Marine Biology Midterm

Biology

Study of life and living organisms

Life

The condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death

Marine Biology

A branch of oceanography involving the study of animals and plants that live in the ocean and shoreline and how they interact with the environment

Oceanography

Science that studies the ocean along with marine organisms and ecosystem dynamics, ocean currents and waves, plate tectonics and geology of the seafloor, and the chemical substances and physical properties of the world oceans

World Ocean

Continuous mass of water that covers most of the planet.

What percentage of the surface does the ocean cover?

70%

What percentage of the volume of the biosphere does the ocean cover?

95%

The ocean covers % of the North and % of the South

61 and 80

Continental shelf

Gradually sloping area that borders each continent. Width from a few km to 1300 from shore.

Continental slope

Marked by a steady incline. Steeper in the Pacific than Atlantic.

Mid Ocean Ridge

Consists of many peaks along both sides of a central valley. Chain of undersea mountains runs all around the world.

Volcanic Island

Volcano that erupts on the ocean floor, creating a mountain with a peak so high it breaks the surface of the ocean. Lava cools and hardens to form an island.

Abyssal Plain

Thick layers of sediment, formed by sunked remains of dead organisms from the surface. It covers a vast, flat plain.

Seamount

Mountain whose peaks do not break the surface of the ocean water above them.

Trenches

Canyons that include the deepest spots on Earth.

Mariana Trench

11km deep

Average depth and width of the ocean

3.8km and thousands of km

Continental Drift guy

Alfred Wagner 1912, German geophysicist

Wager Proof

1. Coastlines of continents fit together like a puzzle

2. Identical fossils have been found in rocks on either side of the ocean

3. Identical rocks and mountains have been found on either side of the ocean

4. Coal hsa been found in cold areas, and glaciers in tropical areas

Periods

Permian 225 million, Triassic 200 million, Jurassic 150 million, Cretaceous 65 million

Tectonic Plate

Composed of the crust and the top part of the mantle, making up the lithosphere

Of the 15 plates, how many major and minor?

7 major, 8 minor

Why do plates move around

Mantle inputs 2-18 cm/a

Mantle and its thickness

Part of earth between core and crust. 1800 miles thick.

Tectonic plates are made of what kinds of crust

Continental, oceanic

Crust is created in but destroyed in

Ridges, trenches

Subduction

Crust under another breaks and melts provoking earthquakes and eurptions. Oceanic vs continental

Island arcs

Oceanic vs oceanic

Mountains

continental vs continental

Submarine canyons

Feature of some continental margins. They cut into the continental shelf and slope, often terminating on the deep sea floor in a fan shaped wedge of sediment.

PAISA

Mariana, Puerto Rico, Java, South Sandwich, Litke Deep

How much water on eath

1,400,000,000 km³

Percentages for water. Ocean, glacier/pole, under land, lakes/rivers, vapor

96, 2, 2, .02, .001

H bonds are strong or weak

weak

Properties of water

3 stages, high specific heat, cohesion and adhesion, high boiling point and freezing point, lower desnity than ice, high solubility

Salinity

Total amount of salt dissolved in sea water

Surface salinity

Increases by loss of water to evaporation, or decreased by input of fresh water

Salinity at depth

Fixed.

High salinity water and lower salinity, which sinks?

High

Halocline

Vertical zone in water column where salinity changes rapidly with depth. Happens well below the uniform surface.

Where do positive ions like Na and Mg come from

the weathering of rocks which are carried to sea by rivers

Where do negataive ions like Cl and sulfide enter the ocean

at hydrothermal vents and form volcanoes via rain

Water pressure

Weight exerted by water particles at any given point

There is a increase for every __ increase in depth.

1 atm, 10m

Gases in seawater

Exchange between atmosphere and hydrosphere

Greaer solubility occurs at __ temperatures

lower

__ is not used in basic life processses

N2

Metabolically very active

O2 and CO2

C02 is a byproduct of

animal respiration and biomass decomposition

Why does CO2 easily dissolve

it combines chemically forming a weak acid

Bicarbonate

buffer

Acids

release H when added to water

Bases

bind H and remove it from solution

pH

Number of ions in a solution

CaCO3

Main component of a shell and skeleton and its melted in an acidic environment

Current

Directed movement of ocean water that dlows in one of the Earth’s oceans

Surface current

Generated by wind and curved by the Coriolis Effect and continental masses

Gyre

Circular flow pattern of water around edge of an ocean basin

How many major gyres? how many in north and south hemispheres

5, 3 south, 2 north

Antaractic Circumpolar current is a gyre?

No

Continental borders

Create basin shape

Wind input

generates movement of surface water

Coriolis effect

deflects the flow

How many organisms in the world estimated?

8.7 million

How many organisms are formally described

1.2 million

Plants

0.3 million (72% discovered)

Fungi

0.6 million (7% discovered)

Animals

7.77 million (12% discovered)

Bacteria

1 billion (underestimate)

Biodiversity

Variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is usually considered to be important and desirable

Genetic

Genetic variety within a single species

Interspecific

Genetic variety within different species

Interecosystemic

Variation in ecosystems over the whole planet

Biodiversity is the result of __ years of evolution

3.8 billion

Who came up with binomial nomenclature

Linnaeus, 1700s

Naming

Genus, species epithet, (founder year)

Who introduced the 3 domain system of classification in 1990

Carl Woese

Order of stuff

DKPCOFGS

Green algae (#, environment, depth, food reserves, notes)

7k, in bays, eastuaries, and isolated tidal pools. up to 10m, starch. largest and most diverse group of algae.

Brown algae (#, environment, depth, food reserves, notes)

1500, rocky coasts in temperate zones or open seas, up to 100m, laminarin, oil. they are closely related to diatoms, can be up to 50m long. think kelp forests and sargasso sea

red algae (#, environment, depth, food reserves, notes)

4000, tropical and subtropical shores (warm waters) below the low-tide mark, 200m, starch. they are some of the oldest eukaryotic organisms on earth

seagrass (#, environment, depth, food reserves, notes)

250,000, shallow and sheltered coastal water, sand or mud bottoms, tropics w temperate water, 50m, starch. the oldest plant on earth is a posidonia plant