La marine biodiversity or rather, marine biological diversity, are the words that define the great multiplicity of living beings that inhabit this environment, ranging from microscopic and macroscopic species, as well as the genetic material that inhabits among them. You want to know more?
Marine biodiversity, Characteristics
The marine environment has some particularities that are very different from those that can be observed in the terrestrial environment and, therefore, also differ in biological diversity, which is very dissimilar, not only in its arrangement, but also in its organization and activity. . Water is an element that has a greater possibility of absorbing energy than air, which results in marine environments being much more stable in terms of temperature than any terrestrial environment.
For this reason, the marine environment is capable of thermoregulating the climate on a global scale and manages to stabilize the temperature of the earth's surface that is close to the coast. Seawater is 830 times thicker than air, which is why gravity influences marine animals very differently than it does land animals.
The higher density of water makes it possible for life to remain in suspension, as occurs with plankton and nekton, with a relatively low energy expenditure, which makes it possible for different living beings to dominate the entire thickness of large bodies of water. existing, although the largest portion of marine life is concentrated in the most superficial layers, that is, it has been possible to verify that approximately 80% of the biomass is found above 1000 meters.
The possibility that life thrives in suspension, as well as the various kinds of organic microorganisms and nutrients that are dissolved, allows water to mobilize vast amounts of food within it. This has been able to establish that a large part of marine living beings have adapted to sessile life, that is, that is fixed in the substrates, can develop and nourish themselves by the simple process of filtration.
On the contrary, in the terrestrial environment, all living beings are forced to move in order to find their food, while most plants can only survive if they are fixed to the substrate. But, at the bottom of the seas, fish and plants have to compete to occupy spaces and, in reality, in multiple landscapes or Characteristics of an Ecosystem marine, the constitution is mostly sessile animal species.
Several of the immense groups of living beings that are included in the animal kingdom are formed only by sessile species, such as ascidians, bryozoans, phoronids, endoprocts and sponges.
Other species, as in the case of the cnidarians, although it is true that they have in their family species that live free of the substrate, are mostly sessile, and likewise other groups of animals that were originally mobile, as occurs with the annelids and the molluscs, also have many species that have managed to adapt to live fixed to the substrate, feeding by means of filtration.
On the other hand, despite the fact that multiple marine species are benthic, that is, they live in association with the seabed, a large part of them, approximately 70%, have one or more plankton-like larval stages, which It grants an immense capacity to disperse, depending on how long they remain with the plankton in a free state.
Another aspect that must be considered is that the genetic seclusion required for the birth of new species occurs with much greater difficulty in the marine environment, which is why the creation of new species by hybridization or crossing has a much greater measure in the marine environment. terrestrial environment, in which a geographical barrier, the abrupt change in the physical environment from one area to another and the possibility of dispersing, which is normally low, are favorable conditions for the appearance of new species and for there to be a high rate of endemism in specific areas.
Threat to marine biodiversity
More than 500 international experts who attended the first International Conference on Marine biodiversity, which took place in Valencia, Spain, stated that the reserves of the large fishing grounds are now only 10% lower than those that existed at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. According to the Dutch Carlo Heip, who was the co-president of the congress, this scenario is close to collapse and new forms of management are required to try to contain the danger of disappearance.
The experts were specific in listing the different activities that today threaten and have put the continuation of marine life at risk, and unfortunately all of them are related to the action of man. Overfishing is pushing too many species that are commercially exploited to the brink of extinction, and others that are similarly suffering the pernicious effects of the intensive fishing methods of large fishing fleets.
Another perspective is posed by the lack of compliance with regulations to protect marine species and the unrestrained destruction of habitats that is leaving countless species without habitats that are diminished, disappear or have no choice but to migrate to other areas.
The problem of the acidification of ocean waters was also highlighted, produced by the spillage of nitrogenous debris and by sediments from the coasts, which has very harmful effects, due to which the dead or lifeless zone has been increasing. marine at a rate of 5% each year, which translates into approximately more than 12.000 square kilometers of marine areas with such a severe shortage of oxygen that it is difficult for life to develop.
The results of an analysis carried out by the BBVA Foundation indicated that in 2008, seagrass meadows and coral reefs suffered a value of decline five times greater than that suffered by tropical forests. This analysis, which was managed by one of the co-presidents of the Valencia congress, the CSIC biologist Carlos M. Duarte, insists that, although the situation is very serious, unfortunately only 0,1% of the marine spaces have spaces protected, while in the spaces of the terrestrial surface, the protected space reaches 10%.
The scientists also indicate that another problem that is added is global warming, which among its negative effects, is being the cause of the reduction of the Arctic ice and has been increasing the temperatures of the temperate zones, thus inciting the spread of invasive marine species. It has been established that specific invasive algae have advanced 50 kilometers per decade. For this reason, the expert Duarte has asserted that climate change could underpin a catastrophe that causes the irreversible deterioration of marine spaces.
Marine biodiversity and projects
In many places, multiple research projects have been developed, with different purposes, which have made their contribution to various purposes, and with their contributions, knowledge of the biological diversity of marine spaces has been increased, among which are several research that is aimed at trying to describe ecosystems.
Likewise, attempts have been made to determine the general characteristics of the different continental platforms, as well as the characterization of coral reefs, research on the structure and ecology of the ichthyofauna, among many others.
On the other hand, many studies have been published with the results obtained by the different scientific investigations that have been carried out on marine species and their habitat, such as that of the Flora and Fauna of the Atlantic Ocean, in which the conclusions about the current situation and the emerging measures that must be taken if we do not want the marine biodiversity disappear.