Marine life, which is also known as sea life or ocean life, refers to all the marine organisms that live in salt water habitats, or ecological communities that encompass all aquatic animals, plants, algae, fungi, protists, single-celled microorganisms and associated viruses living in the saline water of marine habitats, either the sea water of marginal seas and oceans, or the brackish water of coastal wetlands, lagoons, estuaries and inland seas. As of 2023, more than 242,000 marine species have been documented, and perhaps two million marine species are yet to be documented. On average, researches describe about 2,300 new marine species each year. The study of marine life spans into multiple fields, which is primarily marine biology, as well as biological oceanography.
Today, marine species range in size from the microscopic phytoplankton, which can be as small as 0.02–micrometers; to huge cetaceans like the blue whale, which can reach 33 m (108 ft) in length. Marine microorganisms have been variously estimated as constituting about 70% or about 90% of the total marine biomass. Marine primary producers, mainly cyanobacteria and chloroplastic algae, produce oxygen and sequester carbon via photosynthesis, which generate enormous biomass and significantly influence the atmospheric chemistry. Migratory species, such as oceanodromous and anadromous fish, also create biomass and biological energy transfer between different regions of Earth, with many serving as keystone species of various ecosystems. At a fundamental level, marine life affects the nature of the planet, and in part, shape and protect shorelines, and some marine organisms (e.g. corals) even help create new land via accumulated reef-building. (Full article...)
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. (Full article...)
Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.
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Image 1The deep biosphere is the part of the biosphere that resides below the first few meters of the land surface and seafloor. It extends 10 km (6.2 mi) below the continental surface and 21 km (13 mi) below the sea surface, at temperatures that may reach beyond 120 °C (248 °F) which is comparable to the maximum temperature where a metabolically active organism has been found. It includes all three domains of life and the genetic diversity rivals that on the surface. The first indications of deep life came from studies of oil fields in the 1920s, but it was not certain that the organisms were indigenous until methods were developed in the 1980s to prevent contamination from the surface. Samples are now collected in deep mines and scientific drilling programs in the ocean and on land. Deep observatories have been established for more extended studies. ( Full article...)
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Image 2The pigeye shark or Java shark ( Carcharhinus amboinensis) is an uncommon species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, found in the warm coastal waters of the eastern Atlantic and western Indo-Pacific. It prefers shallow, murky environments with soft bottoms, and tends to roam within a fairly localised area. With its bulky grey body, small eyes, and short, blunt snout, the pigeye shark looks almost identical to (and is often confused with) the better-known bull shark ( C. leucas). The two species differ in vertebral count, the relative sizes of the dorsal fins, and other subtle traits. This shark typically reaches lengths of 1.9–2.5 m (6.2–8.2 ft). The pigeye shark is an apex predator that mostly hunts low in the water column. It has a varied diet, consisting mainly of bony and cartilaginous fishes and also including crustaceans, molluscs, sea snakes, and cetaceans. This species gives birth to live young, with the developing embryos sustained to term via a placental connection to their mother. Litters of three to thirteen pups are born after a gestation period of nine or twelve months. Young sharks spend their first few years of life in sheltered inshore habitats such as bays, where their movements follow tidal and seasonal patterns. The pigeye shark's size and dentition make it potentially dangerous, though it has not been known to attack humans. The shark is infrequently caught in shark nets protecting beaches and by fisheries, which use it for meat and fins. The IUCN presently assesses this species as vulnerable. ( Full article...)
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Image 3A fish is an aquatic, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with a tough cranium to protect the brain, but lacking limbs with digits. Fish can be grouped into the more basal jawless fish and the more common jawed fish, the latter including all living cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as the extinct placoderms and acanthodians. In a break from the long tradition of grouping all fish into a single class ( Pisces), modern phylogenetics views fish as a paraphyletic group that includes all vertebrates except tetrapods. In English, the plural of "fish" is fish when referring to individuals and fishes when referring to species. Most fish are cold-blooded, their body temperature varying with the surrounding water, though some large, active swimmers like the white shark and tuna can maintain a higher core temperature. Many fish can communicate acoustically with each other, such as during courtship displays. The study of fish is known as ichthyology. ( Full article...)
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Image 4Jellyfish, also known as sea jellies or simply jellies, are the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals, although a few are anchored to the seabed by stalks rather than being motile. They are made of an umbrella-shaped main body made of mesoglea, known as the bell, and a collection of trailing tentacles on the underside. Via pulsating contractions, the bell can provide propulsion for locomotion through open water. The tentacles are armed with stinging cells and may be used to capture prey or to defend against predators. Jellyfish have a complex life cycle, and the medusa is normally the sexual phase, which produces planula larvae. These then disperse widely and enter a sedentary polyp phase which may include asexual budding before reaching sexual maturity. ( Full article...)
