Chapter 3 Flashcards
What are habitats?
A natural environment of an organism, the place in which it is “natural for it to live and grow.”
A zone where an organism lives where it can “find food, shelter, protection and mates for reproduction.”
A set of “specified conditions” at a specified place
Abiotic is?
Not alive (Physics and Chemistry)
Temp
pH
Solar Radiation
Water
Pressure
Sound
Biotic is?
Alive (Other organisms that are positive and negative)
Competition
Disease/parasite
Predators
Prey
Primary producers
Mates
What are environmental gradients?
A change in an abiotic factor from one place to another
High elevations mountain slopes
Mid elevation transition zone
Low elevation grassland
(Temperature, pressure, elevation, rainfall, plant life)
What do plants have for adaptation?
Nutrients from soil
co2 from atmosphere
Desiccations - cuticle
“Transpiration”
Vascularization
rigidity - cell wall
Gamete propagation
What do animals have for adaptation?
skin/cuticle - prevent water loss
Moist respiration surface
Stronger endo/exoskeleton
Size
Homeostasis
What is homeostasis?
regulation
A state of balance among all the body systems needed for the body to survive and function correctly.
How do you measure oceans?
How far from land
Off shore (pelagic)
Depth (epipelagic, hadalpelagic)
What are some facts about seawater?
Sodium chloride, calcium chloride, magnesium
4 billion years old = ocean
Light in water: Photic Zone - where the light is in the water ~ 40 - 600m
Aphotic Zone > 600 m
Does fresh water become less dense when being frozen over?
Yes
What are the gasses in seawater?
Cold Liquids hold more gas
Warm liquids holds less gas
CO2 produces more by cold waters, organisms, volcanic activity
O2 is made more in the water’s surface due to plants that gather sunlight at the top
What is pressure for seawater?
Sea level to space = 1 ATM (atmosphere) Absolute pressure
Air spaces gets compressed when going into the depths of the oceans
What is Pycnocline?
depths of rapid density changes
What is thermocline?
rapid temp changes
What is Halocline?
rapid salinity changes
How do Pycnocline, Thermocline, and Halocline affect one another?
When temp changes, so does density
Change salinity, change density
Fresh water is less dense than saltwater
Salinity changes where?
nearshore and estuary environments
What’s estuary?
the tidal mouth of a large river, where the tide meets the stream.
Does Density difference between fresh and saltwater cause stratification?
Yes
What is brackish water?
where saltwater and freshwater are mixed
Does Salinity tolerances determine an organism’s habitat?
Yes
Primary Production
Pertain to plants
The term ________________ is used to quantify the amount of carbon locked into biomass - the amount fixed by photosynthesis
Production
6CO2 + 6H20 -> C6H12O6 + 6O2
Carbon + water -> Sugar + Oxygen
Rate function - Carbon/unit area (Volume)/Time
What is Gross Primary Production?
total amount of fixed carbon
What is Net Primary Production?
Biomass or carbon produced by primary produced in a given area and time
the amount let to support other trophic levels (GPP - growth and maintenance respiration by plants)
What is Phytoplankton?
the autotrophic (photosynthesizing) component of the plankton community (1st)
Floating algae or blue-green algae - photosynthetic
Primary producers in the ocean.
What is Zooplankton?
the heterotrophic component of the plankton community (2nd)
Usually larval stage of floating animals (animal-like, may be the larval state of fishes)
May eat other plankton (non-photosynthetic)
What are the factors of Primary Production?
Latitude - Seasonal Variations
Species distribution - how species fair for sunlight and temperature
Nutrient concentration - how much nutrients determine where its going to be
Nutrients that matter, not the cold water
What is Zonation?
The categorization of communities of organisms based on their distribution or arrangement in a habitat
A gradual change in communities (especially plants) caused by changes in habitat; the effect on communities produced by environmental gradients
Gradual change in vegetation. The boundaries of zones are often caused by competition (resource partitioning) between neighboring populations and by abiotic factors along an environmental gradient that affect species competitiveness.
What are the distinct horizontal banding of organisms for the intertidal Zonation?
Supralittoral fringe
Midlittoral Zone
Infralittoral fringe
Explain the plants growth reasoning for the Intertidal Zonation.
Vascular plants can’t handle salinity
Temperature/shade for plants to grow
Soil
What is the Intertidal Zone?
The part of the seashore between high and low tides, where marine organisms are periodically out of the water
smallest area of world oceans
Greatest variations in environmental factors
Inhabited primarily by marine organisms
What is the most influencing factor for the Intertidal Zone?
The tide
What are the effects when it comes to the tides influence in Intertidal Zones?
Air exposure - longer exposed desication and temp extremes
Timing of exposure - midday timing different than exposure at night
What is another name for Intertidal Zone?
Littoral Zone
What is Deep Sea Zonation?
Shallow water that surrounds land masses accounts for less than 10% of the area of the world’s ocean
This region, plus the offshore waters lit by the sun
90% of the ocean is composed of dark, cold waters
What is Forest Zonation?
natural layering of ecosystems that occurs at distinct altitudes due to varying environmental conditions. Temperature, humidity, soil composition, and solar radiation
What is another name for Forest Zonation?
Altitudinal gradients
Does each zone support different vegetation and animal species?
Yes it may.
What is Relative importance?
calculated using size and abundance. The dominant species according to RI stand out above the dashed line.
What is Asymmetrical Zonation?
Windward side - water gets dumped and goes up the hill
Leeward side - dry air goes down the hill
In places where optimal factors are present, you will find what?
Location of organisms
Distribution of factors => Distribution of organisms
Factors are often ___________ resulting in a ____________ distribution of an organism.
Patchy
What is the most important climatic factor for land organisms? (Plants, animals, fungi, etc.)
Water
What happens to light as it goes deeper into the oceans depths?
Refraction.
Light intensity gradually reduced with depth
Changes in color and gets dimmer/dark
What are filter feeders?
Feed on Plankton in the water column
Rely on food particles from the current
Benthic (i.e. attached)
EX: clams, sponges, fish, etc.)
What dominates marine ecosystems?
Animals
What dominates terrestrial ecosystems?
Plants
what is desiccation?
Removal of moisture, drying out
Land animals need mechanical support in the form of what?
Internal/external skeletons
(Mechanical plan rather than architectural plan)
What counters gravity in the water that allows it to easily float?
Buoyancy
_________ is a way to reduce the force of water/air.
Streamlining
Stiff organisms are ________, __________, and ___________ together for mutual support.
Short, streamlined, and tightly clumped
_________ and __________ can only occur where there is enough sunlight for photosynthesis.
Survival and Growth
What colors penetrate further into the water’s depths?
Blue and green light
Shorter wavelengths have _____________ and can ____________.
More energy; penetrate to deeper depths
Longer wavelengths have ___________ and thus get ________________ as they go through the water column
Less energy; scattered easily
