The oceanography It is the science that studies the oceans and seas in their physical, chemical, geological and biological aspects. Knowledge of the oceans and seas is essential, since according to accepted theories the seas are the center of origin of life on Earth.
The word oceanography comes from the Greek okeanos (water that surrounds the earth) and graphein (describe), and was minted in 1584. It is used as a synonym oceanology (study of bodies of water), used for the first time in 1864.
It began to develop from Ancient Greece with the works of Aristotle. Later, in the seventeenth century Isaac Newton carried out the first oceanographic studies. From these studies, various researchers have made important contributions to the development of oceanography.
Oceanography is divided into four main branches of study: physics, chemistry, geology, and marine biology. Taken together, these branches of study allow us to comprehensively address the complexity of the oceans.
The most recent research in oceanography has focused on the effects of global climate change on the dynamics of the oceans. Likewise, the study of the ecosystems present in the marine trenches has been of interest..
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From its very origin, the human being has had a relationship with the seas and oceans. His first approaches to understanding the marine world were practical and utilitarian, as it was a source of food and means of communication..
The sailors were interested in fixing the maritime routes by means of the elaboration of navigation charts. Likewise, in the beginning of oceanography it was of great relevance to know the movement of marine currents.
In the biological field, already in Ancient Greece, the philosopher Aristotle described 180 species of marine animals.
Some of the first oceanographic theoretical studies are due to Newton (1687) and Laplace (1775), who studied surface tides. Similarly, navigators such as Cook and Vancouver made important scientific observations in the late 18th century..
The father of biological oceanography is considered to have been the British naturalist Edward Forbes (1815-1854). This author was the first to carry out surveys of marine biota at different levels of depth. Thus, I was able to determine that the organisms were distributed differently at these levels..
Many other scientists of the time made important contributions to oceanography. Among these, Charles Darwin was the first to explain how atolls (coral ocean islands) originated, while Benjamin Franklin and Louis Antoine de Bougainville contributed to the knowledge of the marine currents of the North and South Atlantic respectively..
Mathew Fontaine Maury was an American scientist considered the father of physical oceanography. This researcher was the first to systematically collect ocean data on a large scale. Their data was obtained mainly from ship navigation records..
During this period marine expeditions began to be organized for scientific purposes. The first of these was that of the English ship H.M.S. Challenger, led by Scotsman Charles Wyville Thomson. This boat sailed from 1872 to 1876, and the results obtained in it are contained in a work of 50 volumes.
During World War II, oceanography had a great applicability to plan the mobilization of fleets and landings. From there came research on wave dynamics, sound propagation in water, coastal morphology, among other aspects..
In 1957 the International Geophysical Year was celebrated, which had great relevance in promoting oceanographic studies. This event was decisive in promoting international cooperation in conducting oceanographic studies worldwide..
As part of this cooperation, during 1960 a joint submarine expedition was carried out between Switzerland and the United States; el bathiscafo (small deep-dive boat) Trieste reached the depth of 10,916 meters in the Mariana Trench.
Another important underwater expedition was carried out in 1977 with the submersible Alvin, from United States. This expedition made it possible to discover and study deep-sea hydrothermal meadows.
Finally, it is worth highlighting the role of Commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau in the knowledge and dissemination of oceanography. Cousteau directed the French oceanographic vessel Calypso for many years, where numerous oceanographic expeditions were carried out. Likewise, in the informative field, various documentaries were filmed that made up the series known as The underwater world of Jacques Cousteau.
The field of study of oceanography covers all aspects related to the world's oceans and seas, including coastal areas..
The oceans and seas are physical-chemical environments that host a great diversity of life. They represent an aquatic environment that occupies about 70% of the planet's surface. The water and its extension, plus astronomical and climatic forces that affect it, determine its particular characteristics.
There are three great oceans on the planet; the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. These oceans are interconnected and separate large continental regions. The Atlantic separates Asia and Europe from America, while the Pacific divides Asia and Oceania from America. The Indian Ocean separates Africa from Asia in the area near India.
Ocean basins begin on the coast associated with the continental shelf (submerged part of the continents). The platform area reaches maximum depths of 200 m and ends in a steep slope that connects with the seabed.
The bottom of the oceans has mountains with an average height of 2000 m (ridges) and a central furrow. From here comes the magma from the asthenosphere (inner layer of the earth formed of viscous materials), which is deposited and forms the ocean floor.
Modern oceanography is subdivided into four branches of study. However, the marine environment is highly integrated and therefore oceanographers manage these areas without reaching excessive specialization..