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Southern right whale breaching are three species of large baleen whales of the genus Eubalaena: the North Atlantic right whale ( E. glacialis), the North Pacific right whale ( E. japonica) and the southern right whale ( E. australis). They are classified in the family Balaenidae with the bowhead whale. Right whales have rotund bodies with arching rostrums, V-shaped blowholes and dark gray or black skin. The most distinguishing feature of a right whale is the rough patches of skin on its head, which appear white due to parasitism by whale lice. Right whales are typically 13–17 m (43–56 ft) long and weigh up to 100 short tons (91 t; 89 long tons) or more. All three species are migratory, moving seasonally to feed or give birth. The warm equatorial waters form a barrier that isolates the northern and southern species from one another although the southern species, at least, has been known to cross the equator. In the Northern Hemisphere, right whales tend to avoid open waters and stay close to peninsulas and bays and on continental shelves, as these areas offer greater shelter and an abundance of their preferred foods. In the Southern Hemisphere, right whales feed far offshore in summer, but a large portion of the population occur in near-shore waters in winter. Right whales feed mainly on copepods but also consume krill and pteropods. They may forage the surface, underwater or even the ocean bottom. During courtship, males gather into large groups to compete for a single female, suggesting that sperm competition is an important factor in mating behavior. Gestation tends to last a year, and calves are weaned at eight months old. ( Full article...)
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Image 6The silky shark ( Carcharhinus falciformis), also known by numerous names such as blackspot shark, gray whaler shark, olive shark, ridgeback shark, sickle shark, sickle-shaped shark and sickle silk shark, is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, named for the smooth texture of its skin. It is one of the most abundant sharks in the pelagic zone, and can be found around the world in tropical waters. Highly mobile and migratory, this shark is most often found over the edge of the continental shelf down to 50 m (164 ft). The silky shark has a slender, streamlined body and typically grows to a length of 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in). It can be distinguished from other large requiem sharks by its relatively small first dorsal fin with a curving rear margin, its tiny second dorsal fin with a long free rear tip, and its long, sickle-shaped pectoral fins. It is a deep, metallic bronze-gray above and white below. With prey often scarce in its oceanic environment, the silky shark is a swift, inquisitive, and persistent hunter. It feeds mainly on bony fishes and cephalopods, and has been known to drive them into compacted schools before launching open-mouthed, slashing attacks. This species often trails schools of tuna, a favored prey. Its sense of hearing is extremely acute, allowing it to localize the low-frequency noises generated by other feeding animals, and, by extension, sources of food. The silky shark is viviparous, meaning that the developing embryos are sustained by a placental connection to their mother. Significant geographical variation is seen in its life history details. Reproduction occurs year-round except in the Gulf of Mexico, where it follows a seasonal cycle. Females give birth to litters of up to 16 pups annually or biennially. The newborn sharks spend their first months in relatively sheltered reef nurseries on the outer continental shelf, growing substantially before moving into the open ocean. ( Full article...)
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Main entrance in 2016, featuring the remodeled facade and fiberglass smokestacks of the Hovden Cannery is a nonprofit public aquarium in Monterey, California. Known for its regional focus on the marine habitats of Monterey Bay, it was the first to exhibit a living kelp forest when it opened in October 1984. Its biologists have pioneered the animal husbandry of jellyfish and it was the first to successfully care for and display a great white shark. The organization's research and conservation efforts also focus on sea otters, various birds, and tunas. Seafood Watch, a sustainable seafood advisory list published by the aquarium beginning in 1999, has influenced the discussion surrounding sustainable seafood. The aquarium was home to Otter 841 prior to her release into the wild as well as Rosa, the oldest living sea otter at the time of her death. Early proposals to build a public aquarium in Monterey County were not successful until a group of four marine biologists affiliated with Stanford University revisited the concept in the late 1970s. Monterey Bay Aquarium was built at the site of a defunct sardine cannery and has been recognized for its architectural achievements by the American Institute of Architects. Along with its architecture, the aquarium has won numerous awards for its exhibition of marine life, ocean conservation efforts, and educational programs. It is known for the artistry of its exhibits, which have featured Dale Chihuly glass, David Hockney pieces, 19th-century Ernst Haeckel lithographs and Douglas Morton music compositions. ( Full article...)
