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A male whale shark at the Georgia Aquarium.
The Marine Life PortalMarine life, sea life, or ocean life is the plants, animals, and other organisms that live in the salt waterofseasoroceans, or the brackish water of coastal estuaries. At a fundamental level, marine life affects the nature of the planet. Marine organisms, mostly microorganisms, produce oxygen and sequester carbon. Marine life, in part, shape and protect shorelines, and some marine organisms even help create new land (e.g. coral building reefs). Marine invertebrates exhibit a wide range of modifications to survive in poorly oxygenated waters, including breathing tubes as in mollusc siphons. Fish have gills instead of lungs, although some species of fish, such as the lungfish, have both. Marine mammals (e.g. dolphins, whales, otters, and seals) need to surface periodically to breathe air. (Full article...) Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in 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...) Refresh with new selections below (purge) Recognized content - load new batchEntries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.
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Steller's sea ape is a purported marine mammal, observed by German zoologist Georg Steller on August 10, 1741, around the Shumagin Islands in Alaska. The animal was described as being around 1.5 m (5 feet) long; with a dog-like head; long drooping whiskers; an elongated but robust body; thick fur coat; no limbs; and tail fins much like a shark. He described the creature as being playful and inquisitive like a monkey. After observing it for two hours, he attempted to shoot and collect the creature, but missed, and the creature swam away.
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Hemiramphidae is a familyoffishes that are commonly called halfbeaks, spipe fishorspipefish. They are a geographically widespread and numerically abundant family of epipelagic fish inhabiting warm waters around the world. The halfbeaks are named for their distinctive jaws, in which the lower jaws are significantly longer than the upper jaws. The similar viviparous halfbeaks (family Zenarchopteridae) have often been included in this family. Though not commercially important themselves, these forage fish support artisanal fisheries and local markets worldwide. They are also fed upon by other commercially important predatory fishes, such as billfishes, mackerels, and sharks. (Full article...)
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Jellyfish, also known as sea 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 with umbrella-shaped bells and trailing tentacles, although a few are anchored to the seabed by stalks rather than being mobile. The bell can pulsate to provide propulsion for efficient locomotion. The tentacles are armed with stinging cells and may be used to capture prey and defend against predators. Jellyfish have a complex life cycle. 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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Whale barnacles are speciesofacorn barnacle that belong to the family Coronulidae. They typically attach to baleen whales, and sometimes settle on toothed whales. The whale barnacles diverged from the turtle barnacles about three million years ago. Whale barnacles passively filter food, using tentacle-like cirri, as the host swims through the water. The arrangement is generally considered commensal as it is done at no cost or benefit to the host. However, some whales may make use of the barnacles as protective armor or for inflicting more damage while fighting, which would make the relationship mutualistic where both parties benefit; alternatively, some species may just increase the drag that the host experiences while swimming, making the barnacles parasites. (Full article...)
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Xenoturbella bocki is a marine benthic worm-like species from the genus Xenoturbella. It is found in saltwater sea floor habitats off the coast of Europe, predominantly Sweden. It was the first species in the genus discovered. Initially it was collected by Swedish zoologist Sixten Bock in 1915, and described in 1949 by Swedish zoologist Einar Westblad. The unusual digestive structure of this species, in which a single opening is used to eat food and excrete waste, has led to considerable study and controversy as to its classification. It is a bottom-dwelling, burrowing carnivore that eats mollusks (likely larval forms, as opposed to hard-shelled adults). (Full article...)
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Crustaceans are a group of arthropods that are a part of the subphylum Crustacea (/krəˈsteɪʃə/), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthropods including decapods (shrimps, prawns, crabs, lobsters and crayfish), seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, opossum shrimps, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can be treated as a subphylum under the clade Mandibulata. It is now well accepted that the hexapods (insects and entognathans) emerged deep in the Crustacean group, with the completed group referred to as Pancrustacea. The three classes Cephalocarida, Branchiopoda and Remipedia are more closely related to the hexapods than they are to any of the other crustaceans (oligostracans and multicrustaceans). The 67,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at 0.1 mm (0.004 in), to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span of up to 3.8 m (12.5 ft) and a mass of 20 kg (44 lb). Like other arthropods, crustaceans have an exoskeleton, which they moult to grow. They are distinguished from other groups of arthropods, such as insects, myriapods and chelicerates, by the possession of biramous (two-parted) limbs, and by their larval forms, such as the nauplius stage of branchiopods and copepods. (Full article...)
