Incredibly Massive SIO Flashcards

Endangered

In imminent danger of extinction or fewer than 2,500 mature individuals

Nurdles

tiny granules of plastic less than 5 millimeters in size used to manufacture all kinds of plastic products

Less than 5 millimeters in size

Nurdles

Eutrophication

excessive richness of nutrients in a body of water, frequently due to runoff from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen.

Dead Zone

More than 400 areas of anoxic conditions caused by excess nutrients and warming waters. Marine life suffocates.

Pollution

Undesirable change in the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of air, water, soil, or food that can adversely affect the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms.

Shifting Baselines

A gradual change in the accepted norms for the condition of the natural environment due to lack of past information and experiences

Biodiversity

The diversity of plant and animal life in a particular habitat

Biological Magnification

the process where toxic substances (like mercury or pesticides) become increasingly concentrated in the tissues of organisms at higher levels in a food chain. Predators at the top accumulate far higher, more dangerous concentrations of toxins than the smaller organisms they eat, as the toxins are passed up the food chain

Anoxic

Relating or marked by a severe of deficiency oxygen in tissues or organs

Toxic Substances, Sewage, Fertilizers, Oil

Some sources of pollution

Greenhouse Effect

water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone

Ocean acidification

Causing pH to decrease, impacts ability to uptake carbon, positive feedback loop (just keeps getting worse rather than a balance)

Historical Temperatures

can be measured by thermometer records, glaciers, tree rings and boreholes

Carbon Dioxide

CO2 levels over 400 ppm

Nonuse values

existence, species preservation, biodiversity, cultural heritage

Use values

consumptive use and nonconsumptive

Consumptive Use

harvesting, water supply

Sodium Chlorine

used for oil and gas exploration, textiles, paper industry, bleaching chemical, rubber manufacture, highways constructions, plastic industry, food industry, medicine, agriculture

gill nets

Nets that drift on the bottom and midwater to trap and catch fish by their gills

Longline

Placing very long lines with thousands of baited hooks. Swordfish, tuna, sharks, halibut, and cod. Endangers sea turtles, pilot whales, and dolphins.

Purse Seine

a fishing method capable of harvesting large quantities of surface-schooling pelagic fish by surrounding the school with a net.

Trawl nets

Net that is dragged along the ocean floor - destroy the ocean habitat

75% of commercially important species

use estuarine areas as nursery areas

Collapse of a fishery

if numbers fall to 10% of historic highs.

Challenges with Aquaculture

• Disease and parasites

• Difficulty maintaining water quality

• If farmed species escape, may breed with wild stocks

• Pollution

• Estuarine communities may be destroyed to create farms

Materials Extraction

Salt, oil and gas, sand and gravel for the construction industry, freshwater via desalination

Habitat Destruction

75% of commercially important species use critical breeding grounds like estuaries, sea grass beds and mangroves

Food Extraction

Seafood represents only 1% of the food consumed annually, but accounts for 30% of total animal protein consumed

Aquaculture

rearing aquatic animals or aquatic plants for food (includes rivers)

Mariculture

a type of aquaculture that only happens in the ocean (saltwater)

Viruses

Release large amounts of organic matter that can be utilized by other organisms (dissolved organic matter or DOM), consist of nucleic acid, a coat of protein, lipid membrane (capsid)

Prokaryote

A unicellular organism that lacks a nucleus and membrane bound organelles, unicellular

Bacteria

break down dead organic matter to form detritus (waste)

Archaea

ancient organisms, fossils date back to 3.8 billion years, live in hydrothermal vents and salt flats

Photosynthesis

Conversion of light energy (carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen) from the sun into chemical energy.

Blue-green algae

Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria

obtain their energy through photosynthesis

Biofilms

a thin, slimy film of bacteria that adheres to a surface.

