Marine ecology Exam 1

what is ocean ecology

a framework for functional marine ecology

3 parts to ocean ecology

biogeochemistry, geomorphology, and biodiversity

biogeochemistry role in ocean ecology

interactions among chemical, geological, and biological processes

geomorphology role in ocean ecology

physical template defined by earths configuration

biodiversity role in marine ecology

variety of living organisms defined to include variation within/among species and among ecosystem types

how much of earth’s surface is water

71%

has earth always had an ocean

no it arrived from icy comets

how are the oceans maintained

the earth is in perfect condition/the distance from the sun keeps the water in liquid form

Anthropocene

geological period marked by human activity

stress ecology

how do they survive the changes/stressors

community stasis “top-down”

predation and competition

community stasis “bottom-up”

light, space, nutrients, and salinity

physical constraints of ecology conservation

temperature and salinity

larval supply of ecology conservation

currents and connectivity

biotic interactions of ecology conservation

competition, predation, and disease

what was present in the 1950s soil

radiation, plastics, and chicken bones

what was present in large amounts within the atmosphere (and what caused it)

high levels of CO2: increased sea temps and bicarbonate concentrations / lower pH

what kills corals

increased temperature (not high CO2 levels)

Ecosystem functions (BEF)

process, production, and metabolism (biomass production, decomposition, and nutrient cycling)

ecosystem service (BES)

benefit humans derives from ecosystem (food, water, O2, heat)

what are provisioning services

food, water, O2

regulating services

heat

biodiversity loss

reduces the efficiency by which ecological communities capture biologically essential resources, produce biomass, decompose and recycle biological essential nutrients

biodiversity and ecosystem stability relationship

biodiversity increases the stability of ecosystems functions through time

the impact of biodiversity on any single ecosystem process is ____ and ____ such that change ____ as biodiversity loss ____

nonlinear, saturating, accelerates, and increases

diverse communities are…

more productive because they contain key species that have a large influence on productivity and differences in functional traits among organisms increase total resource capture

3 domains of life

archaea, bacteria, and eukarya

monophyletic clade

similar by complete common ancestor

polyphyletic clade

similar by evolutionary convergence

paraphyletic clade

similar by incomplete common ancestry

bacteria description

single cell, no nucleus, rarely have organelles

what kind of lipids are present in the membranes of bacteria

glycerol-ester lipids

what kind of lipids are present in the membranes of bacteria

glycerol-ether lipids

halophiles

love salinity

archaea

single cell, no nucleus, and lack organelles

what clade are protists apart of

paraphyletic

what clade are plants apart of

monophyletic

examples of plants (marine species)

sea grass, salt marsh grass, and man groves

what clade are fungi apart of

monophyletic

ctenophora

comb jelly

porifera

sponges

cnidaria

coral, jellyfish, and anemonies

echinodermata

sea urchins and sea stars

chordata

sea squirts and vertebrates

annelida

polychaetes (worms)

mollusca

mollusk

anthropoda

crustaceans

Nekton + Plankton

stay within water column (move with water)

benthic

settle to the bottom and live there

osmotroph

energy from water

phototroph

energy from sun

mixotroph

energy from water and sun

heterotroph

energy from consuming others

viscous

vertical migration

inertial

can swim against current

deposit feeders (detritovores)

benthic (vacuum)

suspension feeders (plankivores)

reaching tentacles

grazers (herbivores)

consuming sea grass or algae

parasites

heterotrophs

predators

consuming prey

how many oceans are there

only 1

The Great Oxygenation

The slow, methodical change in the Earth’s atmosphere from 0% oxygen to 21% oxygen over a period of 3 billion years driven the chemosynthetic activities of archaea (chemoautotrophs) and the photosynthetic activities of cyanobacteria (blue green algae) that led to the great diversification of multi-cellular life (eukaryotes)

Ecology

the study of interactions of organisms and their environment

Ecosystem

a biotic community, its abiotic environment, and the fluxes of energy and matter within

functional biology

is a branch of ecology that focuses on the roles, or functions, that species play in the community or ecosystem in which they occur

the great acceleration

The rapid, multifaceted, and profound changes in human culture and earth systems generated by technological advances that gathered steam with the Industrial Revolution and, in the mid-twentieth century, sparked a chain reaction in human population growth, resources consumption, and rising global economic activity

nekton

Organisms with swimming abilities that permit them to move actively through the water column and to move against currents

trophic cascade

A strong interaction among trophic levels in a food chain, where changes in density at one level results in indirect effects at a trophic level that does not directly interact with the first level

food web

A network describing the feeding interactions of the species in a defined region

trophic guild

In a food web, a level containing organisms of identical feeding habitats with respect to the web

equilibrium

A state of relative stasis in community structure where the forces that influence the addition and removal of species are balanced

disturbance

A rapid change in the environment that greatly alters a previously persistent community

supply side ecology

a process where the community structure of adults is strongly influenced by the availability of larval recruits at a previous time of colonization, usually post-disturbance

el nino

a periodic flunctuation in sea surface temperature and the air pressure of the overlying atmosphere across the equatorial Pacific Ocean

marine heat wave

marine heatwaves are periods of persistant anamalously warm ocean tempreatures which can have significant impacts on marine life

coral bleaching

when corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients, they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white

coriolis effect

the deflection of air or water flow, relative to the solid earth, as a result of the earth’s rotation

deflection in the northern hemisphere

clockwise

deflection in the southern hemisphere

counterclockwise

eckman transport

movement of surface waters at a right angle to the direction of the wind due to the coriolis effect

geostrophic flow

large scale circular flow around an ocean basin generated by the balance between the coriolis-induced pressure inward and gravity-forced pressure outward

thermohaline circulation

ocean conveyor belt - the global movement of water through the deep ocean, beginning ocean basins until upwelling again thousands of years later

upwelling

the movement of nutrient-rich water from a specified depth to the surface, usually driven by surface winds

convergent front

the junction between 2 water currents that flow together; generally lateral pressure drive water downward (downwelling) along the lines of contact

neritic zone

0-150 m depth zone landward of the continental shelf-slope break

epipelagic zone

the 0-150 zone oceanward of the continental shelf-slope break

endemicity

the degree of taxonomic uniqueness of an area

species richness

the number of species present in an area

diversity index

a parameter describing, in combination, the species richness and evenness of a collection of species

extinction

the loss of a species having no remaining descendants

dispersal

ecological process of movement of organisms usually referring to permanent movement away from a place of birth

species-area relationship

the increase in the number of species recorded

allopatric speciation

origin of new species as a result of separation by extrinsic barriers

parapatric speciation

origin of new species by divergence of populations along an ecological transition while the populations remain physically

sympatric speciation

origin of new species in the absence of physical barriers to interbreeding by divergence of subpopulations that differ in habitat or other resource use or mating behavior

theory of island biogeography

a body of theory, developed by MacArthur and Wilson that aims to predict the species richness of island communities

species-energy hypothesis

the hypothesis that species richness is higher in habitats that receive more energy for metabolism

ecological opportunity hypothesis

the hypothesis that the diversity of a system is limited by competition for finite resources such that a region with low species richness will show an elevated speciation rate

General circulation model

the type of climate model that employs a mathematical model of the general circulation of a planetary atmosphere or ocean

shifting baseline

concepts that our perception of the natural environment may change according to how the environment changes over the generations, resulting in a misperception of what is natural from one generation to the next