Final Remarks

Abstract

Simple facts like the differences in density and light absorption between air and water make terrestrial and marine ecosystems qualitatively different. The knowledge on how terrestrial systems work and their comparative analysis with the sea, has greatly improved our understanding of the functioning of the oceans. Auxiliary energy is vital for primary production in the sea, and marine fronts are places where this kind of energy becomes available for life processes, making fronts fundamentally different from terrestrial ecosystems and more complex than terrestrial ecotones. Of course, fronts are not the only places in the oceans that provide auxiliary energy for life, but they are relatively small areas that concentrate a disproportionate quantity of such energy. Fluid processes that make available auxiliary energy are also responsible for the rest of the ecological properties of fronts, including facilities such as retention and landmarks; all these features make fronts sites of utmost ecological importance, they are the oases of the oceans.