Marine biology





Marine biology is the study of animal and plant life within saltwater
ecosystems. 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
deals with those species in which life is spent only (or mainly) in the
water, thus its classification is based on the environment rather than on
taxonomy.

Marine biology is a huge field, given that a large (exactly how large is
unknown at this point) porportion of all life on earth is contained in the
oceans. Included in this are many species that are economically important to
humans, including the food fishes.

Aspects of and problems in marine biology

Marine biology covers a great deal, from the microscopic plankton (with
phytoplankton hugely important as the primary producers of the sea), to the
huge cetaceans.

The study of marine biology obviously reserves a great deal of attention for
the physical effects of continual immersion in the ocean, as well as for the
ways that various oceanic properties changing affects marine life. How
oceanic factors affect distribution of various organisms is also studied.

Recent marine biotechnology has focused largely on marine biomolecules,
especially proteins, that may have uses in medicine or engineering.

An interesting branch of marine biology is aquaculture.

Marine environments are the home to many exotic biological materials that
may inspire biomimetic materials.

History of marine biology

In recent times, marine biologists are trying to complete the mapping of
underwater species with the help of modern techniques, which could help in
exploring the deepest oceanic depressions in which it is supposed that new
species could be found, eventually of potential great interest also for the
theories on evolution.

Related fields

Marine biology is closely linked to both oceanography and biology. It also
encompasses ideas from ecology. Fisheries science can be considered a
partial offshoot of marine biology, as can marine conservation.

Institutions, well known journals, etc.

Many universities teach courses in marine biology.