Why is researching the ocean so interesting?

Today's view from my little lab window

When I try to explain how I fit into the Biology department at my school, it is challenging; my work does incorporate biology because it deals with the living portions of the world. When I explain how my work fits into the Ecology and Evolution pillar of the Biology department, I can claim that the interactions between the environment and organisms makes my work ecological in nature. However, when someone comes to the conclusion that I must be an ecologist because of my association with the Ecology and Evolution pillar, I have to pause before I respond. My work, probably fits better under the classification of biochemical oceanography: explaining how organisms affect the biochemistry of the ocean. Furthermore, since I am interested in how microplastic pollution causes changes in the biochemistry of the ocean, I could say that I am an ecotoxicologist. You get the picture: I sometimes have trouble explaining the research box that I fit in.

What I can confidently say is that I study how human modifications to the environment are affecting life in the ocean. It is wonderful and exciting to study the ocean because there is so much still to learn about the big blue: so many potential organisms to discover, relationships to identify, and processes to learn about. Every time I get to the lab and look out the window, I am awestruck by just how much there is still yet to learn about what is going on in nature, and how we as humans are modifying the natural course of the environment. Today at the lab we had 40 mph winds and torrential rain, courtesy of the hurricane that is in the Gulf, which brought up the water level high enough to make portions of the land disappear, and there is research to suggest that some of our actions as a global society are causing more severe storm patterns.

But Aaron, why does it matter? Well, everything that we are doing to the earth makes research that much more interesting, and sometimes more challenging. We don't have the ability to know what the world would be like without humans present, but we can certainly see how some of our actions (or inactions) have modified our environment. I hope that in the next few weeks as I start to get my own data on microplastics pollution I can help bring to light some of the ways in which we are modifying our environment and offer solutions to preserve natural coastal systems.

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