classification of marine organisms

Question 1

All organisms that drift with the ocean currents and cannot determine their horizontal position within the ocean.

Answer 1

Plankton

Question 2

Organisms that spend their entire lives as plankton

Answer 2

Holoplankton

Question 3

Many organisms that spend their adult lives as nekton or benthos but spend their juvenile and/or larval stages as plankton

Answer 3

Meroplankton

Question 4

What type of organism makes up the majority of the earth’s biomass?

Answer 4

Planktonic

Question 5

What organism type makes up 98% of marine species?

Answer 5

Benthic

Question 6

All animals capable of moving independently of the ocean current by swimming or other means of propulsion. They are capable of determining their own positions

Answer 6

Nekton

Question 7

Organisms living on or in the ocean floor

Answer 7

Benthos

Question 8

Organisms living on the surface of the sea floor, either attached to rocks or moving along the bottom

Answer 8

Epifauna

Question 9

Organisms that live buried in the sand, in discarded shells, or within the mud that exists at the sea bottom.

Answer 9

Infauna

Question 10

Organisms that live on the bottom but also have the ability to swim or crawl through the water above the ocean floor

Answer 10

Nekton benthos