Oceanography Exam 3

Shore

area between low tide and the highest land area affected by waves

Coast

Area that extends inland as far as ocean features are found

Coastline

Boundary between coast and shore

Coastal waters

Shallow waters overlying the continental shelf.

What are coastal waters influenced by?

river runoff, winds, and tides

Halocline

Area where salinity changes rapidly

Types of haloclines

Runoff and dry shore wind

Runoff halocline

Low to high salinity

Dry offshore wind halocline

high to normal salinity

Isohaline

area where salinity is mixed rapidly

What is temperature in coastal waters impacted by?

winds, insolation, and currents

Thermocline

layer of rapidly changing temperature

Estuaries

Partially enclosed body of water in which freshwater runoff dilutes ocean water

Types of estuaries

Coastal plain, Fjords, Bar built, and tectonic

What is a coastal plain estuary?

eroded river valley flooded with seawater as sea levels rise

coastal plain estuary example

Chesapeake bay

What is a Fjord?

glaciated valley flooded with seawater

What is an example of a fjord?

Alaska

What is a Bar built estuary?

Lagoon separated by sand bar or barrier island

Bar build estuary example

outer banks

What is a tectonic estuary?

faulted or folded down area flooded with ocean water

Tectonic estuary example

San Francisco Bay

What are the models of water mixing in estuaries?

Salt wedge, slightly stratified, vertically mixed, and highly stratified

Characteristics of salt wedge mixing?

High volume river, surface fresh, salinity gradient at depth

Characteristics of slightly stratified mixing?

2 level flow, salinity increases with depth, mixing by wind and tides

Characteristics of vertically stratified mixing?

shallow, freshwater input is low, horizontal change in salinity

Characteristics of highly stratified mixing?

Deep, surface salinity increases, bottom salinity uniform, relatively strong halocline, entrainment at interface

What is a negative estuary?

low to no river, high evaporation, salinity in upper layer decreased towards mouth, salinity in lower layer increases towards head

Negative estuary example

Laguna Mandre

Characteristics of Laguna Mandre

Long barrier island with hypersaline, high evaporation, and a large temperature range

Flood currents

flow on right side (east)

Ebb currents

flow on left side (west)

Oscillations

cyclical variation in ocean conditions

what are oscillations organisms must adapt to?

salinity, oxygen, temperature, suspended sediment, light

What are some seasonal patterns in the ocean?

dominated by spring freshness and other fluctuations in freshwater input, stratification and circulation pattern changes

what is anoxia?

loss of oxygen supply

What are wetlands?

ecosystems with water tables close to the surface

What areas support wetlands?

Margins of estuaries and other coastal areas

Important wetlands examples:

Salt marshes (mid to high latitudes) and mangrove forests (low latitudes)

What is the importance of the marsh?

it preserves water quality and is a nursery for more than ½ of commercially important fish

living things can…

capture, store, and transmit energy, reproduce, adapt to environment, and change over time

What is the purpose of all living things?

Find food and avoid being eaten long enough to reproduce

Who came up with the idea of taxonomic classifications?

Carolus Linnaeus (1758)

What are taxonomic classifications?

the bases of modern classification of all organisms

Taxonomy

systematic classification of organisms

phylogenic tree

represents the evolutionary relationship for all living things

What are the three domains in the three-domain system?

Bacteria, archaea, eukarya

What are the characteristics of bacteria in the three-domain system?

simple life forms with no nucleus

What are the characteristics of archaea in the three-domain system?

simple, microscopic creatures that flourish in extreme environments

What are the characteristics of eukarya in the three-domain system?

complex organisms with nucleus

What are the 4 categories of the kingdom phylum?

Protista, fungi, plantae, animalia

categories of the behavior classification scheme

Plankton (floaters) and nekton (swimmers)

categories of the habitat classification scheme

Benthic (bottom), pelagic (water column), neritic (shallow waters), oceanic (deep waters >200 m)

categories of the function classification scheme

Primary producer, consumer, predator

What percent of all species live in the ocean?

14%

Ocean stability characteristics

stable temperature (does not fluctuate), dark, cold, and high pressure

Where do organisms exist in the water?

Where their food and mates are

In warm water viscosity is…

lower

in high salinity areas, viscosity is…

high

buoyancy is best at ___ SA:V

high (increased buoyancy = increased SA:V)

What dos SA:V impact

gas exchange, nutrient exchange, excretion of waste

What is Buoyancy?

resistance to sinking

Traits related to buoyancy

appendages increase SA, smaller size, gas chamber

How does the streamline shape help with swimming?

it has less resistance to fluid flow

Types of streamline

Flattened body (swordfish) and tapered back with rounded front

Heat in rete Mirabel

specialized structures that use counter current circulation and blood vessels that are close together to exchange heat or chemicals

How is countercurrent blood flow used in fish

It is used in the gills and other organs to facilitate the exchange of dissolved gasses and waste

Characteristics of ocean temperatures:

narrow range, small variation (isothermal)

Stenothermal

organisms that can withstand small variation in temperature

Stenothermal location?

Most in open ocean at depth

Eurythermal

organisms that can withstand large variation in temperature

Eurythermal location?

coastal waters

importance of accessory pigments:

help satellites to detect organisms in the ocean

Osmoregulators

regulate concentration of salts in cells/bodies

Salt concentration is ___ in ocean water

higher

how do marine fish cope with ocean salinity?

they conserve water by not urinating often

How does saltwater move through a marine fish?

goes into the fishes mouth, over the gills, and into the operculum

How do plants deal with water salinity?

some have salt glands along leaves and stems, and some exclude salt at roots

how do animals extract dissolved O2 form seawater?

brachiae, gills, integument, respiratory trees

True or False: do gasses dissolve in cold water

True

True or False: sexual reproduction has to happen in a fluid

True

What is broadcast spawning?

eggs and sperm released into seawater and then combine (most common)

What is brooding?

when eggs/young are protected

Avoiding predation patterns seen on land:

Disruptive coloring and camouflage

What is disruptive coloring?

coloration that confuses predators, allowing organisms time to escape

What is camouflage?

when the color and texture of organisms match its environment

Avoiding predation patterns only seen in the ocean

Transparency and countershading

What is transparency?

when an organism has virtually no coloration

What is countershading?

when an organism is dark on the top and white on the bottom

What are behavioral adaptations seen in the ocean?

Mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, and schooling

What is schooling?

When smaller organisms aggregate in a group to make them look like a larger organism

What is vertical migration?

a deep scattering layer that movers up and down daily to avoid predation (night = 1000 m down, day = surface)

Deep scattering layer

layer of organisms in the ocean that moves from 1000 meters deep to the surface (diel migration)

Primary productivity:

rate at which energy is stored in organic matter

___% of the ocean’s biomass relies directly/indirectly on photosynthesis for food

99%

Biomass

the total quantity or weight of organisms in a given area or volume

chemosynthesis uses ___ radiation

chemical

photosynthesis uses ___ radiation

solar

primary production

process in which energy is stored

GPP (gross primary production)

amount of photosynthetically fixed carbon (total amount of energy stored)