Research and teaching programs in biological oceanography at the University of Washington are oriented toward a mechanistic understanding of processes in the sea. The strengths of the graduate program are a core of modern summary courses ensuring an up-to-date overview of the discipline combined with a research program having the flexibility and resources to advance in virtually any direction. Each graduate student learns the basics of water-column and benthic approaches as they pertain to microbes and macroscopic organisms. On a campus offering 5,000 courses in 200 academic disciplines and with 3,500 faculty, it is possible to tailor graduate committees and more specialized course work precisely to a student's needs and interests. The nationally recognized Departments of Zoology, Botany, and Microbiology and the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences are typically utilized in this tailoring, but expertise is also drawn from other faculty, such as applied mathematicians, geophysicists, and chemical and electrical engineers.

New techniques in biological oceanography frequently are borrowed, with suitable modifications, from molecular biology and medical research. The School of Oceanography's proximity to the University's School of Medicine helps make it a leader in this type of innovation. Housed nearby is the UW Marine Molecular Biotechnology Laboratory (MMBL) designed for researchers using molecular/genetic techniques to address ecological questions in marine and freswater systems. Tools available include microsatellites, RJLPs, differential screens, DNA sequencing, and protein analyses. Another resource of inestimable value is the world-renowned Friday Harbor Laboratories complex, whose geographic location and seawater facilities turn work with live, delicate marine creatures from near impossibility into a regular component of many biological oceanographic research programs. The flow-tank facility at Friday Harbor, designed to look at interactions among near-bottom flows, sediments, and organisms, is the most advanced of its kind in the world.

While unlimited combinations and permutations for individual approaches exist, students should aim toward working within, or as an extension of, the research and teaching interests of the School's faculty. The processes under current research range not only across most of biological oceanography, but also into the closely related disciplines of chemical, geological and geophysical, and physical oceanography. Anaerobic metabolism, oxidation of reduced gases, and hydrolysis of organic compounds are topics of bacteriological interest, in the water column, in sediments, and at the high temperatures of deep-sea hydrothermal environments. Polar microbial systems provide another extreme of interest. There are strong ties to both chemical and geological oceanographic research programs studying marine sediments as well as hydrothermal systems. Interactions of phytoplankton with the light field and molecular probes for specific activities of phytoplankton are other foci now being explored. A recent approach is to couple such studies with the many scales of fluid motion, from small-scale turbulence to major ocean currents, which determine the environment experienced by a phytoplankton cell, population, or community. Satellites are essential tools for collecting the requisite information at larger scales, and interaction with physical oceanographers is extensive. The mechanics and dynamics of suspension feeding, bacterivory, and carnivory in plankton and of deposit feeding in the benthic fauna are major research topics. Of interest in both the water column and the benthos are feedbacks from these processes to community structure. Since the subjects so strongly interact, there are important ties between studies of deposit feeding and of sediment transport. Field environments for biological oceanographic studies range from estuaries to the open sea in low and high latitudes. All our biological oceanography faculty share interest in biological processes that contribute to global change. This common interest, combined with the diversity of other environmental science programs and personnel on campus, provides an unparalleled opportunity to explore the component processes that contribute to global change.

A new interdisciplinary program has been initiated at the University of Washington which may be of interest to prospective graduate students in biological oceanography. Astrobiology, the study of life in the universe, both terrestrial and extra terrestrial, has recently been established as a new scientific field. This NSF-funded certificate program, one of the first in the world, enables students to obtain the interdisciplinary background needed for careers in Astrobiology, while earning a Ph.D . in their chosen department. Biological oceanographers focus on extreme microbial environments (hydrothermal vents, polar sea ice, and abyssal microbial communities). These extreme ecosystems, inhabited by bacteria and archaea, can serve as analogs and models for the development of extraterrestrial life.

There is potential for confusion between biological oceanography and other branches of science that use marine organisms as models for studies. Some lines of inquiry are distinguished easily from oceanography, such as medical research use of hemoglobins or toxins manufactured by marine organisms because of their relative simplicity, neurophysiological use of squids and tubeworms for their usually large and manipulable nerve cells, and embryological use of sea urchin eggs as easily obtainable models of animal development. Marine biology, which is often a focus of study at the undergraduate level, and a common baccalaureate degree for students entering biological oceanography graduate programs, is rarely a field for more specialized graduate study in oceanography. The title of marine biologist has given way to more specific labels such as toxicologist, developmental biologist, or neurophysiologist.

The greatest overlap in approach and interests is between biological oceanography and other branches of ecology that use marine populations or ecosystems as model systems for general processes. The overlap is a beneficial stimulus to research in both fields, but it can be a source of confusion in choosing graduate schools. The distinctions are not always clear, vary among institutions, and are changing as biological oceanography evolves. Consequently, only the flavor of the distinctions and no hard-and-fast rules can be offered. A biological oceanographer will choose a particular system for study because he or she thinks that it will lead most rapidly to an understanding of a class of marine systems. A general ecologist might choose to study a particular marine system as a model for investigating a particular ecological process, such as the community structuring effected by competition or predation, if it seems a logistically convenient and accurate model from which generalizations about competition or predation can be drawn. The situation is not unlike a geneticist using fruit flies as convenient models for genetic systems as a whole. To stretch the point by making the argument in reverse, a biological oceanographer might study a terrestrial system, irrespective of its suitability for yielding generalizations for ecology as a whole, if that system promised to provide great insight for a large class of marine communities.

The most widespread oceanic communities, namely those inhabiting blue water or red clay far from shore, are central to biological oceanography, but may never be important model systems in general ecology. Biological oceanographers often use ships or submersibles when they go to the field; ecologists generally do not. Biological oceanographers are comfortable with the label "oceanographer," even without its prefix, while ecologists who choose marine systems as models prefer "ecologist" or "biologist."

Prospective students are encouraged to contact faculty members sharing their interests even before submitting an application; it is important that the School's course work and research is appropriate to a student's developing interests. Recent graduates and present students can also assist in making comparisons among graduate programs.

The School takes pride in the fact that all biological oceanography Ph.D. graduates in the past five years are currently employed within the field of oceanography. Getting the right match of a student's interests, instructional curriculum, and faculty advice and research expertise is an all-important first step.

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