Exam 3 Flashcards
What does Tsu mean?
Harbor
What does Nami mean?
Wave
What are tsunamis not?
confined to harbors and are not created by tides
How are tsunamis created?
undersea earthquakes, landslides or volcanic activity
How does energy travel in tsunamis?
Outward (like ripples that spread when a rock is thrown into a pond)
What are two of the most recent devastating tsunamis?
Indian Ocean Tsunami (12/26/04) Japan Tsunami (3/11/11)
What is the wave height on shore of a tsunami called?
“run-up”
What happens as a tsunami travels?
can bend and their speed can change due to the shape of the basin
How fast can a tsunami move in the deep ocean?
about 400 mph
What is the average wavelength of a tsunami?
125
How does a tsunami travel?
like a shallow water wave
When the front of a tsunami wave slows down, what happens?
the back of the wave “piles up” to a tremendous height
What is the approximate interval of crests and troughs of a tsunami wave?
about 15 minutes
About how tall can a tsunami wave get?
30 meters (98 feet) or higher
What determines the height of the tsunami on shore?
coastline shape and distance from the triggering event (earthquake)
What is the objective of the Tsunami Warning System?
predict the intensity and time of arrival of tsunami generated by earthquakes
What measures sea level changes as a tsunami passes over?
Anchored instruments, buoys that sense the period and wavelengths of waves in mid-ocean
Where do Tsunami’s typically occur?
near the Pacific ocean
What are giant heaps of trash that collect on the west coast of North America called?
Garbage Islands
Up until 1990 how much did the Global Sea Level rise per year?
2 mm/year
Currently, how much does the GSL rise each year?
3 mm/year
How much as the GSL risen over the last 7000 years?
9 meters
What affects the GSL?
ice on the continents, sea floor spreading rates, and global warming or cooling
Why are future projects for GSL threatening?
a large population of the world lives within 2 meters of the sea level currently and it could cause major coastal cities to be destroyed (Miami, New Orleans, Norfolk)
During this century, how much do we expect the sea level to rise with no changes in global warming?
2 to 6 feet
What does the shape of a coast depend on?
uplift and subsidence, erosion, the redistribution of material by sediment transport
What characterizes an erosional coast?
land-based influences determine the form, “young”, rough, and irregular
What characterizes a depositional coast?
heavily influenced by marine processes, usually older
Erosional coasts shape primary coasts by?
land erosion, land processes, volcanic activity, earth movements
Depositional coasts shape secondary coasts by?
waves and currents, stream erosion, abrasion of wind-driven particles, freeze/thaw cycles, slumping
What will happen if a wave approaches a shore at an angle?
the part of the wave closest to the shore will slow down due to friction, the wave offshore will maintain its speed, and overall, the wave will bend so that it’s more parallel to the shore
What shapes an erosional coast?
wave energy
What shapes a depositional coast?
sediment transport
What is movement of sand along a beach by wave action referred to as?
Longshore drift
What are regions where sand input and outflow are balanced?
coastal cells
What does the slope of a beach depend on?
Particle size
What develop when water piles against the shore and flows offshore in a fast and narrow path?
rip current
How do you escape a rip current?
swim parallel to the shore
What ancient harbor was filled with sediment carried by rivers?
Troy, near Scamander river in Turkey
What was another North African Coastal harbor that was silted in during ancient times?
Leptis Magna Harbor
What is the percentage of homes that are within 500 feet of the coast that will be destroyed within the next 60 years?
25%
What are some examples of coastal erosion driven by storms?
California mudslides, Gulf of Mexico Hurricanes, Longshore transport, Atlantic coast
What are some examples of shoreline stabilization?
Groins (walls perpendicular to the shore), Seawalls, Sand replenishment
What are ripraps?
irregular rocky structures that dissipate wave energy
What reduces beach erosion by the wind?
Wind Fences
What is referred to as “the hungry current”?
sand depletion and erosion that’s accelerated “downstream” of the barrier
What does FEMA stand for?
Federal Emergency Management Agency
What are barrier islands?
sandy, dynamic environments subject to severe erosion during storms in the U.S.
How are barrier islands created?
short-term sand deposits that move created by long-shore transport
What are some famous barrier islands?