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Image 8The porbeagle or porbeagle shark ( Lamna nasus) is a species of mackerel shark in the family Lamnidae, distributed widely in the cold and temperate marine waters of the North Atlantic and Southern Hemisphere. In the North Pacific, its ecological equivalent is the closely related salmon shark ( L. ditropis). It typically reaches 2.5 m (8.2 ft) in length and a weight of 135 kg (298 lb); North Atlantic sharks grow larger than Southern Hemisphere sharks and differ in coloration and aspects of life history. Grey above and white below, the porbeagle has a very stout midsection that tapers towards the long, pointed snout and the narrow base of the tail. It has large pectoral and first dorsal fins, tiny pelvic, second dorsal, and anal fins, and a crescent-shaped caudal fin. The most distinctive features of this species are its three-cusped teeth, the white blotch at the aft base of its first dorsal fin, and the two pairs of lateral keels on its tail. The porbeagle is an opportunistic hunter that preys mainly on bony fishes and cephalopods throughout the water column, including the bottom. Most commonly found over food-rich banks on the outer continental shelf, it makes occasional forays both close to shore and into the open ocean to a depth of 1,360 m (4,460 ft). It also conducts long-distance seasonal migrations, generally shifting between shallower and deeper water. The porbeagle is fast and highly active, with physiological adaptations that enable it to maintain a higher body temperature than the surrounding water. It can be solitary or gregarious, and has been known to perform seemingly playful behavior. This shark is aplacental viviparous with oophagy, developing embryos being retained within the mother's uterus and subsisting on non-viable eggs. Females typically bear four pups every year. ( Full article...)
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Image 9Phoronids ( taxonomic name Phoronida, sometimes called horseshoe worms) are a small phylum of marine animals that filter-feed with a lophophore (a "crown" of tentacles), and build upright tubes of chitin to support and protect their soft bodies. They live in most of the oceans and seas, including the Arctic Ocean but excluding the Antarctic Ocean, and between the intertidal zone and about 400 meters down. Most adult phoronids are 2 cm long and about 1.5 mm wide, although the largest are 50 cm long. The name of the group comes from its type genus: Phoronis. ( Full article...)
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Cast of a partial Kimberella fossil. is an extinct genus of marine bilaterian known only from rocks of the Ediacaran period. The slug-like organism fed by scratching the microbial surface on which it dwelt in a manner similar to the gastropods, although its affinity with this group is contentious. Specimens were first found in Australia's Ediacara Hills, but recent research has concentrated on the numerous finds near the White Sea in Russia, which cover an interval of time from 555 to 558 million years ago. As with many fossils from this time, its evolutionary relationships to other organisms are hotly debated. Paleontologists initially classified Kimberella as a type of cubozoan, but, since 1997, features of its anatomy and its association with scratch marks resembling those made by a radula have been interpreted as signs that it may have been a mollusc. Although some paleontologists dispute its classification as a mollusc, it is generally accepted as being at least a bilaterian. ( Full article...)
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Marine microorganisms are defined by their habitat as microorganisms living in a marine environment, that is, in the saltwater of a sea or ocean or the brackish water of a coastal estuary. A microorganism (or microbe) is any microscopic living organism or virus, which is invisibly small to the unaided human eye without magnification. Microorganisms are very diverse. They can be single-celled or multicellular and include bacteria, archaea, viruses, and most protozoa, as well as some fungi, algae, and animals, such as rotifers and copepods. Many macroscopic animals and plants have microscopic juvenile stages. Some microbiologists also classify viruses as microorganisms, but others consider these as non-living.
Marine microorganisms have been variously estimated to make up between 70 and 90 percent of the biomass in the ocean. Taken together they form the marine microbiome. Over billions of years this microbiome has evolved many life styles and adaptations and come to participate in the global cycling of almost all chemical elements. Microorganisms are crucial to nutrient recycling in ecosystems as they act as decomposers. They are also responsible for nearly all photosynthesis that occurs in the ocean, as well as the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients and trace elements. Marine microorganisms sequester large amounts of carbon and produce much of the world's oxygen. (Full article...)
