Mangrove Swamps, Slat Marshes and Rocky and Sandy Shores
What are tropical or subtropical marine wetlands that are characterized by the abundance of low to tall mangrove trees?
Mangrove swamps
An estuary is an area where fresh water from what mixes with salt water from the ocean.
rivers
What are predators that use stinging tentacles to capture small animals, such as zooplankton, that float or swim close to the reef.
coral
Sunlight that is usable by plants for photosynthesis penetrates only about how deep into the ocean?
100 m
What in the Arctic and Antartic forms the basis of the food web, nourishing large numbers of fish, whales, and birds such as penguins.
plankton
Which type of shores have many more plants and animals.
Rocky shores have many more plants and animals
Organisms that live in estuaries are able to tolerate variations in what?
salinity
What 3 things must the water be for coral to live?
clear, warm, salt water
Besides fish, what type of marine mammals feed on plankton?
whales
What is an area where fresh water from rivers mixes with salt water from the ocean.
estuary
What are maritime habitats characterized by grasses, sedges, and other plants that have adapted to continual, periodic flooding and are found primarily throughout the temperate and subarctic regions?
Salt marshes
Estuaries are very productive because they constantly receive nutrients from what two sources?
the river and ocean
What can devastate fish populations, upsetting the balance of the reef’s ecosystem?
Overfishing
Where is much of the ocean’s life is concentrated?
in the shallow coastal waters
What are the sea’s smallest herbivores, including jellyfish and tiny shrimp, which live near the surface with the phytoplankton they eat.
zooplankton
What helps protect the coastline from erosion and reduce the damage from storms?
Mangrove Swamps
Estuaries that exist in populated areas were often used for what? .
as places to dump waste
Why may a coral reef may not be able to repair itself after chunks of coral are destroyed by careless divers, ships dropping anchor, fisheries, shipwrecks, and people breaking off pieces for decorative items or building materials.
coral reef grow very slowly
Where do decomposers, filter feeders, and the organisms that eat them live in of the ocean?
the deep areas
Organisms that live in coastal areas adapt to changes in what two things?
water level
salinity
What is a long ridge of sand or narrow island that lies parallel to the shore and helps protect the mainland?
A Barrier island
Estuaries support many marine organisms because they receive plenty of what two things?
light and nutrients
What 4 things have been linked to coral-reef destruction?
Oil spills, sewage, pesticides, and silt runoff
What are the 3 major sources of ocean pollution?
Runoff from fertilized fields
industrial waste
sewage being discharged into rivers
Organisms that live in the open ocean adapt to changes in what three things?
temperature
the amount of sunlight
nutrients available