Oceanography 251 Final Exam

Streamlining

Offers least resistance to water flow

Broadcast spawning

Reproductive adaptation of ocean creatures

Stenothermal

Organisms that can only survive in narrow temperature range

Eurythermal

Organisms that can survive in wide temperature ranges

Stenohaline

Organisms withstand small variation in salinity

Euryhaline

Organisms withstand large variation in salinity

Gills

Enable creatures to breathe in water

Countershading

Dark on top, light on bottom to blend in with surroundings whether viewed from above or below

Collapsible rib cage, swim bladder

Water pressure adaptations

Phototrophy

Any process by which an organism produces food using light as the source of energy, found in photic zone

Chemosynthesis

Process by which bacteria or archaea oxidize (chemical-based energy production), found in aphotic zone

Harmful algal blooms

Dinoflagellate toxins ingested by fish, and humans who eat the fish may get poisoning

Primary productivity

Rate at which autotrophs take energy and turn it into organic substances by photosynthesis or chemosynthesis

Biomass

The total mass/amount of a defined organism in the entire water column per unit area of water

Ways to measure primary productivity

Biomass, satellites

Biological pump

The way in which carbon dioxide is removed from the euphotic zone to the seafloor

Trophic level

Feeding stages

Overfishing, bycatch, weak fisheries management

Some issues affecting marine fisheries

To find food, escape predators, reproduce, and migrate

Why marine organisms swim

Narrow to reduce drag

Shape of fast swimmers

Flattened vertically for tight turns

Shape of maneuverable swimmers

Flattened flippers for tight turns

Shape of cruisers

Muscular body with powerful tail

Shape of burst swimmers

Filter feeding, predation, scavenging, deposit feeding

Different methods of feeding

Swim bladders, active swimming, internal gas containers

Ways animals stay afloat in the oceans

Carnivora, sirenia, cetacea

Different orders of marine mammals

Carnivora

Marine mammals that are carnivores, can come onto land, ex: sea otters, polar bears, walruses, seals, sea lions

Sirenia

Fully aquatic, slow-moving plant eaters, ex: manatees, dugongs

Cetacea

Completely aquatic mammals adapted for life in the open ocean, includes the two groups of toothed whales and baleen (mustached) whales, ex: porpoises, dolphins, blue whale, right whales, humpback whales

Coral

Marine animals that live in colonies, often forming reefs

Fringing reef, barrier reef, atoll reef

The three main types of coral reefs

Fringing reef

Reef that’s attached to the shore of an island or continent with no open water lagoon between the reef and shore

Barrier reef

Reef that has been separated from land, parallel to a land mass and encloses a lagoon

Atoll reef

Ring-shaped coral reef that grows upward from a submerged island and encloses a lagoon

Shallow-water corals

<30 m, require sunlight so they can photosynthesize

Mesophotic corals

30–150 m, some are adapted to lower light, can photosynthesize but can also consume plankton

Deep-sea corals

>150 m, no access to sunlight, solely rely on plankton and detritus, adapted to cold water

Habitat, food source, breeding grounds, shelter

Roles of coral reefs

Coral bleaching

When corals expel their symbiotic zooxanthellae under stressful conditions, leaving behind their white skeletons, can survive up to 10 days

Climate change, anchoring, sunscreen

Threats to coral reefs