Classification of Marine Organisms

Question 1

“drifters” - algae, animals and bacteria that move with the ocean current. Highly abundant and important for the marine ecosystem.

Answer 1

Plankton

Question 2

“swimmers” - move independently of the ocean current (usually completes long migrations).

Answer 2

Nekton

Question 3

“bottom dwellers” -living in, on or near the sea floor (shallow or deep)

Answer 3

Benthos

Question 4

What limits or determines the position of Nekton in the ocean?

Answer 4

Temperature, salinity, viscosity, availability of nutrients, water pressure

Question 5

Feeding style of Phytoplankton

Answer 5

Autotrophs, range in size

Question 6

Feeding style of Zooplankton

Answer 6

Heterotrophs

Question 7

Bacterioplankton

Answer 7

free-living bacteria, can be microscopic (picoplankton), freely suspended or attached to particles

Question 8

Virioplankton

Answer 8

Smaller than bacterioplankton, bacterialphages, algal viruses, limit other plankton types through infection and lysis

Question 9

Holoplankton

Answer 9

organisms that spend their entire lives as plankton

Question 10

Meroplankton

Answer 10

Organisms that spend their adult lives as Nekton but are plankton as juveniles/larvae

Question 11

Macroplankton

Answer 11

large floating animals and algae that measure 2 to 20 centimeters (0.8 to 8 inches)

Question 12

epifauna

Answer 12

live on the surface of the sea floor, attached to rocks or moving along the bottom

Question 13

infauna

Answer 13

live buried in sand, in discarded shells, or within the mud

Question 14

nektonbenthos

Answer 14

live not the bottom yet also have the ability to swim or crawl through the water above the ocean floor

Question 15

In what zone of the ocean do plankton live

Answer 15

epipelagic zone