Marine Conservation Biology and Ecology Practice Flashcards

A complete set of vocabulary flashcards covering marine biology, estuarine and intertidal ecology, coral reefs, deep sea systems, polar biology, and conservation management based on lecture transcripts from lecture transcripts.

Conservation biology

The science of conserving the seas’ biodiversity.

Darkwaves

A newer threat to marine ecosystems caused by increased pollution and sedimentation, resulting in areas void of light that limit productivity and growth.

Estuary

A coastal area where incoming tides bring sea water from the ocean to meet freshwater inputs from the land.

Coastal plain

Also known as a drowned river; a type of estuary characterized by being flooded by rising sea levels.

Bar-built estuary

An estuary where a sand bar creates a barrier between the lagoon and the open ocean.

Delta

An estuarine feature formed by heavy loads of sediments from upstream erosion depositing at river mouths.

Tectonic estuary

An estuary formed by land subsidence or faulting, often seen along fault lines.

Fjord

An estuary formed by glacial action, characterized by still, stagnant conditions, such as those on the West Coast of the South Island.

Estuarine circulation

The process where higher density sea water drops below lighter freshwater, upwelling detritus and nutrients from the floor.

Euryhaline species

Organisms that can tolerate a wide range of salinity levels.

Stenohaline species

Organisms that can only tolerate a narrow range of salinity levels.

Salt marshes

Estuarine habitats characterized by two main plant groups, including $Spartina$.

Non-point source pollution

Pollution from diffuse sources, such as runoff from land or upstream freshwater inputs, that cannot be directly traced.

Point source pollution

Pollution that can be traced to a specific source, such as wastewater from sewage pipes or outflow tanks.

DDT

A persistent, non-dissolvable pesticide banned in NZ in $1989$ that accumulates in lipids and blocks normal nerve function.

Dioxins

Toxic by-products of paper bleaching that are soluble in lipids and cause developmental malformations and cancer.

PCBs

Carcinogens originally used as industrial cooling fluids; they are toxic to the immune system and were banned in NZ after use in the electric industry.

TBT (Tributyltin)

A paint additive used to remove barnacles that causes shell deformations in oysters and reproductive failure in shellfish.

Intertidal zone

The area lying between the extremes of high and low tides, exposed to air at low tide and underwater at high tide.

Tide

The periodic and predictable rise and fall of sea levels due to gravity from the sun and moon, centrifugal forces, and geomorphology.

Spring tides

Extreme tides that occur when the earth, moon, and sun are aligned.

Neap tides

Small tides that occur when the moon and sun are at a $90^{\circ}$ angle to each other.

Desiccation

The process of water loss or drying out, a major challenge for intertidal organisms.

Sheltered mud flat

A soft-sediment habitat with very fine sediment, poor water drainage, and high bacterial populations leading to oxygen depletion.

Exposed beach

A habitat with coarse grains where only a few organisms cope, as large plants and sessile animals are absent.

Meiofauna

Benthic invertebrates that range in size from $0.1\,mm$ to $0.5\,mm$, such as nematodes.

Epifauna

Visible surface-dwelling organisms such as birds, bivalves, and crabs.

Infauna

Visible large organisms living in burrows and tubes within the sediment, such as annelids and molluscs.

Scleractinian corals

Colonial, carnivorous reef-building corals that have tentacles made of cnidocytes and work symbiotically with algae.

Zooxanthellae

Symbiotic algae that live in coral tissue, providing oxygen and photosynthesis products while receiving $CO_2$, nitrogen, and phosphate.

Polyp bailout

An asexual reproduction method where coral polyps crawl out of their corallites and drift away to settle elsewhere.

Shelf reefs

Coral reefs located on the shore or along the edges of the continental shelf.

Oceanic reefs

Coral reefs found surrounding oceanic islands.

Fringing reef

Reefs that form borders directly along shorelines, such as in the Red Sea.

Barrier reef

A reef separated from the shore by a lagoon, such as the Great Barrier Reef.

Atoll

A ring-shaped reef left behind after an island submerges.

Photic zone

The upper layer of the ocean, above $200\,m$, where there is ample light for photosynthesis to occur.

Light attenuation

The gradual decrease in light intensity as it travels through matter/water depth.

Nekton

Active swimming animals such as large fish, turtles, penguins, and marine mammals.

Counter-shading

A camouflage adaptation where an animal is darker on its back and lighter on its stomach to blend in from above and below.

Neuston

Organisms that float just beneath the water surface, such as the mollusc $Janthina\,janthina$.

Pleuston

Organisms that have parts both above and below the water surface, such as the Portuguese man-of-war.

Deep scattering layer

A layer in the mesopelagic zone characterized by an abundance of fish, squid, and crustaceans that perform daily vertical migrations.

Hydrothermal vents

Areas of erupting, super-heated water from volcanic activity on the ocean floor, supporting unique chemosynthetic ecosystems.

Chemosynthesis

The process of creating energy from chemical reactions, such as using hydrogen sulphide ($H_2S$), rather than sunlight.

Chemical seeps

Areas where methane bubbles are released from the earth’s crust at the same temperature as surrounding water, supporting slow-growing organisms.