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Image 1Classic food web for grey seals in the Baltic Sea containing several typical marine food chains (from Marine food web)
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Image 2This timeline contains clickable links
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Image 3Bacterioplankton and the pelagic marine food web Solar radiation can have positive (+) or negative (−) effects resulting in increases or decreases in the heterotrophic activity of bacterioplankton. (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 5The oligotrich ciliate has been characterised as the most important herbivore in the ocean (from Marine food web)
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Image 6Estimates of microbial species counts in the three domains of life Bacteria are the oldest and most biodiverse group, followed by Archaea and Fungi (the most recent groups). In 1998, before awareness of the extent of microbial life had gotten underway, Robert M. May estimated there were 3 million species of living organisms on the planet. But in 2016, Locey and Lennon estimated the number of microorganism species could be as high as 1 trillion. (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 7Sponges have no nervous, digestive or circulatory system (from Marine invertebrates)
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Image 8Sandy shores provide shifting homes to many species (from Marine habitat)
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Image 9Morphological diversity of fungi collected from a marine sponge species, Ircinia variabilis (from Marine fungi)
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Image 10An in situ perspective of a deep pelagic food web derived from ROV-based observations of feeding, as represented by 20 broad taxonomic groupings. The linkages between predator to prey are coloured according to predator group origin, and loops indicate within-group feeding. The thickness of the lines or edges connecting food web components is scaled to the log of the number of unique ROV feeding observations across the years 1991–2016 between the two groups of animals. The different groups have eight colour-coded types according to main animal types as indicated by the legend and defined here: red, cephalopods; orange, crustaceans; light green, fish; dark green, medusa; purple, siphonophores; blue, ctenophores and grey, all other animals. In this plot, the vertical axis does not correspond to trophic level, because this metric is not readily estimated for all members. (from Marine food web)
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Image 11Pelagibacter ubique of the SAR11 clade is the most abundant bacteria in the ocean and plays a major role in the global carbon cycle. (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 12Ocean particulate organic matter (POM) as imaged by a satellite in 2011 (from Marine food web)
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Image 13Two Nanoarchaeum equitans cells with its larger host Ignicoccus (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 14Schematic representation of the changes in abundance between trophic groups in a temperate rocky reef ecosystem. (a) Interactions at equilibrium. (b) Trophic cascade following disturbance. In this case, the otter is the dominant predator and the macroalgae are kelp. Arrows with positive (green, +) signs indicate positive effects on abundance while those with negative (red, -) indicate negative effects on abundance. The size of the bubbles represents the change in population abundance and associated altered interaction strength following disturbance. (from Marine food web)
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Image 15Driftwood (from Marine fungi)
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Image 16Only 29 percent of the world surface is land. The rest is ocean, home to the marine habitats. The oceans are nearly four kilometres deep on average and are fringed with coastlines that run for nearly 380,000 kilometres.
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Image 17Mature forests have a lot of biomass invested in secondary growth which has low productivity (from Marine food web)
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Image 18Diagram above contains clickable links
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Image 19A protected sea turtle area that warns of fines and imprisonment on a beach in Miami, Florida. (from Marine conservation)
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Image 21The Ocean Cleanup is one of many organizations working toward marine conservation such at this interceptor vessel that prevents plastic from entering the ocean. (from Marine conservation)
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Image 22 Dickinsonia may be the earliest animal. They appear in the fossil record 571 million to 541 million years ago. (from Marine invertebrates)
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Image 23Lampreys are often parasitic and have a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth (from Marine vertebrate)
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Image 24Seep and vent interactions with surrounding deep-sea ecosystems. The y axis is meters above bottom on a log scale. DOC: dissolved organic carbon, POC: particulate organic carbon, SMS: seafloor massive sulfide. (from Marine food web)
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Image 25Technology such as this turtle excluder device (TED) allows this loggerhead sea turtle to escape. (from Marine conservation)
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Image 26Phylogenetic tree representing bacterial OTUs from clone libraries and next-generation sequencing. OTUs from next-generation sequencing are displayed if the OTU contained more than two sequences in the unrarefied OTU table (3626 OTUs). (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 27Pennate diatom from an Arctic meltpond, infected with two chytrid-like [zoo-]sporangium fungal pathogens (in false-colour red). Scale bar = 10 μm. (from Marine food web)
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Image 28Antarctic marine food web. Potter Cove 2018. Vertical position indicates trophic level and node widths are proportional to total degree (in and out). Node colors represent functional groups. (from Marine food web)
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Image 29Microplastics found in sediments on the seafloor (from Marine habitat)
