Intro to Marine Eco
The number of different species living in a specified area is referred to as...
Species richness (or species diversity)
Which term best matches this definition?
The variety of all living things on Earth, including the diversity of genes, species, and ecosystems and the processes that sustain them.
Biodiversity
A. If Re >> 1 ________ forces dominate
B. If Re << 1 ________ forces dominate
A. inertial
B. viscous
What color(s) attenuate last in the water column?
Blue and green
Primary producers create _____ _____ out of ______ _______ during primary production.
organic matter ; inorganic matter
What is marine ecology?
The study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment.
Which term best matches each of these definitions?
A. any characteristic of an organism that
influences its fitness by affecting growth, reproduction, or survival
B. traits that influence what species DO
C. traits that influence how species RESPOND to environmental forcing
A. Functional Trait
B. Effect Trait
C. Response Trait
Which term matches these description/definitions the best?
A. streamlines are all parallel, flow is very regular
B. streamlines are irregular to chaotic
A. laminar flow
B. turbulent flow
What terms best match these definitions?
A. vertical temperature gradient with depth
B. strong, vertical salinity gradient with depth
C. Density gradient created by interaction among ocean circulation, temperature, and salinity
A. Thermocline
B. Halocline
C. Pycnocline
What are the limiting factors of NPP in aquatic ecosystems?
1. Light
- Know: Light decreases exponentially with increasing water depth, so photosynthesis does not occur below a certain depth
2. Nutrient availability
- Know: Phosphorous, nitrogen, and iron are the main nutrients
3. Water motion
- Know: as current speed increases, nutrient uptake increases
What is the correct order of the levels of biological organization?
organism --> population --> community --> ecosystem --> biome --> biosphere
1) Which term best matches this definition?
The study of the relationship of body size to shape, anatomy, and physiology.
2) How does size influence SA:V?
1) Allometry
2) As size increases, surface area to volume ratio decreases
Describe the flow in a small Re world
Flow is largely laminar and reversible
What are the 4 physical-biological processes we discussed on the time-space diagram?
1. Pheromone trails
2. Fish schooling and foraging behavior
3. Plankton patch formation
4. Large scale migrations
1) What type of water motion is necessary for nutrients to be exchanged through a boundary layer?
2) Why is this type of water motion necessary?
1) Fast and turbulent flows
2) increased water movement disturbs the boundary layer, allowing nutrients to be diffused
The distribution of species between different environments is called ...
Disparity
What does Hutchinson's "Paradox of the plankton" state?
According to the competitive exclusion principle, no two species with identical requirements can coexist at equilibrium EXCEPT plankton. Many species of plankton are able to coexist due to variability in light, wind, waves, and currents in the ocean.
What adaptations do small organisms have that allow them to live and eat at low Re numbers, which can commonly be referred to as a Hydrodynamic Hell?
- Rely on diffusion for nutrient acquisition (rather than ingesting particles - think back to the video shown in lecture of fish larvae)
- create turbulence in the water via specialized appendages (commonly called "bristles")
What processes affect plankton patch formation? (Hint: there are 4)
1. Currents
2. Langmuir circulation convergences
3. Circulation around an island
4. Tidal currents exiting a constriction at the mouth of an estuary
The depth in the water column at which photosynthesis rates = respiration rates.
Compensation depth
1) What is the difference between monophyletic, paraphyletic, and polyphyletic?
2) What is a synapomorphy?
1) Monophyletic = includes the common ancestor and all descendants of that ancestor
Paraphyletic = includes the common ancestor and some, but not all, of the ancestor’s descendants
Polyphyletic = does not include the common ancestor of the group
2) A synapomorphy is a shared characteristic commonly used to identify evolutionary relationships.
1) What is the latitudinal diversity gradient?
2) What are the 3 hypotheses/explanations for the latitudinal diversity gradient?
1) The latitudinal diversity gradient states that species richness is greatest near the equator and that diversity decreases as latitude increases (diversity decreases as you move toward the poles)
2) Area - There is more area in the tropics than at the poles, which means there is more space for organisms to exist (more organisms means more biodiversity)
Age - older communities have had time for more speciation
Evolutionary processes - At the poles, climate is variable (which could hinder speciation) but near the equator, climate is stable (which facilitates speciation)
Describe what a boundary layer is (how is water velocity affected by distance from surface of organism?)
- a thin region of fluid near a solid surface - velocity at the surface is 0 and increases as distance from the object increases
- Allows the concentration of nutrients to be low adjacent to the surface of an organism, and concentration increases as distance from the organism increases --> Allows for diffusion to happen readily across the cell as nutrients follow this concentration gradient
1) How are ekman transport, the coriolis effect, and upwelling all related?
2) What are the 2 types of upwelling?
(this answer is specifically for N hemisphere)
1) As winds blow surface waters, the Coriolis effect causes the water to deflect to the right. Ekman transport pulls the water to the right at a 90° angle from the direction of the wind. The movement of the surface water creates a space/gap for cool, nutrient rich deep water to fill in, resulting in upwelling.
2) Coastal and Equatorial
1) What are the formulas for net primary productivity (NPP) and gross primary productivity (GPP)?
2) Which color bottle in the light and dark bottle experiment represented respiration?
1) NPP = GPP - R
GPP = NPP + R
2) the dark bottle (dark color inhibits ability of organisms to photosynthesize)