Marine Science Final

Rift Tube Worms

Rely on chemosynthetic bacteria in their body to create nutrients for them with methane from vents

Reef Corals

Rely on zooxanthellae in tissues to create nutrients for them with photosynthesis from sunlight

Upwelling

The movement of deep, cold, and nutrient-rich water to the surface

Downwelling

The movement of water from the surface to greater depths.

Atolls

Donut-shaped, often without a high island in the center, at edges of the circle is the reef

Barrier Reefs

A prominent ridge or coral that roughly parallels the coastline but lies offshore, with a shallow lagoon between the reefs and the coast.

Vent Communities

Volcanically active areas, NOT reliant on surface production, thriving communities

Chemosynthesis

Source of energy in the deep sea, bacteria take reduced sulfur emerging from the earth

Green Sea Turtles

Herbivores, graze on turtle grass (turtles)

Sea Otters

Mustelidae, benthic invertivores, keystone species, use tools

Sea Cows

Sirenians, herbivores, manatees and dugongs

Baleen Whales

Mysticetes, filter feeders, have flexible plates, biggest whales, use skimming or gulping methods to feed, use larynx to communicate because they lack vocal cords (whale)

Toothed Whales

Use echolocation to find prey, have small teeth for grabbing, no shearing surfaces (whale)

Guano

Bird droppings used as fertilizer; a major trade item of Peru in the late nineteenth century

Keystone Species

a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend, such that if it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically.

Live Whale Community Ecology

Organisms live on and around whales (stir up prey around for other animals to eat), poop near surface returns nutrients from deep water

Dead Whale Community Ecology

Very sulfur rich, becomes a habitat with biodiverse communities, another source of deep sea food

Tragedy of the commons

many people share a resource, and everyone uses it too much because no one owns it or protects it. (example - overfishing)

Oil Spill Pollution

Crude oil naturally seeps from rocks in some places, floats so has few effects to bottom communities, creates film that prevents oxygen from getting in

Plastic Pollution

Particularly found in central gyres and great pacific garbage patch, middle of gyres filled with small pieces of it

Sewage Pollution

Huge increase in nutrients (so badly that things are overgrowing), could add sea-urchins to eat algae, usually use a "super-sucker" to vacuum off algae

Global Change

alterations to climate, atmospheric chemistry, and ecological systems that reduce the capacity of Earth to sustain life

Green Consumerism

Buying based on the environment, if it's not sustainable then don't buy it

Maximum Sustainable Yield

The population with the steepest increase in population, yielding the most new fish per year

Ghost Fishing

Nets getting left at sea that semi-float and catch/kill fish and organisms without people knowing

Greenhouse Effect

warming that results when solar radiation is trapped by the atmosphere

Bleaching

When corals give up their symbionts (dinoflagellate)

Right Whales

Long, fine baleen, no dorsal fin, most critically endangered whales in world

Ecotourism

Tourism that doesn't negatively impact the natural resources people are coming to visit. It's low impact and locally based

Palau

Tourism is such a large part of here that conservation is prioritized because environment makes a lot more money alive than dead

MPA's

Marine Protected Areas

What aspects of MPA's are important for them to be successful?

Rules, enforcement, big, old (>10 yrs old), isolated

Anthropocentric

Argues that environment should be conserved and saved for human good

Biocentric

Other life forms have standing, value to other living things

Ecocentric

As much as possible, nature is to be preserved as it is.

Turtle Exclusion Device

Fishing net that allows sea turtles to get out if they are captured

Benefits of MPA's

Help fishing in other places, seeds other areas with larva, can be tourist friendly

SLOSS

Single Large or Several Small. A reserve should be large enough to support viable populations of endangered species, keep ecosystems intact, and isolate critical core areas from external forces

Trawling

Towing a large net along the sea floor to fish

Line Fishing

Traditional type of fishing

Coastal Net Fishing

Throw large net on water then pull it back in

Dive-Based Fishing

Usually spearfishing

Classic Ethics

The most goof for the most people

Futurity

Can assume there will be future people so we should aim for most good for most people including future generations

Strategies to encourage conservation

Making people "feel", encourage to save what's left or have anger over what is lost

Future of oceans

Uncertain, but not looking good (especially for reefs), tied to many global issues like tourism, hurricanes, poverty, overfishing, land use, etc.

The most important aspects of conservation

Laws and awareness of the issues

Oolite

A type of limestone formed when water evaporates and leaves calcium carbonate behind.