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Image 31Some representative ocean animal life (not drawn to scale) within their approximate depth-defined ecological habitats. Marine microorganisms exist on the surfaces and within the tissues and organs of the diverse life inhabiting the ocean, across all ocean habitats. (from Marine habitat)
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Image 32Waves and currents shape the intertidal shoreline, eroding the softer rocks and transporting and grading loose particles into shingles, sand or mud (from Marine habitat)
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Image 33The European eel being critically endangered impacts other animals such as this Grey Heron that also eats eels. (from Marine conservation)
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Image 34The distribution of anthropogenic stressors faced by marine species threatened with extinction in various marine regions of the world. Numbers in the pie charts indicate the percentage contribution of an anthropogenic stressors' impact in a specific marine region. (from Marine food web)
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Image 35The 49th plate from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904, showing various sea anemones classified as Actiniae, in the Cnidaria phylum (from Marine invertebrates)
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Image 36Salmon with fungal disease (from Marine fungi)
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Image 37Mudflats become temporary habitats for migrating birds (from Marine habitat)
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Image 38Cnidarians are the simplest animals with cells organised into tissues. Yet the starlet sea anemone contains the same genes as those that form the vertebrate head. (from Marine invertebrates)
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Image 39The range of sizes shown by prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) and viruses relative to those of other organisms and biomolecules (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 40The pelagic food web, showing the central involvement of marine microorganisms in how the ocean imports nutrients from and then exports them back to the atmosphere and ocean floor (from Marine food web)
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Image 41Reconstruction of an ammonite, a highly successful early cephalopod that first appeared in the Devonian (about 400 mya). They became extinct during the same extinction event that killed the land dinosaurs (about 66 mya). (from Marine invertebrates)
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Image 42Different bacteria shapes ( cocci, rods and spirochetes) and their sizes compared with the width of a human hair. A few bacteria are comma-shaped ( vibrio). Archaea have similar shapes, though the archaeon Haloquadratum is flat and square. The unit μm is a measurement of length, the micrometer, equal to 1/1,000 of a millimeter (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 43Phylogenetic and symbiogenetic tree of living organisms, showing a view of the origins of eukaryotes and prokaryotes (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 45Some lobe-finned fishes, like the extinct Tiktaalik, developed limb-like fins that could take them onto land (from Marine vertebrate)
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Image 46Ocean surface chlorophyll concentrations in October 2019. The concentration of chlorophyll can be used as a proxy to indicate how many phytoplankton are present. Thus on this global map green indicates where a lot of phytoplankton are present, while blue indicates where few phytoplankton are present. – NASA Earth Observatory 2019. (from Marine food web)
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Image 47Topological positions versus mobility: (A) bottom-up groups (sessile and drifters), (B) groups at the top of the food web. Phyto, phytoplankton; MacroAlga, macroalgae; Proto, pelagic protozoa; Crus, Crustacea; PelBact, pelagic bacteria; Echino, Echinoderms; Amph, Amphipods; HerbFish, herbivorous fish; Zoopl, zooplankton; SuspFeed, suspension feeders; Polych, polychaetes; Mugil, Mugilidae; Gastropod, gastropods; Blenny, omnivorous blennies; Decapod, decapods; Dpunt, Diplodus puntazzo; Macropl, macroplankton; PlFish, planktivorous fish; Cephalopod, cephalopods; Mcarni, macrocarnivorous fish; Pisc, piscivorous fish; Bird, seabirds; InvFeed1 through InvFeed4, benthic invertebrate feeders. (from Marine food web)
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Image 48Mangroves provide nurseries for fish (from Marine habitat)
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Image 49Whales were close to extinction until legislation was put in place. (from Marine conservation)
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Image 50Vibrio vulnificus, a virulent bacterium found in estuaries and along coastal areas (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 51The deep sea amphipod Eurythenes plasticus, named after microplastics found in its body, demonstrating plastic pollution affects marine habitats even 6000m below sea level. (from Marine habitat)
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Image 52Coral reefs provide marine habitats for tube sponges, which in turn become marine habitats for fishes (from Marine habitat)
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Image 54Mudflat pollution (from Marine habitat)
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Image 55Anthropogenic stressors to marine species threatened with extinction (from Marine food web)
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Image 56"A variety of marine worms": plate from Das Meer by M.J. Schleiden (1804–1881) (from Marine invertebrates)
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Image 57Reconstruction of Otavia antiqua, possibly the first animal about 760 million years ago (from Marine invertebrates)
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Image 58Food web structure in the euphotic zone. The linear food chain large phytoplankton-herbivore-predator (on the left with red arrow connections) has fewer levels than one with small phytoplankton at the base. The microbial loop refers to the flow from the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) via heterotrophic bacteria (Het. Bac.) and microzooplankton to predatory zooplankton (on the right with black solid arrows). Viruses play a major role in the mortality of phytoplankton and heterotrophic bacteria, and recycle organic carbon back to the DOC pool. Other sources of dissolved organic carbon (also dashed black arrows) includes exudation, sloppy feeding, etc. Particulate detritus pools and fluxes are not shown for simplicity. (from Marine food web)
