Lecture 1

Ecosystem of Arab Gulf Course

(BIOL 411)

Dr. Maryam Haroon AL-Soufi

Dr: Hanan Almahasheer & Dr. Mashal Alnamshan
 Objectives(learning outcomes)
At the end of this lecture the student will be able to
 Identify general characteristics of The Science of Marine
biology
 Compare between the Geological provinces of the Ocean

Marine biology
Chapter 1
Introduction
 Marine biology is the scientific study of the organisms that live in

the sea.
 Marine life represents a vast source of human wealth It provides

food, medicines, and raw materials offers recreation to millions

peoples and supports tourism all over the world.
 Marine organisms can cause problems.

A. Some organisms harm humans directly by causing disease or

attacking people or killing other marine organisms that we value for
food or other purposes.
B. Or destroy piers, walls, and other structures we build in the
ocean ship bottoms.
Chapter 1
Why are marine organisms important?
 Marine organisms produce around half of the oxygen we
breathe and help regulate the earth’s climate.
 In economic terms, it has been estimated that the ocean’s
living systems are worth more than $20 trillion a year.

The Science of Marine biology?

 Marine biology is the study of marine organisms, their behaviors and
interactions with the environment.

 Marine biologists study biological oceanography and the associated

fields of chemical, physical, and geological oceanography to
understand marine organisms.
Chapter 1

Relation between marine biology

& oceanography
• Marine biology is closely related to oceanography,
• Oceanography: the scientific study of the oceans such as marine
biology and has many branches.
 Geological Oceanographers, or marine geologists, study the sea floor.
 Chemical Oceanographers study ocean chemistry.
 Physical Oceanographers study waves, tides, currents, etc.
 A marine biologist’s interests may also overlap broadly with those
of biologists who study terrestrial organisms.
Chapter 1
Distinction between marine biology &
oceanography
• Marine biologists study organisms living relatively close to
shore. Whereas biological oceanographers focus on life in the
open ocean, far from land;
• Marine biologists study marine life from the perspective of the
organisms (i.e. studying how organisms produce organic
matter), while biological oceanographers take the perspective
of the ocean (i.e., studying how energy (organic matter) cycles
through the system).
 The Sea Floor
The Geological provinces of the Ocean
(Chapter 2 ,p33-34,36-38)
Chapter 2

The Geological provinces of the Ocean

The major features of the sea floor
are quite similar from place to place
around the world.
The sea floor is divided into two
main regions:

1- The continental margins:

 Represent the submerged edges
of the continents.
 Are the boundaries between
continental crust and oceanic
crust.

2-The deep-sea floor (Abyssal

Plain)
Chapter 2

The continental sediment

• When the sediments
reach the sea and
accumulates on the
continental margins; then
moves to the sea bottom.
• Sediments thickness may
reach 10 km
Continental margin consist of:
• Shallow sloping continental shelf,
• Steeper continental slope
seaward of the continental shelf,
• Another gently sloping region the
continental rise, at the base of
the continental slope.
Chapter 2

1-The Continental Shelf

• It is the shallowest part of the continental margin
• It makes up only about 8% of the ocean’s surface area
• It is the biologically richest part of the ocean with the most life and
the best fishing.
• Rivers and glaciers flowed across the continental shelves and
destroy deep canyons.

• The continental shelf extends

outward at a gentle slope hardly
to seen with the naked eye. The
shelf width from < 1 km on the
Pacific coast of South America to
>750 km on the Arctic coast of
Siberia.
Continental shelf of the south
eastern coast of South America
Chapter 2

1-The Continental Shelf, Cont.

• It ends at the shelf break,
where the slope suddenly
gets steeper.
• depths of 120 to 200 m but
can be as deep as 400 m.

A section on continental
shelf at Atlantic city. The
white arrow indicate the
shelf break
Chapter 2

2-The Continental slope

• It is the closest thing to the
exact edge of the continent.
• It begins at the shelf break
and descends downward to
the deep-sea floor.

• Submarine canyons start on the

continental shelf cut across the
continental slope to its base at a
depth of 3,000-5,000 m.
• These canyons channel sediments
from the continental shelf to the
deep-sea floor.
Chapter 2

3-The Continental Rise

• Sediment moving down a

submarine canyon accumulates at
Sediment
the canyon’s base in a deposit
called a deep-sea fan.
• Adjacent deep-sea fans may
merge to form the continental
rise.

• The rise consists of a thick layer of sediment piled up on the

sea floor.
• Sediment may also be carried along the base of the slope by
currents, extending the continental rise away from the deep-
sea fans.
Chapter 2
A Summary

• The Continental margins

consist of three main parts.
1. The continental shelf is the
submerged part of the
continent and is almost flat.
2. The relatively steep
continental slope is the actual
edge of the continent.
3. The continental rise is formed
by sediments building up on
the sea floor at the base of
the continental slope.
Chapter 2
2 -Deep-Ocean Basins

• Most of the deep-sea floor lies at a depth of 3,000 to 5,000 m

averaging about 4,000 m
• The deep-sea floor, or abyssal plain rises at a very gentle slope
of less than 1 degree toward the mid-ocean ridge.
Chapter 2
2 -Deep-Ocean Basins, Cont.

• It often has submarine channels, low abyssal hills, plateaus,

rises, and other features. The abyssal plain is dotted with
volcanic islands and submarine volcanoes called seamounts.
Chapter 2
2 -Deep-Ocean Basins, Cont.

• Distinctive flat-topped seamounts called guyots are common

in parts of the Pacific. Guyots and many other seamounts
were once islands but are now several hundred meters
beneath the sea surface because the lithosphere has sunk
into the mantle under the weight of the island, and also
because sea level has risen.
Chapter 2
2 -Deep-Ocean Basins, Cont.

• The abyssal plain and seamounts are home to a tremendous

variety of marine life.
• At trenches where the plate descends into the mantle the sea
floor slopes steeply downward.
• Trenches are the deepest parts of the world ocean. The Mariana
Trench in the western Pacific is the deepest place of all, at
11,022 m deep.
• MARINE BIOLOGY, SEVENTH EDITION
• Peter Castro, Michael E. Huber. — 7th ed.p. cm
• QH91.C37 2008