This branch of oceanography studies the physical and dynamic properties of water in oceans and seas. Its main objective is to understand ocean circulation and the way in which heat is distributed in these bodies of water..
It takes into account aspects such as temperature, salinity, and the density of the water. Other relevant properties are color, light and the propagation of sound in the oceans and seas..
Also this branch of oceanography studies the interaction of atmospheric dynamics with water masses. In addition, it includes the movement of ocean currents at different scales..
It studies the chemical composition of marine waters and sediments, the fundamental chemical cycles and their interactions with the atmosphere and the lithosphere. On the other hand, it addresses the study of the alterations produced by the addition of anthropic substances.
Likewise, chemical oceanography studies how the chemical composition of water affects the physical, geological and biological processes of the oceans. In the particular case of marine biology, it interprets how chemical dynamics affects living organisms (marine biochemistry).
This branch is responsible for the study of the oceanic substrate, including its deepest layers. The dynamic processes of this substrate and its influence on the structure of the seabed and coasts are addressed..
Marine geology investigates the mineralogical composition, structure and dynamics of the different oceanic layers, especially those related to underwater volcanic activities and the subduction phenomena involved in continental drift..
The investigations carried out in this field allowed to verify the approaches of the theory of continental drift.
On the other hand, this branch has an extremely relevant practical application in the modern world, due to the great importance it has for obtaining mineral resources..
Geological prospecting studies on the seabed are allowing the exploitation of offshore fields, particularly natural gas and oil..
This branch of oceanography studies marine life, therefore it encompasses all branches of biology applied to the marine environment..
The field of marine biology studies both the classification of living beings and their environments, their morphology and physiology. In addition, it takes into account the ecological aspects relating this biodiversity with its physical environment..
Marine biology is divided into four branches according to the area of the seas and oceans that you study. These are:
Recent research includes those evaluating the effects of global climate change on ocean dynamics. For example, it has been found that the main system of ocean currents (the Atlantic current), is altering its dynamics.
It is known that the system of marine currents is generated by differences in the density of water masses, mainly determined by temperature gradients. Thus, hot water masses are lighter and remain in the surface layers, while cold masses sink.
In the Atlantic, masses of warm water move north from the Caribbean by the Gulf Stream and as they move north they cool and sink, returning to the south. As mentioned by the editorial of the magazine Nature (556, 2018), this mechanism has been slowed.
It is argued that the deceleration of the current system is due to the thawing caused by global warming. This causes the supply of fresh water to be greater and the concentration of salts and density of the water is altered, affecting the movement of water masses..
The flow of currents contributes to the regulation of world temperature, distribution of nutrients and gases, and their alteration has serious consequences for the planetary system.
One of the lines of research that currently occupies the attention of oceanographers is the study of the acidification of the seas, mainly due to the effect of the pH level on marine life.
CO levelstwo in the atmosphere have increased sharply in recent years due to the high consumption of fossil fuels by various human activities.
This cotwo it dissolves in seawater, generating a decrease in the pH of the oceans. Ocean acidification is negatively affecting the survival of many marine species.
In 2016, Albright and colleagues conducted the first ocean acidification experiment in a natural ecosystem. This research found that acidification can reduce the calcification of corals by up to 34%.
In this branch of oceanography, research has been carried out on the movement of tectonic plates. These plates are fragments of lithosphere (rigid outer layer of the Earth's mantle) that move over the asthenosphere.
Recent research, by Li and colleagues, published in 2018, found that large tectonic plates can originate from the fusion of smaller plates. The authors make a classification of these microplates based on their origin and study the dynamics of their movements..
Furthermore, they find that there are a large number of microplates associated with Earth's large tectonic plates. It is indicated that the relationship between these two types of plates may help to consolidate the theory of continental drift..
In recent years, one of the most shocking discoveries in marine biology has been the presence of organisms in marine trenches. One of these studies was carried out in the trench of the Galapagos Islands, showing a complex ecosystem where numerous invertebrates and bacteria are present (Yong-Jin 2006).
Marine trenches do not have access to sunlight given their depth (2,500 meters above sea level), so the trophic chain depends on chemosynthetic autotrophic bacteria. These organisms fix COtwo from hydrogen sulfide obtained from hydrothermal vents.
Macroinvertebrate communities that inhabit deep waters have been found to be highly diverse. In addition, it is proposed that the compression of these ecosystems will provide relevant information to elucidate the origin of life on the planet..
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