Biological oceanography is a field of study that seeks to understand what controls the distribution and abundance of different types of marine life, and how living organisms influence and interact with processes in the oceans. The goal of biological oceanography is to understand what controls the abundances, kinds, and temporal variation of organisms in the sea. Our research and teaching programs are oriented toward a mechanistic understanding of processes. To this end we employ a variety of approaches including field observations, laboratory experiments and theoretical models. Biological Oceanography is concerned with the interactions of populations of marine organisms with one another and with their physical and chemical environment. Because these interactions are frequently complex, and because the concepts and techniques draw from many fields, biological oceanography is, of necessity, an interdisciplinary science. Training in physical oceanography, marine chemistry, marine geology, and several biological areas are therefore pertinent. Biological oceanography research is conducted on space/time scales ranging from short-term interactions between individual organisms (mm., sec.) to interdecadal variation in widely dispersed populations. The techniques used are diverse, and even within one space/time domain can include field observation, experimentation in the laboratory, and mathematical modelling.