Biology

Biological sciences encompass the greatest range of research activities among the disciplines at Scripps. Broadly divided into biological oceanography and marine biology, programs concentrate on the interactions of marine organisms with the physical and chemical environment, as well as molecular biology, biochemistry, physiology, biomechanics, biotechnology, biomedicine, genetics, ecology, and evolutionary biology.

Scripps biologists investigate the fundamental processes affecting life and energy flow in marine ecosystems. They examine biodiversity at multiple levels, and explore most marine habitats, including coral reefs, the deep sea, polar regions, the nearshore, and coastlines.

For more than 50 years, the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) program has investigated the California Current as part of the longest-running coastal ecosystem study in the world.

• Scripps microbiologists and biochemists are finding that a variety of marine organisms yield compounds useful as pharmaceuticals for the fight against cancer and other diseases.
• Researchers are discovering how the activities of bacteria and other organisms in the ocean are influencing the global carbon cycle.
• Deep-sea ecologists are monitoring seafloor food webs; their conclusions have far-reaching significance in understanding the health of the oceans.
• Biologists are examining marine biodiversity and investigating the state of marine ecosystems in local waters and at distant research sites from the tropics to the North and South poles.
• Biological oceanographers are studying the distribution and abundance of phytoplankton and are showing that the populations of these organisms vary predictably with environmental factors. These observations are helping researchers predict how phytoplankton ecology is affected by regional climate change.