Gasses
What two gases do scientists measure because they are so important for marine life?
oxygen and carbon dioxide
What have scientists names the thousands of plastic toys that went overboard in 1992, and have since taught us so much about surface currents?
friendly floatees
What is the primary producer in the ocean, and the base of the food chain
phytoplankton
What is a thermocline?
a layer of ocean water that divides water of two different temperatures
Which biological process produces oxygen?
photosynthesis
What is the name for a large circling current that rotates around a major ocean?
gyre
What type of plankton cannot perform photosynthesis, so it must eat other plankton?
zooplankton
Where in the water column is water typically warmest - and why
surface (sunlight warms it and it is then less dense than cold water, so it floats)
What gas is likely to produced by bacteria growth
carbon dioxide
At the poles, is water sinking or rising?
sinking
What organelles inside phytoplankton allow them to perform photosynthesis?
chloroplasts
Which of the following properties typically increase with depth (may be more than one): temperature, salinity, pressure
salinity and pressure
What is a dead zone?
deep layers of ocean water that are deprived of oxygen
What causes water to sink and rise, causing deep currents to form a conveyor belt around the world's oceans
differences in density, due to salinity and temperature.
Name two important nutrients used by plankton.
nitrogen, phosphorous, silicon
What would happen to the size of a balloon is you inflated it at the bottom of the ocean, and then brought it to the surface?
it would expand