Ultimate Oceanpedia: The Most Complete Ocean Reference Ever

Ultimate Oceanpedia: The Most Complete Ocean Reference Ever — page 5 — INTRODUCTION Water water everywhere That's Earth a rocky planet with an ocean that covers nearly three fourths of its surface We humans are land dwellers with bodies adapted to breathe air and walk We live work and play on land even if we sometimes jump into water to swim sail or surf But even though we feel at home on land many creatures feel more at home in water It's estimated that as much as 80 percent of all organisms live in the ocean In fact about 99 percent of all habitable space on Earth is in the ocean Habitable space is where life can survive The ocean offers habitable space from its surface to its depths and in all the water in between The remaining one percent of habitable space is made up of the land surface where you and I live along with everything from ants to zebras The ocean also produces about half the oxygen in the atmosphere a gas that most living things including plants need to survive The ocean and the atmosphere are constantly interacting Winds blow across the water building waves and pushing currents cooling or warming the water and picking up water vapor The ocean likewise cools or warms the air and that water vapor turns into clouds that later pour out rain or snow Raindrops that fall on the head of a person in a desert may have started out as water vapor far from the shore Amazing animals and other organisms make themselves at home in on and around the sea Many marine animals are familiar to us think of whales sharks polar bears penguins and octopuses But the ocean is also full of organisms that look like creatures dreamed up by a science fiction writer fish that light up sea cucumbers that eject their guts when alarmed and zombie worms that eat the bones of dead whales As a kid I spent many happy hours digging in the sand and watching birds on East Coast beaches of the United States As an adult I've lived near the crashing waves and rocky shores of the northwestern United States I have truly enjoyed researching oceans to write Oceanpedia and I hope you enjoy diving into its pages too cushion sea star CHRISTINA WILSDON SCIENCE WRITER AND AUTHOR OF ULTIMATE OCEANPEDIA

Ultimate Oceanpedia: The Most Complete Ocean Reference Ever — page 7 — DISCOVERING THE OCEAN A harp seal's plumpness helps keep it warm in the icy waters along Canada's coast The pyramid butterflyfish lives on tropical coral reefs in parts of the Pacific

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