Goal of biological oceanography

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Goal of biological oceanography
of marine communities
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Whats in the water?

• Viruses, bacteria (heterotrophic,
  chemosynthetic), phytoplankton
• (prochlorophytes, cyanobacteria, eukaryotes),
  zooplankton (micro,
• meso, macro holo-, meroplankton), nekton,
  benthos

3
Light

• Provides energy for almost all marine food webs
  (photosynthesis)
• Provides heat that stabilizes the surface layer
  of the ocean
• The submarine light field is strongly
  influenced by constituents in
• the water (absorption, scattering,
  fluorescence, bioluminescence)

How does light affect marine life?

• Irradiance and photosynthesis
• Importance of quantity and spectral
  quality
• Inhibition of biogeochemical transformations
• Effects on trophic interactions

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Primary productivity

• Phytoplankton growth
• Photosynthesis, process and measurement
• Chemical composition
• Essential nutrients, light, temperature
• Loss processes
• Biogeochemical cycles
• Nitrogen cycle
• Flux of carbon
• Fate of primary production in the upper ocean
• Food web processes
• Microbial loop

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Zooplankton and secondary production

• Zooplankton groupings based on
• Size
• Life-history characteristics (holo-,
  meroplankton)
• Trophic status (herbivore, omnivore,
  carnivore)
• Vertical distribution
• Hydrodynamics vs. behaviour
• Feeding
• Effects of food availability, behaviour
• Effects of the physical environment
  (turbulence)
• Effects on food web processes

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Fisheries

• Growth, survival and recruitment of larval fish
• Hydrodynamics
• Temperature
• Food supply
• Predation
• Structure of oceanic food webs
• Exploitation of fish stocks

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Benthos

• Benthic organisms (microbes, micro- and
  macroalgae, meio-,
• and macrofauna)
• Life history characteristics
• Biogeochemical processes
• Effects on overlying water
• Effects on the substrate
• Animal-sediment relations
• Effects of substrate on biota (flux of
  food resources,
• colonization, predation)
• Effects of biota on substrate
  (stabilization, bioturbation,
• structure formation, flow modification)
• Ecological processes
• Predation, competition, disturbance

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Ecosystems

• North Atlantic
• Upwelling ecosystems
• Oligotrophic Gyres
• Hydrothermal Vents
• Coastal and Estuarine ecosystems

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Unifying themes

• Quantitative approach
• Explicit consideration of interacting factors
• (physics, chemistry, biology)
• Focus on populations/communities/ecosystems NOT
  on individuals