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Bivalvia (/baɪˈvælviə/), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, bivalves have no head and they lack some usual molluscan organs, like the radula and the odontophore. The class includes the clams, oysters, cockles, mussels, scallops, and numerous other families that live in saltwater, as well as a number of families that live in freshwater. The majority are filter feeders. The gills have evolved into ctenidia, specialised organs for feeding and breathing. Most bivalves bury themselves in sediment, where they are relatively safe from predation. Others lie on the sea floor or attach themselves to rocks or other hard surfaces. Some bivalves, such as the scallops and file shells, can swim. Shipworms bore into wood, clay, or stone and live inside these substances. The shell of a bivalve is composed of calcium carbonate, and consists of two, usually similar, parts called valves. These valves are for feeding and for disposal of waste. These are joined together along one edge (the hinge line) by a flexible ligament that, usually in conjunction with interlocking "teeth" on each of the valves, forms the hinge. This arrangement allows the shell to be opened and closed without the two halves detaching. The shell is typically bilaterally symmetrical, with the hinge lying in the sagittal plane. Adult shell sizes of bivalves vary from fractions of a millimetre to over a metre in length, but the majority of species do not exceed 10 cm (4 in). (Full article...)
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Selected article - show anotherSeabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations. The first seabirds evolved in the Cretaceous period, and modern seabird families emerged in the Paleogene. Marine life images - load new batch
Image 1640 μm microplastic found in the deep sea amphipod Eurythenes plasticus (from Marine habitat)
Image 2Some 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)
Image 3Cnidarians 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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(from Marine habitat)
The global continental shelf, highlighted in light green, defines the extent of marine coastal habitats, and occupies 5% of the total world area
Image 5Whales were close to extinction until legislation was put in place. (from Marine conservation)
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Solar radiation can have positive (+) or negative (−) effects resulting in increases or decreases in the heterotrophic activity of bacterioplankton. (from Marine prokaryotes)
Bacterioplankton and the pelagic marine food web
Image 7Dinoflagellate (from Marine food web)
Image 8Humpback whale straining krill (from Marine food web)
Image 10Phylogenetic and symbiogenetic tree of living organisms, showing a view of the origins of eukaryotes and prokaryotes (from Marine fungi)
Image 11Tidepools on rocky shores make turbulent habitats for many forms of marine life (from Marine habitat)
Image 12Pennate 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)
Image 13Phylogenetic 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)
Image 14Phytoplankton (from Marine food web)
Image 15A 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)
Image 16The 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)
Image 18Oil 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)
Image 19The European eel being critically endangered impacts other animals such as this Grey Heron that also eats eels. (from Marine conservation)
Image 20Lampreys are often parasitic and have a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth (from Marine vertebrate)
Image 21Phylogenetic and symbiogenetic tree of living organisms, showing a view of the origins of eukaryotes and prokaryotes (from Marine prokaryotes)
Image 22Jellyfish are easy to capture and digest and may be more important as food sources than was previously thought. (from Marine food web)
Image 23A 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)
Image 24Biomass pyramids. Compared to terrestrial biomass pyramids, aquatic pyramids are generally inverted at the base. (from Marine food web)
Image 26Halfbeak as larvae are one of the organisms adapted to the unique properties of the microlayer (from Marine habitat)
Image 28Anin 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)
Image 30Oceanic 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)
Image 31 Kimberella, an early mollusc important for understanding the Cambrian explosion. Invertebrates are grouped into different phyla (body plans). (from Marine invertebrates)
Image 32The 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)
Image 33The 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)
Image 34 Opabinia, an extinct stem group arthropod appeared in the Middle Cambrian (from Marine invertebrates)
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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)
Diagram of a mycoloop (fungus loop)
Image 36Pennate 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)
Image 37Sandy shores provide shifting homes to many species (from Marine habitat)
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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)
Mycoloop links between phytoplankton and zooplankton
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(1) When sunlight strikes a rhodopsin molecule
Model of the energy generating mechanism in marine bacteria (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)
Image 40This algae bloom occupies sunlit epipelagic waters off the southern coast of England. The algae are maybe feeding on nutrients from land runofforupwellings at the edge of the continental shelf. (from Marine habitat)
Image 41Prochlorococcus, an influential bacterium which produces much of the world's oxygen (from Marine food web)
Image 42The umbrella mouth gulper eel can swallow a fish much larger than itself (from Marine habitat)
Image 43Conference 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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(from Marine prokaryotes)
Export processes in the ocean from remote sensing
Image 46Vibrio vulnificus, a virulent bacterium found in estuaries and along coastal areas (from Marine prokaryotes)
Image 48Archaea 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)
Image 49Classic food web for grey seals in the Baltic Sea containing several typical marine food chains (from Marine food web)
Image 50Ocean or marine biomass, in a reversal of terrestrial biomass, can increase at higher trophic levels. (from Marine food web)
Image 51On 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)
Image 53Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) being prevented by a Japanese fisheries patrol. (from Marine conservation)
Image 54Waves and currents shape the intertidal shoreline, eroding the softer rocks and transporting and grading loose particles into shingles, sand or mud (from Marine habitat)
Image 56Only 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.