Trophosome

An organ in giant tube worms containing micro-chemosynthetic bacteria that produce nutrients from $H_2S$ and $CO_2$.

Population

A group of individuals of the same species living in a designated area and interacting with one another.

Survivorship curve Type I

A pattern where newborns and young adults have high survival rates and death rates only increase greatly in old age.

Survivorship curve Type III

A pattern where individuals die at very high rates when young, but those reaching adulthood survive much longer.

Carrying capacity

The maximum population size that can be sustainably supported over time by available resources like food and habitat.

Demographic stochasticity

Random variations in birth and death rates that affect population size, typically more impactful in small populations.

Environmental stochasticity

Fluctuations in population size caused by yearly changes in environmental conditions or chance events.

Metapopulation

A set of spatially isolated populations linked by the dispersal of individuals.

Source population

A population where the number of individuals dispersing to other areas is greater than the number of migrants received.

Sink population

A population that receives more immigrants than the number of emigrants it produces.

Habitat fragmentation

The process where a spatially uninterrupted population is broken into a series of isolated habitat patches.

Predation

A trophic interaction where a predator kills and consumes individuals or parts of another species (prey).

Exploitation competition

Indirect competition where species share the use of a limiting resource.

Interference competition

Direct competition where species interact physically for access to resources.

Fundamental niche

The full set of resources and abiotic/biotic requirements a species can potentially use.

Realised niche

A restricted set of resources a species is actually limited to, often due to competition and species interactions.

Competitive exclusion

A condition where a dominant species prevents an inferior species from using essential resources, potentially leading to local extinction.

Resource partitioning

A mechanism where competing species use shared resources in different ways to coexist.

Mutualism

A mutually beneficial interaction between two different species.

Community

Groups of interacting species that occur together at the same place and time.

Shannon diversity index

A measure used to quantify a community’s diversity, accounting for species richness and composition.

Bottom-up control

Ecosystem regulation where the availability of resources at lower trophic levels dictates the abundance of higher consumers.

Top-down control

Ecosystem regulation where predators at higher trophic levels control the biomass of lower trophic levels.

Trophic cascade

An indirect interaction where the consumption rate at one trophic level leads to repercussions on the abundance of much lower levels.

Trophic facilitations

Occurs when a consumer is indirectly helped by a positive interaction between its prey and another species.

Competitive network

Circular (non-linear) competitive interactions among multiple species where every species has a negative effect on every other species.

Foundation species

Species that have a large effect on their communities due to their large size or high abundance.

Keystone species

Species that exert large effects on their communities due to the specific ecological roles they play rather than their abundance.

Ecosystem engineer

A species that creates, modifies, or maintains physical habitat for itself and other species.

Succession

The process of change in species composition over time as a result of abiotic and biotic agents.

Primary succession

The colonization of habitats that were previously devoid of life.

Secondary succession

The reestablishment of a community following a disturbance where some organisms or organic matter remain.

Alternative stable state

A condition where different communities develop in the same area under similar environmental conditions.

Hysteresis

The inability of an ecosystem to shift back to its original state even when original environmental conditions are restored.

Regime shift

Large, abrupt, and persistent changes in the structure and function of an ecosystem.

Intermediate disturbance hypothesis

The theory that mid-level disturbance, stress, or predation promotes species diversity by reducing competitive exclusion.

Lottery model

The assumption that resources vacated by disturbance are captured at random by recruits from a pool of potential colonists.

Ecosystem functioning

The biophysical processes and interactions, like nutrient cycling and primary production, that keep an ecosystem stable.

Functional group

A category of species that perform similar roles or processes in an ecosystem, such as nitrogen fixers.

Functional redundancy

An ecological concept where multiple species perform the same role, ensuring ecosystem stability if one species is lost.

Insurance hypothesis

The proposal that high biodiversity acts as a safety net to maintain ecosystem function during environmental changes.

Ecosystem services

The direct and indirect benefits humans gain from healthy ecosystems, categorized as provisioning, regulating, cultural, or supporting.

r-strategist

Organisms characterized by fast maturation, many offspring, small body size, and little to no parental care.

K-strategist

Organisms characterized by slow maturity, few offspring, long parental care, and stable population sizes.

Genome

The complete collection of genes or genetic material found in an organism.

Genotype

The specific genetic makeup of an individual organism.

Phenotype

The physical expression of a gene or the outward appearance of a trait.

Allele

A variation or alternative form of a gene found at the same place on a chromosome.

Natural selection

An evolutionary force where inherited characteristics determine differential survival and reproduction, favoring beneficial traits.

Genetic drift

Random changes in allele frequency due to chance events, primarily affecting small populations.

Bottleneck effect

A form of genetic drift occurring when a natural disaster randomly kills a large portion of a population, leaving a subset with different allele frequencies.

Founder effect

A form of genetic drift occurring when a small subgroup migrates and colonizes a new area.

Inbreeding depression

The reduction in vigor and fertility of a population due to the mating of related individuals.

Effective population size

The size of an ideal population that would lose genetic variation at the same rate as the actual population; influenced by sex ratios and breeding cycles.