The course includes theoretical lessons, laboratory and field exercises, dealing with the topics specified below.
Historical notes on the birth of oceanography as a science.
Physiographic characteristics of marine environments. Origin and evolution of marine and ocean waters. The cycle of water and the oceans. The chemical composition of sea water, the interaction with the atmosphere, carbon dioxide and the balance of carbonates. Cyclic salts.
The physical properties of sea water. Earth and the solar system. The energy balance of the Earth. The atmosphere and atmospheric circulation. The relationship between climate and oceans. Exchanges of energy between sea and atmosphere. Energy distribution on the earth's surface. The distribution of the fundamental variables of marine and oceanic water masses. The strength of Coriolis. The horizontal and vertical movements of the water masses, the wave motion, the sea currents and other dynamic phenomena.
Pelagic and benthic organisms. The ecotypological classification of marine organisms. Introduction to marine biology: phytoplankton, zooplankton, necton and benthos. Regulatory variables of biological processes and organism distribution. Phytoplankton and primary production. Solar radiation and its ecological significance. Biomass, Production and Biological Productivity. Photosynthesis, production and growth. Environmental regulatory factors of the PP. The limiting factors. Gross and net production. Trophic levels, chains and food networks. Trophic transfer efficiencies. Methods for estimating primary production at sea.
Marine, oceanic and coastal habitats. The benthos zonation and the Mediterranean benthic biocoenoses: the classifications of Perès Picard and Riedl.
Energy flows and biogeochemical cycles (nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, silicon cycles). Energy flow and trophic structure of ecosystems: ecological pyramids and efficiencies.
The dynamics of marine ecosystems. Temporal and dimensional scales. Micro-scale processes: the boundary layer, the vertical structure and the biology of the mixed layer. Meso-scale processes: the ecological phenomena associated with upwelling, fronts, tides and internal waves. Macro-scale processes: the ecology of large-scale phenomena (major currents, gyres, vortices). Oceans and Global Change: physical and biological aspects, the role of the biological pump.

Lecture notes by prof. Marco Marcelli, available on Unitus Moodle (https://moodle.unitus.it).