Biotic V. Abiotic
The term that's describes the living or organic components of an ecosystem, such as marine plants, animals, and decaying organic matter.
What is biotic?
The essential nutrient, marine organisms require to build the sugar backbone of glucose during photosynthesis and form all organic molecules
What is Carbon?
The physical process by which atmospheric gases like carbon dioxide dissolve directly into the ocean's surface layer is this.
What is atmospheric dissolution?
The primary biological method by which producers remove dissolved inorganic nutrients from the surface layer is this.
What is uptake?
The rate at which primary producers convert inorganic nutrients into organic matter using light or chemical energy is known by this term.
What is productivity?
The term that describes the non-living or physical components of the ocean, including dissolved gases, minerals, and water molecules.
What is abiotic?
The building blocks needed to construct proteins. Phytoplankton heavily rely on this nutrient to synthesize amino acids.
What is Protein?
The movement of water over land that carries dissolved minerals and agricultural fertilizers into coastal marine ecosystems is this.
What is runoff?
The pathway through which nutrients are depleted from the base level as they are passed along from producers to consumers is this.
What is a food chain?
The ecological crisis caused when an overabundance of nutrients leads to massive algae blooms that deplete oxygen is this.
What is eutrophication?
The specific process refers to an organism actively consuming or engulfing a nutrient, such as a zooplankton eating phytoplankton.
What is intake?
The critical nutrient that serves as the central atom in a chlorophyll molecule, allowing marine plants to capture sunlight, is this.
What is Magnesium?
The wind-driven ocean current process that brings deep, nutrient-rich water up to the sunlit surface layer is this.
What is upwelling?
The human activity that directly depletes marine nutrient cycles by removing massive quantities of fish and shellfish from the sea is this.
What is harvesting?
The environmental variable, like low nutrient levels, that acts as a brake to restrict the growth and population size of marine producers is this.
What is a limiting factor?
The process occurs when a primary producer absorbs dissolved inorganic nutrients directly from the surrounding water into its cells.
The mineral nutrient absorbed by marine invertebrates like corals and mollusks to construct their rigid shells and skeletons is this?
What is Calcium?
The crustal features that directly introduce minerals and gases into the deep ocean through underwater volcanic activity are these.
What are hydrothermal vents?
The continuous downward drift of organic particles, such as dead plankton and feces, that removes nutrients from the surface is this.
What is marine snow?
The average amount of time that a specific nutrient atom remains dissolved in the ocean water column before being removed is this.
What is residence time?
The sinking of nutrients , large reservoirs of inorganic nutrients accumulate in this specific, dark layer of the ocean before being recycled.
What is the benthic zone?
The key nutrient vital for all marine life because it forms the structural backbone of DNA, RNA, and ATP is this.
What is Phosphorus?
The microscopic organisms that break down dead organic matter, recycling inorganic nutrients back into the water column, are these.
What are decomposers?
The geological process where sinking nutrients become trapped and compressed into rock layers on the sea floor for millions of years is this.
What is sedimentation?
The primary reason why open ocean centers (gyres) experience incredibly low biological productivity is due to this specific issue.
What is a lack of nutrient replenishment?