1 / 10

Intro to Oceanography

Intro to Oceanography. What is Oceanography?. The scientific study of the ocean and its inhabitants. Marine Biology – biological discipline; focused on the biology and physiology of marine organisms. Shouldn’t our planet be called “Water” rather than “Earth”?.

kibo-dudley
Download Presentation

Intro to Oceanography

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Intro to Oceanography

  2. What is Oceanography? The scientific study of the ocean and its inhabitants

  3. Marine Biology – biological discipline; focused on the biology and physiology of marine organisms

  4. Shouldn’tour planet be called “Water” rather than “Earth”?

  5. ~71% of the earth’s surface are oceans Maximum depth: ca. 11,022 m (Trieste) (Land: Mt Everest 8,848 m) Average depth: ca. 3800 m Total volume: 1370 x 106 km3 Presents 300 times space for life than land and freshwater combined. 

  6. Only 2% of human food originates from the oceans but present 20% of high quality protein nutrition Still recent NASA scientist said: “We now know more about the backside of the moon than about the depths of our oceans.”

  7. Marine vs. Terrestrial Life Organisms – similar density as environment (salt water) less energy to float/swim… small effect of gravity Organisms – much higher density than air.High gravity impact (fall down)

  8. Water supports bodies, no need to put energy in skeletons Plenty of water for life  Temperature variation low Need strong skeletal material (animals: bones; trees: trunks) May become water limited Temperature varies strongly

  9. Light limited: reflection of light at sea surface and rapid light absorption with water depth Nutrient limited: nitrate, phosphate, silicate, iron Light energy substantially higher than in aquatic systems, low absorption by air High nutrient concentrations in natural soils

  10. Major part of nutrient cycling in the dark deep-sea Physically unstable habitats Nutrient cycling in soil close to plant uptake Physically stable environment

More Related