viii University of California Publicatioiis i)i Zoology [Vol.15 



fresh-water orgaiii.sms. or land organisms — as such — most, liy very 

 definition, contrilmte toward the .same end. Yet, while the value of the 

 former type of investigation is widely appreciated, that of the latter 

 is not. 



With few noteworthy exceptions, among the foremost of which stands 

 the Port Erin llarine Biological Station, it is not the marine biological 

 stations but enterprises such as the Monaco In.stitute of Oceanography, 

 the great oceanographic expeditions, the fisheries laboratories like the 

 United States Fisheries Stations at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and 

 at Beaufort, North Carolina, and the International Commission for the 

 Investigation of the Sea, that have contributed most to the science of 

 marine biology. The great majority of marine biological stations are 

 devoted to general rather than marine biology and, of eour.se, collect 

 their material when, where, and how it may be best obtained without 

 regard to the problems of marine biology. They rarely trouble them- 

 selves w'ith questions concerning the seasonal, vertical, horizontal, or 

 topographical distribution of any species of marine plant or animal. 

 They frankly make no attempt to determine how or why variations in 

 the distribution of organisms are correlated with fluctuations in light, 

 temperature, salinity, gas-content, and other elements of their environ- 

 ments, or of how any species is ecologically related to any other species. 

 It has been contended that such matters pertain only to ecology ; 

 that they involve no problems in morphology, embryology, cytology, 

 or physiology. Is ecology, then, the major part of marine biologj'? 

 Are morphology, embryology, and physiology secondary in importance 1 

 Obviously not, for no act of any organism can be fully described in 

 terms of behavior alone, function alone, or structure alone, or even in 

 terms of the organism alone. Every vital act is virtually a moving 

 ecpiation between the organism, a highly integrated system of struc- 

 tures and functions, and the environmental complex. The way in 

 which organisms are distributed with respect to each element of this 

 environmental complex, and hoic they behave so as to maintain this 

 distribution is all ecology, strictly speaking, can tell us. Why they are 

 so distributed and why they behave as they do are fundamentally 

 morphological and physiological problems ; problems difficult to solve, 

 perhaps, but none the le.ss real and significant. It must not be for- 

 gotten that every act involves an actor; that distribution and behavior 

 imply some morpho-physiological thing which is distributed and which 

 doe.s the behaving. Does it not follow that a peculiar or unique dis- 

 tribution and behavior presupposes an equally peculiar or unique 