Atlantic City, NJ; Ocean City, MD; Miami Beach, FL; Palm Beach, FL; Galveston, TX
What brings water far inland in low-lying, flat areas?
Storm Surges
What is the second largest fiscal liability of the U.S. Government?
National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)
What percentage of the population is living in coastal zones?
37%
What was the pay out by NFIP following Hurricane Katrina?
$16 Billion
How high must a rebuilt structure be according to FEMA regulations?
2 feet higher than the water level it was destroyed by
What are some factors to look into when choosing a coastal property?
Which direction is longshore transport? Is my section of the beach gaining or losing? Where is the dunefield? What changes are being made to the beach below and above me? Is there history of storm damage there? Is the house on a cliff? Do you know where to get coastal erosion maps or flood maps?
Where can you get flood maps?
FEMA.gov
What is the 100 year flood line?
0.1
What is the 500 year flood line?
0.2
What is the definition of pollution?
substances that cause damage by interfering with an organism’s physical or biochemical processes
What are natural pollutants?
volcanic eruptions (sulfuric acid)
What are Anthropogenic pollutants?
pollutants made by men (synthetic organic materials) - pesticides
What is solubility?
the ability of a substance to be dissolved
What is an example of a water soluble material?
raw sewage, fertilizer
What are characteristics of fat soluble materials?
binds with fat, accumulates in fatty tissues
What are some examples of fat soluble materials?
PCBs, DDT, some heavy metals
What are some insoluble materials?
oil, plastic, metal
What are the 6 types of marine pollution?
Petroleum, Synthetic Organic Chemicals, Heavy Metals, Solid Waste, Sewage, Fertilizer
What are examples of heavy metals?
Lead, Mercury, Copper, Iron
What pollutants are in fertilizer?
nitrate and phosphate
What are the three sources of characterization involve pollution?
Quantity, Toxicity, and Persistence
90% of oil enters the ocean via?
run-off from human activities
What are the two types of oil spills?
Crude and refined
What is the most common type of oil spill?
crude oil - large volume, doesnt dissolve easily
What type of oil spill is more disruptive for longer periods of time?
Refined oil
Why is a refined oil spill more of a concern?
because more refined oil is transported by sea
What are the natural processes to clean up spilled oil?
evaporation, bacterial degradation, formation of tar balls
What are three cleanup efforts for oil spills?
recovery, burning, dispersal
What was the famous oil spill that caused major consequences to occur?
2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico
What are some key problems of plastics?
float, small, degrade slowly, mistaken for food, hard to map, degrades quality of shoreline
What are some examples of synthetic organic chemicals?
pesticides, flame retardants, industrial solvents, cleaning fluids, coolants
What is the accumulation of toxins in organisms in progressively higher amounts up the food chain?
bioamplification
Who wrote the famous book about bioamplification?
Rachel Carson
What was the book written about bioamplification called?
Silent Spring
What did Rachel Carson’s book inspire?
Clean Water and Clean Air Acts and EPA
What is an example of lower concentrations of heavy metals?
iron needed for producing red blood cells
What can cause neurological damage, birth defects and death?
high concentrations of heavy metals like mercury poisoning
What are some very toxic metals?
Lead, Mercury, Copper, Cadmium, Tributyl tin
What is the outcome of raw sewage being leaked from old septic tanks?
deadly diseases like cholera, shellfish contamination, reef clogging, debilitating viruses
What is eutrophication?
too many nutrients cause algae to grow rapidly
Where do nutrients come from into the ocean?
waste water, treatment plants, factory effluent, accelerated soil erosion, fertilizers
What does HAB stand for?
Hazardous Algal Blooms
How are HABs formed?
Marine algae (phytoplankton especially) take up these nutrients, and large algal blooms occur.
How do HABs affect the food chain?
cause light to be blocked to lower water depths causing a lack of oxygen
What are the three coastal marine communities called?
Estuaries, Mangrove Forests, Kelp Forests
What does inter tidal mean?
band between high and low tides
What are characteristics of intertidal communities?
high energy environment, rapid changes in temperature, moisture, salinity, many different habitats, abundant food
Sand and cobble beaches are what type of environments?
hostile
The conditions of sand and cobble beaches favor what type of animals?
