This tiny Coccolithophore, Emilania huxleyi has a calcite shell unlike diatoms which encase themselves in silica.
The Atlantic Cod, Gadus morhua, has been put at risk by overfishing. Photograph, Hans-Petter Fjeld.
The Antarctic Krill, Euphausia superba, An image by Prof Uew Kils from the virtual microscope, a fascinating site where details of this animal can be viewed at high magnification. Visit the site at http:// www. ecoscope. com
We spend most of our time on land, but 95 per cent of the habitable space on Earth is in the oceans. Life began in the oceans, and diversity is much greater at sea than on land, yet we still know little about the creatures that inhabit most of our planet. As the European Marine Board has pointed out, over 33,000 species have been identified in the seas around Europe, and only 760 of these have been known since the last century.
The European Marine Board is an organisation established in 1995 to represent 34 member organisations including Ireland’ s Marine Institute. In a recent scientific briefing the Board stressed how important it is for us all to realise that the greatest genetic diversity is not on land, but in the sea. Biologists divide life into broad categories, known as phyla, and while 13 of these are exclusively marine, just one is on land only.
In an ambitious bid to catalogue the richness of life at sea, a ten-year long global“ census of marine life” project was organied. About 2,700 sientists from 500 institutions pooled their resources to create this listing which now, without counting in bacteria, identifies 240,000 species. There are, literally, countless microorganisms, many of which thrive under extreme conditions.
Not alone are there many species, but collectively the smallest organisms make up 90 per cent of the living biomass in the oceans. Very little is known about these organisms, and the same can be said of most of the larger species. According to the Marine Board briefing“ for most species in European waters hardly anything is known about their life cycle or how they interact with other species or the environment.” To put it mildly, there are enormous gaps in our knowledge, and to address this the Marine Board has called for greater collaboration between existing marine research stations. There are many such stations around the coasts of Europe, some big, others small, and as the Board’ s briefing points out, lots of them have been established for over a century. Acting alone there is only so much they can do, but through the European Marine Board all of these stations can become part of a multi-disciplinary network drawing on each other’ s knowledge and sharing resources.
As on land, biodiversity at sea has to be protected, and in this the Marine Board’ s briefing highlights the need for a significant shift in policy. At present just two per cent of the world’ s oceans have official protection, and under the EU Habitat Directive nine marine areas are listed, all close to land and none of which are in open water. In contrast to this there are over 200 areas listed on land. As the briefing reminds us, bottom trawling and overfishing provide enough evidence to show that the marine environment is fragile and cannot be taken for granted.
www. marineboard. eu
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 58 Page 27
Tom Kennedy