“There are some four million different kinds of animals and plants in the world. Four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive.” David Attenborough

The circle of life on the planet is interconnected with many species and organisms from large animals to small microscopic organisms. While these species and organisms are not in sight every day, they constitute the backbone of our ecosystems giving the earth the biodiversity needed for survival of all life. We, as humans, need to recognize the profound positive multitude of effects these species and organisms provide before more species become extinct, including ourselves. We need to live in a way where we cherish and enhance the abundance these species and organisms freely provide. If we look at the circle of life as links in a chain, when one link is gone, the rest of the chain loses its strength and ability to bind together all that matters for life to exist.

Our oceans sustain almost all of the diversities of phylum in the animal kingdom (Wang, 2013), while animals play an important role in the transport of nutrients both laterally and vertically in our ecosystems on land, in the oceans and in the air (Doughty et al, 2016).

While phyla can vary in:

• size
• structure, and
• characteristics

they are integral to marine biodiversity and maintaining marine ecosystems (Wang, 2013).

The cycling of nutrients is accelerated by:

• animal ingestion,
• digestion and
• defecation of plant matter

allowing these nutrients to be reused by other species (Doughty et al, 2016).

However, with the extinction of large numbers of animals, plant matter is decomposing slowly resulting in nutrient poor ecosystems (Doughty et al, 2016).

Seabirds

Seabirds normally:

• live longer lives
• breed later in life
• have fewer young than other birds and
• often migrate (Moss, 2017).

Seabirds also transport nutrients from the sea to land with seabird islands suggested to be more soil phosphorus rich than non-seabird islands (Doughty et al, 2016).

Both seabirds and whales can redistribute iron nutrients across ecosystems (Doughty et al, 2016).

Unfortunately, larger seabirds, such as the albatross, being the largest seabird, is suggested to be 75% endangered (Doughty et al, 2016) thus slowing the transfer of nutrients from sea to land (Moss, 2017).

Seabirds are the link between the oceans and land in transfer of nutrient concentrations by the transfer of their guano on land, this has decreased with the extinction of seabirds such as the great auk and reduction of condors who were forced to change their diets to land based instead of marine based (Doughty et al, 2016).

Visit the Museum of Natural History, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to see their bird exhibit featuring a “live feed from the osprey cam, a life-sized replica of a bald eagle nest and the now extinct passenger pigeon” (Mammals and birds, 2015).

Wooly Monkeys

Studies have also shown that animals can transport significant amounts of nutrients even with no mass flow of their feces from fertile areas to nutrient poor areas (Doughty et al, 2016).

While small animals, such as wooly monkeys, can transport nutrients, larger animals can transport phosphorus outside of their fertile floodplains (Doughty et al, 2016).

Anadromous Fish

Anadromous fish that spawn upstream are suggested to have had a larger magnitude of nutrient transfer from the ocean to land than seabirds globally; however, this loss to ecosystems has led to nutrients dropping instead below the photic zone into the great abyss of the oceans instead of transfer to land and also resulting in salmonid loss (Doughty et al, 2016).

Marine Invertebrates

While marine invertebrates are small, they have the largest phyla of marine animals, such as squid now researched for neurobiology and bionics, with oysters being researched in relation to biological evolution and adaptation to stress (Wang, 2013).

Video Link: The Deepest Dive in Antarctica Reveals a Sea Floor Teeming With Life

(Lugworms - Cape Breton, credit: Timothy Rawlings, CBU Associate Professor, Biology)

(Tardigrades, credit: Timothy Rawlings, CBU Associate Professor, Biology)

Coral

Due to coral’s sensitivity to changes in their environment, such as ocean acidification and warming ocean waters leading to:

• loss of stability
• bleaching
• coral death

the coral reef is near extinction (Wang, 2013).

Video Link: Coral Reefs 101 | National Geographic

Video Link: A Love Story for the Coral Reef Crisis, by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Marine Biologist and Policy Expert

Marine Plants

Marine plants can be separated into two categories: algae and seed plants, with algae being divided into two types: phytoplankton and benthic algae (Wang, 2013).

Phytoplankton is a primary producer in the ocean which fish, shrimp, and shellfish feed on, and is a biological indicator monitoring water quality (Wang, 2013).

When sea water is polluted and/or eutrophic, it will result in reduced or excessive reproduction of phytoplankton, and the latter may lead to a noxious bloom (Wang, 2013).

Benthic algae live at the ocean bottom as “crops on the sea” as green food from the ocean that also has use as:

• raw material
• fertilizer
• marine drugs (Wang, 2013).

Seed plants such as seagrass is rich in humus and is important in the growth for:

• fish
• shellfish
• seabirds (Wang, 2013).

(Belfry Algal Wrack, credit: Timothy Rawlings, CBU Associate Professor, Biology)

Mangrove plants live in the ocean and are vital in tropical climate regulation and prevention of coastal erosion and growth for:

• marine animals
• migratory birds
• seabirds (Wang, 2013).

Visit the Museum of Natural History, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to see their “Rocky Shore: Our Coastal Aquarium” exhibit of marine plants and animals featuring “ odd and wonderful creatures” (Rocky Shore: Our Coastal Aquarium, 2017).

Marine Fungi

Nutrition for marine plants and food source for marine protozoans and benthic animals is provided by marine fungi while some marine fungi contribute to:

• production of antibiotics
• physiological active substances
• antitumor activity
• antibacterial activity, and
• possibly new drugs (Wang, 2013).

Pseudomonas fungi can degrade pollutants in the marine environment, promoting the self-purification of oceans (Wang, 2013).

Marine Microorganisms

Marine microorganisms can live deep in the sea in extreme conditions, some of which can be used in

• oil pollution control
• antibacterial activity, and
• antitumor activity (Wang, 2013).

Amazonian Megafauna

The obliteration of our terrestrial megafauna and whales has reduced the ability of other animals to distribute nutrients with estimates in the Amazonian megafauna dropping by up to 50% in the floodplains suggesting this impacts broader global areas of nutrient transfer by wind or water (Doughty et al, 2016).

South America once contained the biggest number of megaherbivores; however, extinctions after the late Pleistocene era reduced this area to ∼1% of its previous capacity to distribute nutrients continent wide also affecting the oceans (Doughty et al, 2016).

To learn more about elephants, go to the following link for information about conservation, interesting facts, and resources, including kid's activities:

Each of these animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms is a vital part of our marine ecosystems that we can research through marine biology (Wang, 2013) that connect our marine, air and land ecosystems (Doughty et al, 2016).

“……the ocean gave us infinite power and rich resources, and now it is human's turn to give back to our ocean.” (Wang, 2013).

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