Marine Biology

Type of degree: Ph.D.

Brief overview of program: Marine Biology is the study of marine organisms. It is concerned with evolutionary, organismic, genetic, physiological, and biochemical processes in these organisms, and the relationship between them and their biotic and physical environment. Marine biology encompasses several major areas of modern biology, and is interpreted by understanding the physical and chemical dynamics of the oceans. Faculty research focuses on microbiology, photobiology, high pressure biology, deep-sea biology, developmental biology, genetics, biomechanisms, comparative biochemistry and physiology, behavior, ecology, biogeography, and evolution of marine prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Processes ranging from the fertilization of sea urchin eggs to the role of bacteria in marine food web dynamics are under study in over twenty independent research laboratories. A central intellectual challenge of physical oceanography is understanding the range of space and time scales that are involved. For example, it is difficult to imagine that the same wind that blows leaves across a lawn is responsible for driving the surface circulation of the Pacific Ocean, yet it is true. Centimeter capillary ripples roughen the sea surface so that the atmosphere can grip the water and produce wind waves. Some of these waves propagate to distant beaches where they break as surf, and transport sediment. But surface waves also deposit momentum into the deeper ocean, driving ocean gyres within which water spirals for decades. On even longer times scales- -centuries to millennia- -the entire stratification of the ocean changes in response to cooling at the poles and evaporation in the tropics. To observe these processes physical oceanographers use a combination of acoustical, optical, satellite, and in situ measurements. Recent technological advances, such as autonomous sampling and acoustic tomography, are producing an increasingly detailed picture of the three-dimensional ocean circulation. Because of these new technologies, oceanic processes that are now seen dimly, or not at all, will be uncovered. Understanding this exciting new data with powerful computer models, fluid mechanics, and modern descriptive tools is the future of physical oceanography.

Website: Click here for program website

Email: siodept@sio.ucsd.edu

Phone: 858-534-3206