FSU Biological Oceanography

Biological Oceanography

Biological oceanographers study the ecology of the oceans. Their goal is to obtain a predictive understanding of the activities and distributions of marine organisms, from viruses to whales. Research in this field is often interdisciplinary, because the physics and chemistry of the ocean have important effects on organisms. Within biological oceanography, researchers use a variety of approaches. The currency of investigations may be the numbers of individuals of various species, the concentration of a nutrient, or the distribution of a gene.

Research programs at FSU are currently being investigating:

ecology, evolution, population genetics, and conservation of benthic marine invertebrates (Baco-Taylor);
ecology and evolution of chemosynthetic ecosystem fauna, especially those on deep-sea whale falls (Baco-Taylor);
ecology and island biogeography of seamount fauna, focusing on deep-sea corals (Baco-Taylor);
ecology of shelf sedimentary environments (Huettel);
coastal zone production and consumption processes (Huettel);
biological and physical transport in the benthic boundary layer (Huettel);
microbial ecology of a variety of ecosystems from the coastal ocean to the terrestrial subsurface (Kostka);
ecology of saltmarshes, seagrass beds, and mangrove forests (Kostka);
interactions between plants, macrofaunas and microorganisms (Kostka);
remote sensing, natural hydrocarbon seeps, gas hydrates, and regional carbon cycling (MacDonald);
ocean exploration, seafloor imaging, and chemosynthetic communities (MacDonald);
in-situ instrumentation, mud volcanoes, and extreme marine environments(MacDonald);
study of the organization of soft-bottom communities at all depths in the ocean (Thistle);
species' range sizes in the dep sea (Thistle);
meiofaunal ecology, particularily that of harpacticoid copepods (Thistle);
impact of climatic and anthropogenic perturbations on coastal plankton dynamics (Wetz);
nutrient and organic-matter cycling in coastal waters (Wetz);
algae as a biofuel feedstock (Wetz) and (Kostka);