life helps determine the very nature of
our planet. Marine organisms produce 80% of the oxygen we breathe[citation
needed] and probably help regulate the earth's climate. Shorelines are in part
shaped and protected by marine life, and some marine organisms even help create
new land.
Marine biology covers a great deal, from the microscopic, including plankton and
phytoplankton, which can be as small as 0.02 micrometers and are both hugely
important as the primary producers of the sea, to the huge cetaceans (whales)
which reach up to a reported 33 meters (109 feet) in length.The habitats studied
by marine biology include everything from the tiny layers of surface water in
which organisms and abiotic items may be trapped in surface tension between the
ocean and atmosphere, to the depths of the abyssal trenches, sometimes 10,000
meters or more beneath the surface of the ocean. It studies habitats such as
coral reefs, kelp forests, tidepools, muddy, sandy, and rocky bottoms, and the
open ocean (pelagic) zone, where solid objects are rare and the surface of the
water is the only visible boundary.A large amount of all life on Earth exists in
the oceans. Exactly how large the proportion is is still unknown. While the
oceans comprise about 71% of the Earth's surface, due to their depth they
encompass about 300 times the habitable volume of the terrestrial habitats on
Earth.Many species are economically important to humans, including the food
fishes. It is also becoming understood that the well-being of marine organisms
and other organisms are linked in very fundamental ways. Human understanding is
growing of the relationship between life in the sea and important cycles such as
that of matter (such as the carbon cycle) and of air (such as Earth's
respiration, and movement of energy through ecosystems). Large areas beneath the
ocean surface still remain effectively unexplored. Scientists know more about
the moon than they know about the ocean and the life in it.
Microscopic life undersea is incredibly diverse and still poorly understood. For
example, the role of viruses in marine ecosystems is barely being explored even
in the beginning of the 21st century.The role of phytoplankton is better
understood due to their critical position as the most numerous primary producers
on Earth. Phytoplankton are categorized into cyanobacteria (also called
blue-green algae/bacteria), various types of algae (red, green, brown, and
yellow-green), diatoms, dinoflagellates, euglenoids, coccolithophorids,
cryptomonads, chrysophytes, chlorophytes, prasinophytes, and
silicoflagellates.Marine biology is closely linked to both oceanography and
biology. It also encompasses many ideas from ecology. Fisheries science and
marine conservation can be considered partial offshoots of marine biology. Learn
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