Marine Biogeography
Life clothes the land; it merely stains the sea
Cox & Moore, 2000. Biogeography
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Marine Biogeography
Terrestrial zoogeographic regions
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Marine Biogeography
The history of the oceans
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Marine Biogeography
The history of the oceans
Pangea surrounded by a single ocean (Panthalassa) (-230 Mya; end of Permian,
beginning of Triassic. Tethys Ocean starts as a bay situated at the eastern side
of Pangea (-200 Mya: Mesozoic)
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Marine Biogeography
The history of the oceans
Panthalassa becomes a circumterrestrial pathway when Pangea splits into
Laurasia and Gondwana (-150 Mya)
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Marine Biogeography
The history of the oceans
Separation of Australia from Antartica (-45 Mya) allowed a circumpolar current to
establish which start dictating the current climatic regime of the earth.
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Marine Biogeography
The history of the oceans
The Mediterranean is the last remnant of the Tethys Ocean. Most marine biota
were relatively uniform up to this era.
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Marine Biogeography
The history of the oceans
Closure of the Isthmus of panama (-3.5 Mya).
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Marine Biogeography
The history of the oceans
Opening of the Bering Strait (-2.5-3.1 Mya).
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Marine Biogeography
The history of the oceans
20 Mya
5 Mya
4 Mya
Messinian Salinity Crisis (-5 Mya). Closure of the Mediterranean
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Marine Biogeography
The history of the oceans
Recent glacial cycles (350, 250, 150 and 15 kya)
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Marine Biogeography
Practically all animal phyla present in the sea
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Most plant groups represented in the sea
(exceptions are ferns and gymnosperms)
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Primary productivity much lower than on land
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Ratio plant/animal biomass much lower than
on land
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Marine Biogeography
Primary producers are mostly unicellular and
do not provide a structured environment for
consumers (except for algal turfs and kelps)
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Three-dimensional habitat
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Geographic barriers are diffuse and harder to
define
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Marine Biogeography
Barriers in the marine realm
Land masses
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Temperature
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Depth/Pressure
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Luminosity, currents, substrata, etc.
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Marine Biogeography
Shallow seas
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Open ocean
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Benthic realm
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Pelagic realm
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Marine Biogeography
Open ocean
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Photic zone: light penetrates between -1 and
-250 m
Heating effects of the sunlight restricted to the
upper oceanic layer, down to -200m
The epipelagic zone (0-200m) concentrates
most of the diversity in the oceans
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Marine Biogeography
Open ocean
Plankton
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Nekton
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Marine Biogeography
Open ocean main primary producers
Cyanobacteria
Diatoms
Dinoflagellates
Haptophyceae
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Marine Biogeography
Open ocean
Pronounced
decrease in light
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decrease in temperature
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increase in pressure
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Marine Biogeography
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Marine Biogeography
Ocean net primary
productivity
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Marine Biogeography
Thermohaline Circulation
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Marine Biogeography
Water masses and surface currents
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Marine Biogeography
Domains and Provinces within Oceans
Longhurst, A. 1995. Seasonal cycles of pelagic production and consumption. Progr. Oceanogr., 36:77168
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Marine Biogeography
Are oceanic species the same?
Genus Eustomias with 8 species
New genus, Nominostomias with probably over 100 species!
Atlantic
Pacific
Indian
13 species
17 species
3 species
A taxonomic resolution problem?
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Marine Biogeography
Are oceanic species the same?
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Marine Biogeography
Deep sea
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Fauna still mostly unknown
Faunal changes stronger in the continental
slope
In NW Atlantic, diversity is highest in the
continental slope, when compared with
continental shelf and abyssal faunas
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Marine Biogeography
Deep sea
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Unpublished data
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Only 4% of species cosmopolitan
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Probably only 15% of species occur in more
than one ocean
Oceanic ridges acting as barriers?
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Marine Biogeography
Deep sea
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Marine Biogeography
Deep sea
Similarities between hydrothermal vents' faunas
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Marine Biogeography
The shallow seas
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Marine Biogeography
The shallow seas
Sea surface temperature
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Marine Biogeography
Coral Reefs
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Marine Biogeography
Zones of endemism: cold-water
Arctic
NW Boreo-Atlantic
NE Boreo-Atlantic
W Pacific
E Pacific
Tasmanian/New Zeland
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Marine Biogeography
Zones of endemism: temperate-water
Carolina/Gulf of Mexico
Atlantic-Mediterranean
Japanese
Californian
SW African
S Australian
Chile-Peruvian SW American
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Marine Biogeography
Zones of endemism: tropical
W Atlantic
E African
Red Sea
E pacific
W Indo-Pacific
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