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Image 59Pennate diatom from an Arctic meltpond, infected with two chytrid-like [zoo-]sporangium fungal pathogens (in false-colour red). Scale bar = 10 μm. (from Marine fungi)
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Image 60 Bloom of the filamentous cyanobacteria Trichodesmium (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 61Predator fish ( foxface) size up schooling forage fish (from Marine food web)
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Image 62Archaea were initially viewed as extremophiles living in harsh environments, such as the yellow archaea pictured here in a hot spring, but they have since been found in a much broader range of habitats. (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 63The umbrella mouth gulper eel can swallow a fish much larger than itself (from Marine habitat)
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Image 64 Kimberella, an early mollusc important for understanding the Cambrian explosion. Invertebrates are grouped into different phyla ( body plans). (from Marine invertebrates)
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Image 65Oceanic pelagic food web showing energy flow from micronekton to top predators. Line thickness is scaled to the proportion in the diet. (from Marine food web)
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Image 67Common-enemy graph of Antarctic food web. Potter Cove 2018. Nodes represent basal species and links indirect interactions (shared predators). Node and link widths are proportional to number of shared predators. Node colors represent functional groups. (from Marine food web)
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Image 68Scale diagram of the layers of the pelagic zone (from Marine habitat)
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Image 69Starfish larvae are bilaterally symmetric, whereas the adults have fivefold symmetry (from Marine invertebrates)
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Image 70Marine Species Changes in Latitude and Depth in three different ocean regions(1973–2019) (from Marine food web)
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Image 71Diagram of a mycoloop (fungus loop) Parasitic chytrids can transfer material from large inedible phytoplankton to zooplankton. Chytrids zoospores are excellent food for zooplankton in terms of size (2–5 μm in diameter), shape, nutritional quality (rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids and cholesterols). Large colonies of host phytoplankton may also be fragmented by chytrid infections and become edible to zooplankton. (from Marine fungi)
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Image 72Ocean or marine biomass, in a reversal of terrestrial biomass, can increase at higher trophic levels. (from Marine food web)
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Image 73Humpback whale straining krill (from Marine food web)
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Image 74Cryptic interactions in the marine food web. Red: mixotrophy; green: ontogenetic and species differences; purple: microbial cross‐feeding; orange: auxotrophy; blue: cellular carbon partitioning. (from Marine food web)
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Image 75Tidepools on rocky shores make turbulent habitats for many forms of marine life (from Marine habitat)
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Image 77Biomass pyramids. Compared to terrestrial biomass pyramids, aquatic pyramids are generally inverted at the base. (from Marine food web)
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Image 78Roles of fungi in the marine carbon cycle Roles of fungi in the marine carbon cycle by processing phytoplankton-derived organic matter. Parasitic fungi, as well as saprotrophic fungi, directly assimilate phytoplankton organic carbon. By releasing zoospores, the fungi bridge the trophic linkage to zooplankton, known as the mycoloop. By modifying the particulate and dissolved organic carbon, they can affect bacteria and the microbial loop. These processes may modify marine snow chemical composition and the subsequent functioning of the biological carbon pump. (from Marine fungi)
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Image 79Dinoflagellate (from Marine food web)
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Image 80This algae bloom occupies sunlit epipelagic waters off the southern coast of England. The algae are maybe feeding on nutrients from land runoff or upwellings at the edge of the continental shelf. (from Marine habitat)
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Image 82Ernst Haeckel's 96th plate, showing some marine invertebrates. Marine invertebrates have a large variety of body plans, which are currently categorised into over 30 phyla. (from Marine invertebrates)
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Image 83Mycoloop links between phytoplankton and zooplankton Chytrid‐mediated trophic links between phytoplankton and zooplankton (mycoloop). While small phytoplankton species can be grazed upon by zooplankton, large phytoplankton species constitute poorly edible or even inedible prey. Chytrid infections on large phytoplankton can induce changes in palatability, as a result of host aggregation (reduced edibility) or mechanistic fragmentation of cells or filaments (increased palatability). First, chytrid parasites extract and repack nutrients and energy from their hosts in form of readily edible zoospores. Second, infected and fragmented hosts including attached sporangia can also be ingested by grazers (i.e. concomitant predation). (from Marine fungi)
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Image 84Land runoff, pouring into the sea, can contain nutrients (from Marine habitat)
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Image 85Elevation-area graph showing the proportion of land area at given heights and the proportion of ocean area at given depths (from Marine habitat)
