Summary Trends in Marine Science Degree Completions

A program that prepares individuals to apply mathematical and scientific principles to the design, development and operational evaluation of systems to monitor, control, manipulate and operate within coastal or ocean environments, such as underwater platforms, flood control systems, dikes, hydroelectric power systems, tide and current control and warning systems, and communications equipment; the planning and design of total systems for working and functioning in water or underwater environments; and the analysis of related engineering problems such as the action of water properties and behavior on physical systems and people, tidal forces, current movements, and wave motion. Marine Biology and Biological Oceanography A program that focuses on the scientific study of the ecology and behavior of microbes, plants, and animals inhabiting oceans, coastal waters, and saltwater wetlands and their interactions with the physical environment. Includes instruction in chemical, physical, and geological oceanography; molecular, cellular, and biochemical studies; marine microbiology; marine botany; ichthyology; mammalogy; marine population dynamics and biodiversity; reproductive biology; studies of specific species, phyla, habitats, and ecosystems; marine paleocology and palentology; and applications to fields such as fisheries science and biotechnology. Marine Sciences A program that focuses on the study of biology, chemistry, geology and physics applied to marine, estuarine and coastal environments. Includes instruction in marine biogeochemistry, atmosphere and ocean dynamics, coastal ecology, coastal ocean processes, microbial ecology, marine ecosystem modeling, and polar microbiology. Oceanography, Chemical and Physical A program that focuses on the scientific study of the chemical components, mechanisms, structure, and movement of ocean waters and their interaction with terrestrial and atmospheric phenomena. Includes instruction in material inputs and outputs, chemical and biochemical transformations in marine systems, equilibria studies, inorganic and organic ocean chemistry, oceanographic processes, sediment transport, zone processes, circulation, mixing, tidal movements, wave properties, and seawater properties.