Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. 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.
Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea. Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or basket stars. Starfish are also known as asteroids due to being in the class Asteroidea. About 1,900 species of starfish live on the seabed in all the world's oceans, from warm, tropical zones to frigid, polar regions. They are found from the intertidal zone down to abyssal depths, at 6,000 m (20,000 ft) below the surface.
The crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci, is a large starfish that preys upon hard, or stony, coral polyps (Scleractinia). The crown-of-thorns starfish receives its name from venomous thorn-like spines that cover its upper surface, resembling the biblical crown of thorns. It is one of the largest starfish in the world.
Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus is a documentary film by American marine biologist and filmmaker Randy Olson. It highlights the debate between proponents of the concept of intelligent design and the scientific evidence and consensus that supports evolution, as well as the potential consequences of science rejection.
A shifting baseline is a type of change to how a system is measured, usually against previous reference points (baselines), which themselves may represent significant changes from an even earlier state of the system.
Martin Wiggo Johnson, was an American oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He is known as an author of the landmark reference work The Oceans: Their Physics, Chemistry and General Biology ; for explaining the deep scattering layer (DSL) as a result of what is now called the diel vertical migration; and for studies of zooplankton that revealed that the physics of water movement was an important influence on population biology and community diversity.
Don't Be Such A Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style is a book published by Island Press written by scientist-turned-filmmaker Randy Olson which arises from a talk of the same title Olson gave to science audiences at universities and museums for five years preceding its publication. The focus of the book is the challenge scientists face in communicating to the general public in an age of information-overload. Olson draws on his two careers, first as a marine biologist who achieved a tenured professorship, then his second career which began when he then resigned to attend film school and acting classes, eventually becoming an independent feature filmmaker. Among other topics, the book addresses the role of spontaneity, storytelling, and likeability in the mass communication of science.
Nancy Knowlton is a coral reef biologist and a former Sant Chair for Marine Science at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
Gilbert L. Voss was an American conservationist and oceanographer. He was one of the main persons behind the establishment of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo, Florida and he spoke out successfully against several proposed real estate developments that might have threatened the ecology of the Florida Keys.
Stichaster australis, the reef starfish, is a species of starfish found in the shallow waters of the rocky intertidal of New Zealand. Typically, the animal is endemic to the west coast shores of the North and South Islands, where wave action is increased. They do not usually inhabit ecosystems that have reduced wave action and calm conditions as they prefer a higher-energy environment. These marine invertebrates range in color from pink to purple, but can also be orange. They typically have eleven arms, but sometimes they may have either ten or twelve. As full-grown adults, they are 8 to 10 cm in diameter.
Reuben Lasker was a fisheries scientist known for his contributions to larval ecology, particularly the Stable Ocean Hypothesis.
Richard Arthur Lutz is an American marine biologist and deep-sea oceanographer. He is known for deep-sea research using the Alvin submersible, and is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the ecology of deep-sea hydrothermal vents.
Martin David Burkenroad was an American marine biologist. He specialized in decapod crustaceans and fisheries science.
Cheryl A. Zimmer is a conservation biologist whose research interests are focused marine population ecology, specifically the role of hydrodynamics as a driving force in the evolution of marine life.
Alice Alldredge is an American oceanographer and marine biologist who studies marine snow, carbon cycling, microbes and plankton in the ecology of the ocean. She has been one of the most cited scientific researchers since 2003.
Robert Endean (1925–1997) was an Australian marine scientist and academic at the University of Queensland.
Joseph Richard Pawlik is a marine biologist. He is the Frank Hawkins Kenan Distinguished Professor of Marine Biology in the Department of Biology and Marine Biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He is best known for studies of sponges on Caribbean coral reefs that reveal ecological principles such as resource trade-offs, trophic cascades and indirect effects.
Andia Chaves Fonnegra is a Colombian marine biologist known for her research on the marine sponge Cliona delitrix.
Organisms that live freely at the ocean surface, termed neuston, include keystone organisms like the golden seaweed Sargassum that makes up the Sargasso Sea, floating barnacles, marine snails, nudibranchs, and cnidarians. Many ecologically and economically important fish species live as or rely upon neuston. Species at the surface are not distributed uniformly; the ocean's surface provides habitat for unique neustonic communities and ecoregions found at only certain latitudes and only in specific ocean basins. But the surface is also on the front line of climate change and pollution. Life on the ocean's surface connects worlds. From shallow waters to the deep sea, the open ocean to rivers and lakes, numerous terrestrial and marine species depend on the surface ecosystem and the organisms found there.