Stromalites

layered rocks that form when biofilms bind thin films of sediment together

Diatoms

Microscopic algae with glass-like shells made of silica that drift mostly at the surface

Most important primary producer on Earth

Diatoms

Dinoflagellates

Microscopic plankton that move using whip-like tails (flagella), plates of cellulose

Coccolithophores

Microscopic algae covered in tiny plates made of calcium carbonate, significant source of sulfur

Influence the amount of light reflected the Earth via cloud formation and a significant source of sulfur

Coccolithophores

Foraminifera's

Microscopic marine organisms with shells made of calcium carbonate, shells of calcium carbonate

Radiolarians

Planktonic, shell of silica, use pseudopods to catch phytoplankton

Fungi

have nucleus, break down dead organic matter, made of a partnership with cyanobacteria

Protozoa

animal-like protists (tiny living things (usually single-celled) that don't fit into the plant, animal, or fungi groups)

Two domains of prokaryotes

Bacteria

Marine Biologist

study the organisms that inhabit the sea

oceanographer

study the physical aspects of the sea

Aristole

studied dolphins/marine animals on the island of Lesbos in 367 BCE

Edward Forbes

British naturalist, considered to be the founder of oceanography and marine biology

Charles Darwin

English natural scientist who formulated a theory of evolution by natural selection (1809-1882, on the Beeble)

William Beebe

developed the bathysphere to explore the deep underwater of the sea

Sylvia Earle

Oceanographer, Leader of National Oceanographic, record holder for deepest walk on sea floor

Jacques Cousteau

best known for pioneering underwater exploration, co-inventing the Aqua-Lung (SCUBA)

Enric Sala

Former professor who quit to become a full-time conservationist and National Geographic Explorer. Founded Pristine Seas, and created 25 of the largest marine reserves on the planet

Molecules

Start as the basic level of organization in a biological system

Organic molecules

Contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen

What makes up living organisms?

Proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, nucleic acids

Cell

The basic unit of structure and function in living things (after a molecule)

Carbon

an abundant nonmetallic tetravalent element occurring in three allotropic forms: amorphous carbon and graphite and diamond

Organelle

specialized structure that performs important cellular functions within a eukaryotic cell

Marine fish

drink sea water and salt is excreted by gills

Aggregation

A group of fish of the same species that are gathered together

Green algae

Eukaryotic, multicellular, Chlorophyll a, b, carotenoids

Chlorophyta

green algae

Phaeophyta

brown algae (kelp)

Rhodophyta

red algae

Photosynthetic pigments

Green algae have chlorophyll, brown has chlorophyll and carotenoids, and red has those two plus phycobilin's

Halimede

Calcareous green alga makes calcium carbonate, fastest primary producers associated with coral reefs

Rhodoliths

rounded nodules of coralline red algae that develop around the surface of stones

Household Algae Products

carREDgeenan, algAE (like brown algae and kelp), beta carotGREEN

Halophyte

plant growing naturally in salty soil

Ochrophyta

brown algae (more spiky)

Macrocystis

species of brown algae that may reach 100 m

Thallus

Plant body without true stems or roots

Mangroves

coastal ecosystems inhabited by salt-tolerant trees and shrubs

Pneumatocyst

gas-filled float present in several types of kelp plants

Rhizomes

horizontal underground stems

Algae

has roots

Percentage of the world's oxygen produced in oceans

66%

radial

round, equal parts radiate out from a central point

Cnidarians

invertebrates that have stinging cells and take food into a central body cavity

Cnidocytes

stinging cells

Nematocyst

stinging structure within each cnidocyte of a cnidarian that is used to poison or kill prey

Sipuncula

peanut worm

Scyphozoa

true jellyfish, medusa (floating)

Hydrozoa

Simple jellyfish relatives, small jellyfish or colonies attached to surfaces

Anthozoa

attached animals like corals and anemones (no jellyfish stage)

Annelida

segmented worms, leeches

Platyhelminthes

flatworms

Chaetognatha

arrow worms

Nematoda

roundworms

Porifera

pore bearing

Chordates

having a spinal column (cord bearing)

Cnidara

jellyfish, corals; stinging cells

Radula

An organ covered with teeth that mollusks use to scrape food into their mouths