Image 57Marine protected areas are one area of legislation that helps marine ecosystems to thrive. (from Marine conservation)
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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(from Marine invertebrates)
Generalized or hypothetical ancestral mollusc
Image 61Diatoms (from Marine food web)
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(from Marine prokaryotes)
Eukaryote versus prokaryote
Image 63In 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)
Image 64Chytrid 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)
Image 65The 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)
Image 66The range of sizes shown by prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) and viruses relative to those of other organisms and biomolecules (from Marine prokaryotes)
Image 67Hagfish are the only known living animals with a skull but no vertebral column. (from Marine vertebrate)
Image 69Some lobe-finned fishes, like the extinct Tiktaalik, developed limb-like fins that could take them onto land (from Marine vertebrate)
Image 70Diagram above contains clickable links
Image 71The oligotrich ciliate has been characterised as the most important herbivore in the ocean (from Marine food web)
Image 73
(from Marine habitat)
Coastlines can be volatile habitats
Image 74Estuaries 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)
Image 75Ocean 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)
Image 76Elevation-area graph showing the proportion of land area at given heights and the proportion of ocean area at given depths (from Marine habitat)
Image 77Anthropogenic stressors to marine species threatened with extinction (from Marine food web)
Image 80
(from Marine fungi)
Lichen covered rocks
Image 81A 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)
Image 82Sea 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)
Image 84Cycling 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)
Image 85The chloroplastsofglaucophytes have a peptidoglycan layer, evidence suggesting their endosymbiotic origin from cyanobacteria. (from Marine prokaryotes)
Image 86Reconstruction 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)
Image 88Starfish larvae are bilaterally symmetric, whereas the adults have fivefold symmetry (from Marine invertebrates)
Image 89Cryptic 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)
Image 90Sea otter, classic keystone species which controls sea urchin numbers (from Marine vertebrate)
Image 91Morphological diversity of fungi collected from a marine sponge species, Ircinia variabilis (from Marine fungi)
Image 92Ernst 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)
Image 93
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)
Estimates of microbial species counts in the three domains of life
Image 94Mature forests have a lot of biomass invested in secondary growth which has low productivity (from Marine food web)
Image 95Topological 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)
Image 96Ocean particulate organic matter (POM) as imaged by a satellite in 2011 (from Marine food web)
Image 97Microplastics found in sediments on the seafloor (from Marine habitat)
Image 98This timeline contains clickable links
Image 99"A variety of marine worms": plate from Das MeerbyM.J. Schleiden (1804–1881) (from Marine invertebrates)
Image 100Schematic 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)
Image 102The 49th plate from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904, showing various sea anemones classified as Actiniae, in the Cnidaria phylum (from Marine invertebrates)
Image 103
(from Marine fungi)
Driftwood
Image 104Antarctic 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)
Image 105Marine Species Changes in Latitude and Depth in three different ocean regions(1973–2019) (from Marine food web)
Image 107A protected sea turtle area that warns of fines and imprisonment on a beach in Miami, Florida. (from Marine conservation)
Image 108Sponges have no nervous, digestive or circulatory system (from Marine invertebrates)
Image 110Seep 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)
Image 111 Dickinsonia may be the earliest animal. They appear in the fossil record 571 million to 541 million years ago. (from Marine invertebrates)
Image 112Common-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)
Image 113Technology such as this turtle excluder device (TED) allows this loggerhead sea turtle to escape. (from Marine conservation)
Image 114Sea 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)
Image 115Earth's magnetic field (from Marine prokaryotes)
Image 116Conceptual diagram of faunal community structure and food-web patterns along fluid-flux gradients within Guaymas seep and vent ecosystems. (from Marine food web)
Image 117
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)
Roles of fungi in the marine carbon cycle
Image 118Halobacteriainsalt evaporation ponds coloured purple by bacteriorhodopsin (from Marine prokaryotes)
Image 119Coral reefs provide marine habitats for tube sponges, which in turn become marine habitats for fishes (from Marine habitat)
Image 120Pelagibacter 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)
Image 121
(from Marine habitat)
Mudflat pollution
Image 122Ocean Conservation Namibia rescuing a seal that was entangled in discarded fishing nets. (from Marine conservation)
Image 123Scanning 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)
Image 124
Different 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)
Image 125Reconstruction of Otavia antiqua, possibly the first animal about 760 million years ago (from Marine invertebrates)
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A limule (Horseshoe crab) in the Hạ Long Bay, Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam. Horseshoe crabs are arthropods that live primarily in shallow ocean waters on soft sandy or muddy bottoms.
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