Marine Biology : Annotated Bibliography Of Marine Biology

When thinking about getting away to some serene paradise to help forget about work or school obligations most people instantly think of the beach. Whether it be the west or east coast the beach is a universal symbol of peace and serenity, plus a little bit of fun. But this bliss has a whole different meaning to me. This is where I grew up and how I found myself. The west coast of Florida is the first time I felt the sand in my toes and the salt water on my face. These memories inspired me to give back to the ocean and its inhabitants and follow my dreams of becoming a marine biologist.

I’ve always had a keen interest in science. When I was younger, I viewed a dolphin show online. I was instantly fanisnated and later I was informed that the trainers were special marine biologists. The idea of becoming a marine biologist is still a dominate career choice for me. Last year, I was incredibly curious with the aspects that a marine biologist has to undertake that I researched the career path as part of my PLP. This only ignited my interest even further and when I was invited to attend the Flinders University I particularly focused on the marine biology and biology lectures.

Education has always been an important foundation upon which my family encouraged the most. Not just the education pertaining to structured schooling, but the fundamentals in life that require you to interact in society and be a part of something bigger than yourself. They demonstrated how to commit to values such as responsibility, motivation, and consistency; and, how to be open-minded and passionate about the things you believe in. These things all required a sacrifice in various ways. They always stress how “sometimes you need to give up something to get ahead, or how sometimes sacrificing the familiar and what you expect from yourself to get the results that you are seeking in the long run.”

Figure 1. Marine sediment was placed at the bottom of the test tube containing Ormerod’s medium and incubated on a test tube rack in front of light at room temperature for 2.5 weeks. In this figure, the red color pigment is seen all around the test tube and not in just one area because it was in the middle of two light sources so phototaxis occurred all around the test tube and not on just one side.

Octopi are independent, solitary organisms found commonly in reefs and pilings. This behavior is dictated by their need to evade predators through camouflage. If octopi lived in large groups they would stand out more and be unable to evade predators. Similarly, octopi live in reefs and pilings because they are able to use the corals and pilings to mimic easily. Picking a single coral attribute in a whole reef allows endless mimicry possibilities for the octopi and increases their chances of evading a predator. Not only does the information obtained from octopi camouflage provide information on cephalopod behavior, this also helps explain concepts of camouflage in all organisms. Having one of the most advanced mimicry systems, the octopus only produces three patterns, of which allow them to survive. It is suggested that knowing this provides an insight on the very simple relationship between prey and predator (Hanlon, et al.,

Since Geology and fossils was such a broad subject, I narrowed it down to marine plankton. The article I read was written by Jorg Mutterlose. It was about the study of how micro plankton play a key role in understanding the marine biosphere in present day oceans. All understandings about ancient marine systems (fossils) must have a back ground of plankton systems and its role at the base of marine food chain. Basically that is saying the ocean organisms started out as plankton. Author Jorg Mutterlose addressed that they wanted to inform their readers about recent trends and scientific issues in the evolving field of marine plankton. Marine plankton include the oldest eukaryotic organisms which made their first appearance 2.1 million years ago.

There are more than 11,000 species of Cnidarians and the diversity among them is striking as this phylum includes organisms from corals to sea jellies (Pechenik 2009). This groups defining characteristic is that all included have nematocysts or cnidae, which are very complex specialized stinging cells (Technau & Steele 2011). Many species of both shallow and deep-sea Cnidarians bioluminesce, with the exception of the family Cubozoa. This leaves the 3 families of Cnidarians: hydrozoa, scyphozoa and anthozoa (Haddock et al. 2010). Bioluminescence has evolved multiple times in different families of land and water species. The evolution of bioluminescence is difficult to follow down evolutionary lines since no phyla is entirely luminous as this

Corals, sea anemones, sea urchins, molluscs, crustaceans and worms are all included in the large, diverse group we call marine invertebrates. They are classed as an invertebrate as they all share one common key feature; they do not have a backbone. Invertebrates seem like a simple life form but they are truly beautiful, interesting and complex creatures that roam our oceans. But which is the most interesting invertebrate? Would it be Porifera, Cnidaria, Bryozoans, Vermiforms, Mollusca, Crustacea, Echinodermata or Chordata? With marine invertebrates making up around 97% of the worlds described species it is open for a large debate (Arkive n.d).

Dinoflagellates possess two flagella that produce forward movement and also provide a turning ability [5]. Another unique characteristic of dinoflagellates is the ability to bioluminesce. In total, 68 species are bioluminescent and emit a blue-green light due to the stimulation of the enzyme dinoflagellate luciferase [6, 7]. Although there are many defining characteristics of dinoflagellates, there is still confusion as to whether they should be identified as algae or protists.

During the Bullfrog study, researchers concluded that the blue light was selected more often than the alternative “green or blue plus green light” that had a higher intensity (Chapman 429). One experiment involved changing the intensity of the light over a small range of distance wavelength. The Bullfrog’s wavelength preference

Figure 2: Identifies the percentage of rounded Euglena cells subjected to a variety of wavelengths. Each wavelength was coordinated to a perspex filter color. Each perspex filter acted independently, except orange. Orange was made using an overlay of yellow and red.

Have you ever wondered about the creatures that lurk in the deep sea? A few of them include zombie worms, giant squids, and yeti crabs which are quite interesting creatures. They are similar and different in a few categories: habitat, appearance, and diet.

It was discovered that a protein that caused algae/9chalmidiponis to swim to light is a light sensitive channel (method of the year 2010), blue light causes positive ions enter the cell

The world’s oceans cover 70 percent of the earth’s surface (Allsopp, Page, Johnston, & Santillo, 2009). The oceans biodiversity is increasingly becoming more threatened each year by anthropogenic activities such as pollution, destructive fishing methods, overfishing and commercial agriculture (Tyus, 2012). Marine conservation has improved over the years to protect and preserve ecosystems in oceans and seas. To limit the anthropogenic damage, restore habitats, species and preserve vulnerable marine life (Norse & Crowder, 2005). The term marine biodiversity discusses the abundance of species in a geographical area. (Allsopp et al., 2009). The biodiversity and conservation of marine systems can include a range of different types of habitats, the habitat that will be discussed in this study will be tropical coral reefs of Madagascar (Dobson & Frid, 2009). Coral reefs are the most biologically diverse ecosystem within the oceans (Hill, 2005). At a global scale, they tend to have high species diversity to care and support a large number of fish communities (Tyus, 2012). Coral reefs are recognised as the most pristine marine ecosystem of Madagascar; it is species rich but are also very fragile and threatened (Ahamada, Bijoux, Cauvin, Kooonjul, Maharavo, & Pierre-Louis, 2004). Endemic species inhabit this region such as butterflyfish (Chaetodontidae) and wrasses (Labridae), which show reliable indicators for the reefs health (Nadon, Griffiths, & Doherty, 2005). Velondriake marine

Oceans occupy 75% of earth’s surface and is a home for millions of species that live under water. There exists another world under the ocean. According to FMAP (Future of Marine Animal Populations), a project of the International census of Marine Life (2000 - 2010) aimed at describing the distribution and diversity of marine life, it is predicted that out of 8.7 million species that live on earth, 2.1 million live on Earth [1]. It is estimated that over 1 million undiscovered species are living in and around the reefs. Coral reefs hold more number of species per unit area than any other water bodies. Coral reefs hold the highest biodiversity, because the corals provide food and also protect from predators besides providing the shelter for a variety of organisms. [2, 4].