Calcareous Ooze

Ooze composed of mostly the hard remains of organisms containing calcium carbonate

Manganese Nodules

A small (potato-sized) rock that contains manganese and other minerals. Common on parts of the ocean floor.

Youngest part of the Atlantic oceanic crust

The middle, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Isostacy

Weight on the edge of the continent is pushing down as reefs grow, mantle is soft and continents float

Pycnocline

a layer in an ocean or other body of water in which water density increases rapidly with depth.

Reason we have seasons

Caused by the tilt of Earth on its axis as it revolves around the Sun (REVOLVE and TILT)

Thermocline

a layer in a large body of water, such as a lake, that sharply separates regions differing in temperature, so that the temperature gradient across the layer is abrupt.

Bottom Water

Water in contact with the seafloor

Why can subs sometimes hide in shallow water (around 40m)?

When the surface water is mixed and warm, there is often a layer of very slow velocity (for sound) at about 40m that they can hide in

Coriolis Effect

Causes moving air and water to turn left in the southern hemisphere and turn right in the northern hemisphere due to Earth's hemisphere.

Ferrel Cell

Cell that moves air form 30 degrees to 60 degrees latitude

Doldrums

a frequently windless area near the Equator

Influence direction of ocean currents

Wind, temperature and salinity (density

Midocean Ridge

an undersea mountain range that forms on either side of a rift, formed by divergent plates

Island Arc Volcanoes

A string of islands formed by the volcanoes along a deep ocean trench, formed by convergent

Trenches

a long, narrow ditch formed by convergent plates

What are temperate beaches made of?

Minerals, rocks, sand

What are tropical beaches made of?

Dead organisms, biological remails

How is light in the ocean different at 30m vs. 1m?

1m - Water is clear and colors can be seen well

30m - Water is darker and can mainly only see blues and greens

Deep Sound Channel

the depth at which sound waves travel slowest, allowing low-frequency waves to travel vast distances

How would the speed of sound vary with depth?

Fast at surface, slower the deeper you go

Fully Developed Sea

Waves are not in order, are choppy/steep/chaotic

Swell

Waves are calmer and more organized

Great Ocean Conveyer Belt

Is a constantly moving system of deep-ocean circulation driven by temperature and salinity. This moves water around the globe.

Thermohaline Circulation

an oceanic circulation pattern that drives the mixing of surface water and deep water

Why may the AMOC be shutting down?

Due to global change, glaciers melting, ocean waters heating, decreased salinity

Consequences of AMOC shutting down?

Colder winters in some places and even more extreme heat in others, sea levels rising drastically, deep ocean currents slowing and therefore not transporting nutrients properly, salinity changes

Longshore drift

The movement of water and sediment down a beach caused by waves coming in to shore at an angle

Neap Tide

a tide just after the first or third quarters of the moon when there is the least difference between high and low water.

Amphidromic

A "no-tide" point in an ocean caused by basin resonances, friction, and other factors around which tide crests rotate

Nutrient levels in the tropics are

low because nutrients are lost below the stable thermocline

Redfield Ratio

Ratio in phytoplankton of Carbon to Nitrogen to Phosphorus

Radiolarian

A protist with a shell made of silica and pseudopodia that radiate from the central body.

Dinoflagellate

Single cell algae located within cells, give corals much of their color

Ciliate

A type of protist that moves by means of cilia.

Foraminifera

Marine protozoans that have variably shaped shells with small holes.

Most abundant and diverse group of fish in oceans today

Ray finned fish (actinopterygii)

What type of fish are primarily active at dawn and dusk?

Piscivores

Reason for fish schooling

React quicker to predators

Sponges

Filter feeders, water enters pores and cycles through body, nutrients are taken and waste is secreted

Nematocyst

Stinging cells of corals and jellyfish

Suspension Feeding

capture food particles suspending in the water that passes through them

Deposit Feeding

Engulfs sediments to extract nourishment

Grazing

act of feeding on plants

Scavenging

searching for food

Predation

An interaction in which one organism kills another for food.

Infaunal

Growing/living IN the sea floor, in the sediments/burrowing

Epifaunal

Growing/living ON the sea floor

Meroplankton

plankton that spend only part of their larval stages as plankton (examples include mollusks and crustaceans)

Nekton

free-swimming animals that can move throughout the water column, move independently of currents

Spring Blooms

sudden increases in phytoplankton populations in the ocean during spring due to light and nutrients increase after winter