Biological oceanography

Biological Oceanography is the study of how organisms affect and are affected by the physics, chemistry, and geology of the oceanographic system. Biological oceanography mostly focuses on the microorganisms within the ocean; looking at how they are affected by their environment and how that affects larger marine creatures and their ecosystem. Biological Oceanography is similar to marine biology, but is different because of the perspective used to study the ocean. Biological Oceanography takes a bottom up approach (in terms of the food web), while marine biology studies the ocean from a top down perspective. Biological Oceanography mainly focuses on the ecosystem of the ocean with an emphasis on plankton: their diversity (morphology, nutritional sources, motility, and metabolism); their productivity and how that plays a role in the global carbon cycle; and their distribution (predation and life cycle). Biological Oceanography also investigates the role of microbes in food webs, and how humans impact the ecosystems in the oceans.