The Role of Marine Biology, Research Paper Example

The Role of Marine Biology in the Understanding of Shore Minerals

It is important to gain knowledge of marine biology because life that exists in the ocean is connected to life on shore. Evolutionary biologists believe that life originated in the ocean and that many of Earth’s early life forms still exist within its depths today. While studies of ocean life have helped us gain a greater understanding of our own evolutionary history, marine biology is applicable to many other fields. In particular, geologists utilize our understanding of marine biology to determine how rocks degrade and form, which defines how many landmasses have been shaped overtime. It is important to understand how our non-living environment influences our living environment, and this is just as essential in the ocean setting as it is on land.

Marine biology and geology overlap greatly because they both involve the study of the ocean. This connection is significant because marine biologists build upon the knowledge established by geologists on a daily basis. Unlike studies of the ocean depths, geologists are able to gather their knowledge from observations of landforms that are easily accessible. Through these studies, they have been able to define the locations on the planet that were previously expected to contain water, and perhaps, marine animals. They have defined how these water massed have changed, and marine biologists can use this information in their studies of the movement and evolution of marine animals.

On the other hand, many of the studies that are conducted by marine biologists assist the understanding that geologists have of their world. One topic of particular interest to them is to gain a greater understanding of how rocks are broken down into sediment and how they are built back up into the large structures that make up boulders and mountains. They term this transformation of rock as the “rock cycle”, which defines how the three rock types, sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks, are formed (Fichter). Interestingly, studies of the ocean are tied in closely to the formation of sedimentary rock. While it at first appears that this process is not related to marine biology, a closer look at sedimentary rock formation reveals this relationship.

Sedimentary rocks are formed from the pressurization of tiny particles over time. However, the origin of these sediments are typically marine in nature. Large rocks are slowly weathered away by water and enter the ocean. This process results in sediment of very different sizes, ranging from large boulders to tiny pieces of sand. The ocean sorts these pieces of sediment based on the pressure exerted by the waves; larger pieces of sediment are therefore found in deeper parts of the ocean, while smaller sand particles are washed ashore. However, the formation of sand as we observe it is not this simple and many particles of this size wash ashore due to the nature of the ocean’s pressure.

Sand is comprised of a mixture of broken down rock and biogenic materials (Rothwell). Components of sand generally include quartz, chert, igneous rock, and shell fragments, although different combinations are possible depending upon the location of the beach and the nature of the ocean’s surroundings (Prothero & Schwab 12). The biogenic materials found in sand are typically derived from corals, coralline algae, plankton, and mollusks. Just as the abiogenic components of sand are determined by the composition of rocks nearby the beach, the biogenic composition of sand reflects the marine life that is living nearby in the water. Different mixtures of sediment and biogenic elements can change the appearance of the sand’s color (Neuendorf 779). For example, pink sand found in Bermuda looks this way because it is dominated by a type of plankton called Foraminifera, which have red skeletons (Giere). When Foraminifera is washed ashore with lighter colored biogenic material, such as coral, the sand appears pink.

Clearly, an understanding of marine biology helps geologist study the rock cycle, of which the ocean plays a major part. However, the understanding of the rock cycle also helps marine biologists gain a greater understanding of the ocean as well. Just as geologists use beach sediment to gain a greater knowledge of rock formation and degradation, marine biologists can use the composition of sand on beaches to predict what type of ocean plants and animals live nearby. Therefore, understanding sand will allow marine biologists to guide their studies of ocean life and more accurately determine the location of animals of interest based on observable biogenic characteristics on the surface.

This relationship between geology and marine biology is important to me because I believe that these two disciplines work well together in allowing us to attain a greater understanding of the planet we live in. Ultimately, we cannot completely understand the land we live on without fully understanding our ocean and we cannot understand terrestrial life without understanding ocean life. On the other hand, our understanding of ocean life would be somewhat incomplete without having an understanding of the land. Therefore, there are many things we can learn from incorporating these two fields. Personally, I have encountered sand many times in my life and thought about what it was. However, we could not have determined its origin without an understanding of the composition of terrestrial rocks and microscopic marine plants and animals. As a consequence, I believe that the integrated study of these two fields should continue because it will lead us to many interesting discoveries.

From this exercise, I have learned that scientific fields do not exist independently. Rather, it is important to incorporate knowledge that has been learned from other field to make discoveries and to verify them. I also learned that it may be useful to apply the study of marine biology using other fields. For example, it may be useful to combine our current understanding of physics to determine how marine animals travel based on current and wave patterns. Another question that geology would be useful to answer is whether a majority of biogenic materials from deceased animals remain in the ocean or whether they are fated to land on the shore and to become integrated into sedimentary rocks. I am also interested in learning whether volcanic eruptions result in the formation of shore sediment and the extent to which this will impact ocean life and the color of sand. Another question that I am interested in answering pertains to the relationship between land sediment and its impact on marine life; does the composition and amount of terrestrial sediment that enters the ocean impact marine life and the composition of marine plants or animals that live nearby? A second question related to this first concept is whether terrestrial sediment is beneficial for marine plants and animals and used for nutrition.While the answers to many of these questions are unknown, the answer to some are certain. Firstly, it is expected that currents impact the ways that marine animals travel because many animals are not strong enough to swim against them. In fact, it is possible that some marine animals take advantage of these currents to travel. Second, while many biogenic materials land on the shore, some remain within the ocean and participate in the calcium carbonate cycle. Next, the eruption of volcanos result in the production of igneous rocks that will enter the ocean. When these volcanos first erupt, the heat generated by the lava may kill ocean life in the vicinity. As the igneous rocks that enter the ocean are broken down, they can be washed to the shore and mix in with other ocean sediment to form what appears to be black sand. Next, while the breakdown of terrestrial sediment does not generally impact nearby ocean life, the reason why the ocean is salty is due to the entry of these materials into the sea. Therefore, to maintain the salinity of the ocean, the continued degradation of terrestrial rocks is important and results in the maintenance of the proper salt levels that many sea creatures need to survive. The minerals that enter the ocean are also responsible for regulating the pH of the water, thereby regulating the possibility of life in a second way. Lastly, the breakdown of terrestrial rocks and landforms does not directly impact the nutrition of ocean life, but by influencing salinity, it encourages certain plant and animal life to thrive. Therefore, it assists the formation of foods that many ocean animals need to survive, producing necessary nutrition indirectly.

Works Cited

Fichter LS. “The Wilson Cycle and a Plate Tectonic Rock Cycle”. 5 September 2000. Web. 26 April. 2014. <http://csmres.jmu.edu/geollab/Fichter/Wilson/Wilson.html>

Giere O. Meiobenthology: the microscopic motile fauna of aquatic sediments. Berlin: Springer, 2009.

Neuendorf KKE, Mehl JP. Jackson JA. Glossary of Geology (5th ed.). Alexandria, Virginia: American Geological Institute, 2005.

Prothero DR, Schwab F. Sedimentary geology: an introduction to sedimentary rocks and stratigraphy (2nd ed.). New York: Freeman, 2004.

Rothwell RG. Deep Ocean Pelagic Oozes, Vol. 5. Oxford: Elsevier Limited, 2005.