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Image 86Cycling of marine phytoplankton. Phytoplankton live in the photic zone of the ocean, where photosynthesis is possible. During photosynthesis, they assimilate carbon dioxide and release oxygen. If solar radiation is too high, phytoplankton may fall victim to photodegradation. For growth, phytoplankton cells depend on nutrients, which enter the ocean by rivers, continental weathering, and glacial ice meltwater on the poles. Phytoplankton release dissolved organic carbon (DOC) into the ocean. Since phytoplankton are the basis of marine food webs, they serve as prey for zooplankton, fish larvae and other heterotrophic organisms. They can also be degraded by bacteria or by viral lysis. Although some phytoplankton cells, such as dinoflagellates, are able to migrate vertically, they are still incapable of actively moving against currents, so they slowly sink and ultimately fertilize the seafloor with dead cells and detritus. (from Marine food web)
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Image 87Phylogenetic and symbiogenetic tree of living organisms, showing a view of the origins of eukaryotes and prokaryotes (from Marine fungi)
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Image 88Prochlorococcus, an influential bacterium which produces much of the world's oxygen (from Marine food web)
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Image 89A microbial mat encrusted with iron oxide on the flank of a seamount can harbour microbial communities dominated by the iron-oxidizing Zetaproteobacteria (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 90In the open ocean, sunlit surface epipelagic waters get enough light for photosynthesis, but there are often not enough nutrients. As a result, large areas contain little life apart from migrating animals. (from Marine habitat)
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Image 91Generalized or hypothetical ancestral mollusc (from Marine invertebrates)
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Image 92Conceptual diagram of faunal community structure and food-web patterns along fluid-flux gradients within Guaymas seep and vent ecosystems. (from Marine food web)
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Image 93Hagfish are the only known living animals with a skull but no vertebral column. (from Marine vertebrate)
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Image 94640 μm microplastic found in the deep sea amphipod Eurythenes plasticus (from Marine habitat)
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Image 95Sea ice food web and the microbial loop. AAnP = aerobic anaerobic phototroph, DOC = dissolved organic carbon, DOM = dissolved organic matter, POC = particulate organic carbon, PR = proteorhodopsins. (from Marine food web)
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Image 96Chytrid parasites of marine diatoms. (A) Chytrid sporangia on Pleurosigma sp. The white arrow indicates the operculate discharge pore. (B) Rhizoids (white arrow) extending into diatom host. (C) Chlorophyll aggregates localized to infection sites (white arrows). (D and E) Single hosts bearing multiple zoosporangia at different stages of development. The white arrow in panel E highlights branching rhizoids. (F) Endobiotic chytrid-like sporangia within diatom frustule. Bars = 10 μm. (from Marine fungi)
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Image 97Marine protected areas are one area of legislation that helps marine ecosystems to thrive. (from Marine conservation)
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Image 98Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) being prevented by a Japanese fisheries patrol. (from Marine conservation)
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Image 99A food web is network of food chains, and as such can be represented graphically and analysed using techniques from network theory. (from Marine food web)
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Image 100Oil spills have a significant impact on the marine environment such as this image from space of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. (from Marine conservation)
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Image 101Estuaries occur when rivers flow into a coastal bay or inlet. They are nutrient rich and have a transition zone which moves from freshwater to saltwater. (from Marine habitat)
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Image 102Scanning electron micrograph of a strain of Roseobacter, a widespread and important genus of marine bacteria. For scale, the membrane pore size is 0.2 μm in diameter. (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 103Model of the energy generating mechanism in marine bacteria (1) When sunlight strikes a rhodopsin molecule (2) it changes its configuration so a proton is expelled from the cell (3) the chemical potential causes the proton to flow back to the cell (4) thus generating energy (5) in the form of adenosine triphosphate. (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 104Role of fungi in ocean carbon sequestration This representation includes the traditionally neglected pelagic fungi, both parasitic and saprotrophic, highlighting the central role played by them, parasitic fungi in the mycoloop, and saprotrophic fungi as active contributors to the microbial loop. As depicted by this diagram, the activity of heterotrophic microbes, including pelagic fungi, has far-reaching global implications for fisheries (i.e., the amount of carbon that will ultimately flow to higher trophic levels) and climate change (i.e., the amount of carbon that will be sequestered in the ocean or respired back to CO 2 and the release of other greenhouse gases; e.g., N 2O). (from Marine fungi)
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Image 105Diatoms (from Marine food web)
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Image 107Lichen covered rocks (from Marine fungi)
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Image 108Export processes in the ocean from remote sensing (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 109Halfbeak as larvae are one of the organisms adapted to the unique properties of the microlayer (from Marine habitat)
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Image 110On average there are more than one million microbial cells in every drop of seawater, and their collective metabolisms not only recycle nutrients that can then be used by larger organisms but also catalyze key chemical transformations that maintain Earth's habitability. (from Marine food web)
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Image 111Coral reefs have a great amount of biodiversity. (from Marine conservation)
