1 Marine Ecology Introduction

Question 1

What is Ecology?

Answer 1

Ecology is organized into a hierarchal group/ levels of subdisciplines:
1) Individuals
2) Populations
3) Communities
4) Ecosystems

Question 2

What are Ecosystems?

Answer 2

the two components of
–> biotic (living) community
and
–> abiotic (physical) environment
functioning as a unit

e.g. salt marshes
biotic: plants, animals, microbes
abiotic: atmosphere, climate, soil, water

Question 3

Emergent properties

Answer 3

• set of phenomena
• arises when interactions of individual components produce new functions
• a characteristic an entity gains when it becomes part of a bigger system

-“the whole is more than the sum of the parts” (or less)

Question 4

Answer 4

• diagram of main processes affecting the distribution and abundance of species
• maintaining biodiversity at different spatial and temporal scales
• human impact at all scales

Question 5

GLOBAL SCALE
Marine Eco-regions of the world (MEOW)

Answer 5

a bioregionalization of coastal and shelf areas
- 12 realms
- 62 provinces
- 232 eco regions
–> characterized by similar climatic conditions and biomes

Most productive areas of the Mediterranean: Coast of Portugal, Spain (huge upwelling)

Question 6

REGIONAL SCALE
Food supply due to normal Conditions and El Niño Conditions

Answer 6

trophic inputs on a regional scale regulated by upwelling phenomena

Question 7

REGIONAL SCALE
Dispersal of invasive species

Answer 7

Question 8

What is biodervisity?

Answer 8

• the amount of variability contained in a natural system
• it is a fundamental property of ecosystems

including diversity
-within species (genetic)
-between species (community)
-of ecosystems

Question 9

Biological community

Answer 9

• collection of all organisms living in a particular place
• organisms may or may not interact

Question 10

Assemblage

Answer 10

• collection of a subset of organisms of a community
• e.g. the objects of study

Question 11

Concept of diversity in communities or assemblages

Answer 11

the concept of diversity consists of at least three components:

1) variety/ species richness (=number of species that are present in comm./assembl.)
2) absolute abundance of species (=total number of individuals present in comm./assembl.)
careful: absolute abundance is NOT realtive abundance (=number of individuals of a single species)
3) evenness (=how species abundances are equal to each other)

Question 12

habitat

Answer 12

area or natural environment in which an organism normally lives

Question 13

biogenic habitats

Answer 13

• habitatscreated by plants and animals
• many habitats formed by habitat-forming plants and animals (–> foundation species/ habitat engineers)
• they introduce complexity in the system
• they modify the environment
  -they create habitats for many other unique assemblages of associated species

Question 14

Interactions between biotic and abiotic components

Answer 14

• physical environment affects growth of plants
• plant growths modify physical environment
• birds/ fish foraging on invertebrates modify the abundance and composition of plants

Question 15

Top down control

Answer 15

• densitiy variations of top predators (e.g. from overfishing) produce cascading effects on lower trophic levels
• lower trophic levels such as marine vegetation

Question 16

Bottom up control

Answer 16

-Changes in abiotic state (e.g. excess nutrients, climate change) affect the basal trophic levels
-can propagate up to all other trophic levels

Question 17

What is an environmental impact?

Answer 17

• any changes to abiotic or biotic state of a system as a consequence of human activities
  –> impact on ecosystems ability to provide goods and services