Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment -Sarita Emmanuel

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare.

Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

The habitat scale in characterizing the marine environment:

The marine environment can be described or characterised at a number of different scales, ranging from ocean-level processes through to those that occur at species and genetic level (Connor et al. 2002). The scales of relevance here are marine landscapes, habitats and species; their inter-relationship can be expressed as follows: Species provide the globally accepted original classification of biological diversity, with well-established rules of taxonomy to distinguish between different types. Their classification is arranged in a hierarchy of genera, families, orders, classes and phyla. Habitats comprise suites of species (communities or assemblages) that consistently occur together, but which are derived from different parts of the taxonomic hierarchy (e.g. kelps, molluscs and fish in a kelp forest habitat). Their classification can also be structured in a hierarchy (biotopes, biotope complexes, broad habitats), reflecting degrees of similarity. Marine Landscapes comprise suites of habitats that consistently occur together, but which are often derived from different parts of the habitat classification hierarchy (e.g. saltmarsh, intertidal mudflats, rocky shores and subtidal mussel beds in an estuary).
Source: http://www.jncc.gov.uk/page-3079 Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

It comes naturally to us as humans to look for points of comparison with objects/ events which are already part of our experience. Biologists classify organisms on the basis of the number of shared properties. Those with the greatest # can interbreed to produce fertile offspring are known as members of the same species.

Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

Taxonomy is the science of classifying organisms. Classification schemes, like organisms continuously evolve as new techniques of molecular genetics are found. This helps to fully understand relationships between organisms. This has resulted in a creation of five kingdoms which have varying modes of nutrition and cellular organisation:
Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

Classification comes a long way:

A hieracrhal system was created based on Aristotles concept of the kingdom as the highest categoryt into which living organisms can be grouped. This idea was further developed by a swedish botanist named Carl Linne, who latinised his name into Carolus Linnaeus. This system is now called the linnaen taxonomic system which breaks down organisms into 7 major divisions:
Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species

There are many major subdivisions within this 7 divisions; subphylum,

sub class, Infraclass etc.

Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

Classification levels become more specific towards the bottom. A species is one group genetically distinct , interbreeding organisms.

Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

The proper way to list a taxanomic name of an organismis to list the genus and species. This is known as binomial nomenclature; which means a 2 name system. When utilizing this system, the genus should always be italised and Capitalised, while the species is not capitalised.
Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Cetacea Family: Delpinidae Genus: Tursiops Species: Tursiops truncatus Common Name: Bottle nose Dolphin
Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

in order to be considered a member of the same species, adult males and females must be able to successfully produce offspring when they mate. They are organized to reflect known or assumed evolutionary relationships between various life forms.

Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

The taxanomic names are uaually in latin and named after the perosn who first described them. Using latin helps to give a general description of the organism. Hence once you know latin, you can learn a lot about an organism! Homo sapiens: Homo means man sapiens wise sapiens means wise; Homo sapiens mean wise human.
Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

The animal kingdom groups together varying organisms with similar body characteristics, complexities and evolutionary history. There are 10 existing phyla in the Animal Kingdom containing marine organisms:

Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

Protozoa ameoba, foraminifera, radiolaria 2. Porifera sponges 3. Cnidaria coral, jellyfish, sea anemones 4. Plathyhelminthes flatworms, tapeworms 5. Nematoda roundworms 6. Annelida segmented worms 7. Mollusca snails, squids, bivalves, octopus 8. Arthrpoda crabs, shrimp, barnacles, krill 9. Echinodermata sea urchins, sea stars, sea cucumbers 10. Chordata tunicates, fish, bird, reptiles, mammals.
1.
Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

This can be further grouped into invertebrates and vertebrates. The benefit to you in understanding the nature of these relationships and the fundamentals of the taxonomic classification system is that you can safely make some generalizations about a given animals natural history if you know about the natural history of other species described in the same class, order, family or genus.
Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel

Thank you!

Lecture#3- EMAN613- Marine Environment Sarita Emmanuel