160 OCEANOGRAPHY 



It is a privilege to be here this morning to speak about biology. 

 More s})ecifically, I am a marine biologist myself, and the area of my 

 interest is one that I have been asked to summarize briefly. There are 

 several points I should like to make, the first being that when I use 

 the term "marine biology," I use it a bit out of habit, but I should like 

 to emphasize that we recognize that all organisms which live in the 

 water share many properties and face many of the same problems. 



For that reason, we often use the term "hydrobiology'' or perhaps 

 even "aquatic biology"' to point up the fact that in the study of living 

 organisms in water that water itself is the key factor. So far as the 

 ocean itself is concerned, the size of the body of water, the salt content, 

 often introduces significant problems. Plowever, basically, the study 

 of organisms, whether they be marine or fresh water, present many 

 problems in common and we recognize no strong or sharp distinction 

 between the fresh water and marine aspects of our discipline. 



The second point that I need to underscore is that oceanography is 

 a study of environment. It is a veiy special area of science and not 

 quite comparable to the traditional scientific disciplines. It calls upon 

 the knowledge and the skills of all the basic disciplines for the de- 

 velopment of the knowledge of the sea. We must have the coopera- 

 tive activity of all branches of science, including all of the physical 

 and biological phases. 



It is also important in recognizing this to see that the approach to 

 a knowledge of the sea or any other body of water requires cooperation 

 among scientists of different disciplines because the inforaiation is 

 interdependent, the phenomena are interdependent. 



To use one or two examples, knowledge of currents and movement 

 of wat^r helps to explain and to understand better something about 

 the distribution of the various species of animals and plants. In the 

 same way one recognizes certain species of animals or plants as 

 characterizing bodies of water that aie somewliat isolated from the 

 mass of water around, it is something like a cloud in a clear sky. 

 These masses of water are otherwise not identifiable by physical or 

 chemical means, but can be identified by the biological species that 

 inhabit the particular water mass. From a chemical point of view, 

 there are organisms that select certain levels. 



Some unusual elements, such as arsenic and vanadium, are known 

 to occur in the ocean only because they are accumulated in the bodies 

 of marine animals or plants. Yet in certain animals vanadium is 

 concentrated as much as 280,000 times over the level that is present in 

 ordinary sea water. 



The study of the productivity of the sea, wdiich is certainly one of 

 the big problems we need to know a great deal more about, is utterly 

 dependent upon information from both the physical and biological 

 sciences. 



T\niile emphasizing that biology recognizes the unity of problems 

 both in fresh water and sea water, while recognizing the interdepend- 

 ence of the physical and biological sciences, if we are ever to attain a 

 thorough knowledge of the sea, we must also point out that biological 

 research and interest covers certain specific areas. Particularly, there 

 are responsibilities for biological information from the sea and there 

 are special problems involved in biolog-ical work. 



Touching upon these briefly, I think I would like to mention three 

 main aspects of biological studies that are important f or oceanographic 



