GLY150: INTRODUCTION TO OCEANOGRAPHY University of North Carolina at Wilmington

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Lecture Outline

Marine Environment 

I. Physiological Adaptation of Organisms

• Buoyancy and flotation
  • Gas floats and chambers, swim bladders
  • Blubber
  • Frictional resistance
    • Large surface area-to-volume ratio
• Salinity/Osmotic processes
  • Hypertonic
  • Hypotonic
  • Isotonic
• Temperature
  • Decreases with depth
  • Affects density and viscosity of water
  • Affects biological activity
• Pressure
  • Increases with depth
  • Affects organisms with gas-filled cavities, lungs
• Nutrients/Food supply
  • Decreases with depth
  • Two key nutrients
    • Nitrate
    • Phosphate
  • Most abundant in coastal waters and upwelling zones
• Light
  • Decreases with depth
    • Euphotic zone
    • Disphotic zone
    • Aphotic zone

II. Environmental Zones

• Pelagic
  • Epipelagic
  • Mesopelagic
  • Bathypelagic
  • Abyssopelagic
• Benthic
  • Supralittoral
  • Littoral
  • Sublittoral
  • Bathyal
  • Abyssal
  • Hadal

III. Classification of Marine Organisms

• Plankton - Floating, drifters
  • Phytoplankton
  • Zooplankton
  • Bacteria
• Nekton - Swimmers
  • Fish
  • Squid
  • Marine Mammals
  • Marine Reptiles
• Benthos - Bottom Dwellers
  • Epifauna
  • Infauna
  • Nektobenthos

Some helpful links relevant to this lecture:
How deep can they go?
Bioluminescence Home Page 
NOAA - Discoveries in the Deep

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