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Image 112Kelp forests provide habitat for many marine organisms (from Marine habitat)
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Image 113 The global continental shelf, highlighted in light green, defines the extent of marine coastal habitats, and occupies 5% of the total world area (from Marine habitat)
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Image 114Giant kelp is a foundation species for many kelp forests. (from Marine food web)
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Image 115Coastlines can be volatile habitats (from Marine habitat)
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Image 117Conference events, such as the events hosted by the United Nations, help to bring together many stakeholders for awareness and action. (from Marine conservation)
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Image 118Eukaryote versus prokaryote (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 119Phytoplankton (from Marine food web)
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Image 120Sea spray containing marine microorganisms, including prokaryotes, can be swept high into the atmosphere where they become aeroplankton, and can travel the globe before falling back to earth. (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 121Earth's magnetic field (from Marine prokaryotes)
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Image 122Ocean Conservation Namibia rescuing a seal that was entangled in discarded fishing nets. (from Marine conservation)
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Image 123NOAA scuba diver surveying bleached corals. (from Marine conservation)
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Image 124Jellyfish are easy to capture and digest and may be more important as food sources than was previously thought. (from Marine food web)
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Image 125Arrow worms are predatory components of plankton worldwide. (from Marine invertebrates)
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Image 126A 2016 metagenomic representation of the tree of life using ribosomal protein sequences. The tree includes 92 named bacterial phyla, 26 archaeal phyla and five eukaryotic supergroups. Major lineages are assigned arbitrary colours and named in italics with well-characterized lineage names. Lineages lacking an isolated representative are highlighted with non-italicized names and red dots. (from Marine prokaryotes)
The following are images from various marine life-related articles on Wikipedia.
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Image 1In the fourth century BC, Aristotle gave accurate descriptions of the embryological development of the hound shark Mustelus mustelus. (from History of marine biology)
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Image 2Sea spray containing marine microorganisms can be swept high into the atmosphere, where it becomes part of the aeroplankton and may travel the globe before falling back to earth. (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 3Estuaries (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 4Hagfish are the only known living animals with a skull but no vertebral column. (from Marine vertebrate)
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Image 7Some lobe-finned fishes, like the extinct Tiktaalik, developed limb-like fins that could take them onto land (from Marine vertebrate)
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Image 8A science ROV being retrieved by an oceanographic research vessel. (from History of marine biology)
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Image 9Coral reef (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 10Global map of large marine ecosystems. Oceanographers and biologists have identified 66 LMEs worldwide. (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 11Seagrass meadow (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 12Mangrove forests (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 13The voyage of the Beagle (from History of marine biology)
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Image 14Intertidal zones (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 15Drivers of change in marine ecosystems (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 16General characteristics of a large marine ecosystem (Gulf of Alaska) (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 17Ecosystem services delivered by epibenthic bivalve reefs. Reefs provide coastal protection through erosion control and shoreline stabilization, and modify the physical landscape by ecosystem engineering, thereby providing habitat for species by facilitative interactions with other habitats such as tidal flat benthic communities, seagrasses and marshes. (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 18Lagoon (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 19Global distribution of coral, mangrove, and seagrass diversity (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 20Coral reefs form complex marine ecosystems with tremendous biodiversity. (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 21Salt marshes (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 23Kelp forest (from Marine ecosystem)
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Image 24Model of a Greek boat (from History of marine biology)
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Image 25Lampreys are often parasitic and have a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth (from Marine vertebrate)
- ... baleen from the Mysticeti whales mouths was used to stiffen parts of women's stays and dresses, like corsets
- ... The ancient Greek scientist and writer Aristotle studied and wrote about how sharks mate over 2300 years ago.
- ... In Australia in 1935, a tiger shark vomited up a human arm. The shark had not killed anyone but had scavenged the arm after a murder victim had been cut up with a knife and thrown into sea.
- ... the ‘strapped toothed’ whale is so called because in mature males there are only two teeth in the bottom jaw and these completely ‘strap’ the upper jaw, preventing it from opening more than a few centimetres. How these animals eat is unknown, but it may be that they stun their prey with high intensity sound.
- ... cetaceans with pointed beaks have good binocular vision, but others, such as the Sperm Whale cannot see directly in front or behind.
- ... In one experiment, a scientist plugged one of a shark's nostrils. It swam around in a circle.
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