Maritime Department, Sea Technology and Protection of the Sea division – field research in marine biology and marine conservation with focus on monitoring of marine benthos, the organization of ecological communities, climate change, and anthropogenic effects on shallow coastal communities. 

Marine Biology/Ecology is a recent addition (since fall 2006) to the UNIZD spectrum of disciplines. Currently there are three doctorates and four PhD students. The major areas of scientific expertise are evolutionary genetics, ecology of the Adriatic Sea, microbial ecology, fish behavior and experimental ecology, fisheries biology of commercially used pelagic species, and coastal resource protection and land use planning. A total of four German guest Masters students completed their theses in the last three years. Ongoing research is directed toward fundamental questions in ecology and the development of predictive theories for the distribution of species in space and time. Application of these ideas to the Mediterranean sea is just beginning and therefore constitutes the filling of gaps. Croatia is ideally situated to lead the way because of the highest linear extent of coastline and the absence of extreme ecosystem degradation and loss of habitat. Croatia is thus in a unique position to provide a rapid synthesis of information on natural baselines for coastal ecosystems in the Mediterranean, invaluable for both basic ecological science and for management needs. Research on biological changes in relation to local anthropogenic influences can via CIMMAR be continued on enlarged spatial, temporal, and multifactorial scales not answerable by individual disciplines.