Ocean Zones
This topmost layer of the ocean receives the most sunlight, allowing coral reefs to thrive.
What is the sunlight (or euphotic) zone?
This word describes a group of things, like stars or coral polyps, found close together.
What are clusters?
Many whales perform this long-distance seasonal journey to find food or warmer water.
What is migration?
In the sentence "The ocean is vast," this word is the subject.
What is "ocean"?
This is the primary tool a marine biologist uses to breathe while exploring a shallow reef.
What is SCUBA (or a snorkel)?
In the "Midnight Zone," animals must rely on this chemical light produced by their own bodies.
What is bioluminescence?
This type of invertebrate animal has a soft body and often lives in a hard shell, like a clam or snail.
What is a mollusk?
Any physical feature or behavior that helps an organism survive in its environment is called this.
What is an adaptation?
Adding the suffix "-tion" to the verb "adapt" turns the word into this part of speech.
What is a noun?
This is a logical "educated guess" a scientist makes before starting an experiment.
What is a hypothesis?
This zone is named after the Greek word for "bottomless" and is home to the ocean floor.
What is the abyssal zone?
When data or new evidence proves a previous theory wrong, it is said to do this to the original idea.
What is contradict?
Fish use these organs to take in dissolved oxygen from the water so they can breathe.
What are gills?
These words, like "and," "but," and "or," are used to connect compound sentences about the sea.
What are conjunctions?
Biologists use these unmanned, remote-controlled robots to explore depths too dangerous for humans.
What are ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles)?
These structures on the ocean floor act like underwater volcanoes, releasing heat and minerals.
What are hydrothermal vents?
This term refers to how see-through the water is, which is vital for sunlight to reach plants.
What is clarity?
To survive the crushing pressure of the deep, many fish lack these air-filled sacs found in shallow-water fish.
What are swim bladders?
This punctuation mark is used to separate items in a list, such as "sharks, whales, and dolphins."
What is a comma?
This is the study of the relationships between living organisms and their physical environment.
What is ecology?
Because of the extreme depth, a marine biologist must account for this force, which increases by one "atmosphere" every 33 feet.
What is water pressure?
Marine life can sadly become this if they get caught in discarded fishing nets or plastic.
What is entangled?
This specialized adaptation allows a sperm whale to dive thousands of feet deep on a single breath.
What is mammalian dive reflex (or high myoglobin levels)?
"The shimmering sea sang a song" is an example of this literary device using the same starting sounds.
What is alliteration?
A biologist tagging a shark to track its movement across the Atlantic is studying this specific behavior.
What is migration (or movement patterns)?