Large
What are the essentials for coastal communities?
abundant nutrients, high productivity, shelter from predators, variety of environments
What is an estuary?
where fresh water mixes with the sea
What is the economic value of wetlands?
critical for life cycles of many marine organisms, filter sediments and pollutants, buffer water levels, slow erosion and stabilize shorelines
What is estuarine circulation?
Unique circulation patterns occur where fresh and salty water meet in estuaries
What are influences on estuarine circulation?
shape of estuary, volume and variation of river flow, tides
What are the 5 different kinds of estuaries?
Salt-wedge, well mixed, partially mixed, fjord, reverse
What is a fjord estuary?
narrow but very deep, with river water flow is strong, but with little tidal mixing.
What is a partially mixed estuary?
the river flow coming into the estuary is very strong
What is a well mixed estuary?
flow is not as strong and you have good mixing
What is a reverse estuary?
river ceased to flow, ocean water starts to evaporate (increased salinity)
What is a salt-wedge estuary?
ocean water is more dense than river water, moves up the estuary with a dense wedge of salty water, very little mixing
What is an example of a well mixed estuary?
Columbia River
What is an example of a salt wedge estuary?
Mississippi River
What is an example of a partially mixed estuary?
Chesapeake bay
What are some major threats to estuaries?
habitat destruction due to development; nutrient pollution (e.g., nitrates, phosphates, fertilizers, sewage); non-nutrient pollution (e.g. oil, heavy metals, solid waste)
What are the most productive parts of estuaries?
Salt marsh communities
Why are mangrove forests and swamps like coastal wetlands?
critical for life cycles of many marine organisms and filter sediments and pollutants
Where are mangrove forests located?
along warm water coastlines
What is the farming of sea life?
mariculture
What is among the most biologically productive environments in the ocean?
kelp forests
What are the basic components of the kelp algae?
blades/fronds stems/stipes pneumatocysts sporophyls holdfast
Why do pneumatocysts float?
the gases that fill them
What are the reproductive organs of kelp?
sporophyls
What are the root like structures that attach kelp to rocks and such?
holdfast
What are the main predator of kelp?
sea urchins
Who eats sea urchins?
starfish and sea otters
Where can you find erosion maps?
USGS.gov
Where should your house be located on a beach?
behind the dune
What does “benthos” mean?
All organisms living in the ocean
What can all living things do?
contain matter in an organized state, capture/store/transmit energy, reproduce and change through time, adapt to their environment
What are the three types of organisms in the sea?
Plankton, Nekton, Seston
What type of organisms are free-floating?
plankton
What types of organisms are swimming organisms?
Nekton
What types of organisms are attached organisms?
Seston
What Greek root word do plankton and planet come from?
Wanderer
What are the three types of plankton?
phytoplankton, zooplankton, nanoplankton/picoplankton
What type of organisms are phytoplankton?
algae
What type of organisms are zooplankton?
protists and animals
What type of organisms are nanoplankton/picoplankton?
bacteria and viruses
What is considered to be the base of the ocean food chain?
phytoplankton
Phytoplankton provide what percentage of food made on earth by photosynthesis?
40
What does phytoplankton’s small size allow?
Diffusion of nutrients into cells and transfer of wastes out and Efficient use of cellular material
What are the two plain types of plankton?
Diatoms and dinoflagellates
Where are diatoms dominant?
dominant in areas of high productivity with shells of silica
What type of plankton don’t form shells but have whip-like appendages that allow them to move?
dinoflagellates
What does autotrophic mean?
they make their own food using photosynthesis
What is primary productivity?
Synthesis of organic matter from inorganic substances
What is primary productivity expressed in?
(grams/meter2/day) or (grams/meter2/year)
Where is the highest productivity?
Coral Reef, near coasts, northern oceans - the centers of gyres are “deserts”!
During what time of year is there an increase in marine production?
winter to spring
What conditions are needed for an algal bloom to occur?
Abundant light and nutrients, Favorable physical conditions (warm, calm), Low grazing rates
What is the algal bloom that can be seen from space?
microscopic Coccolithophore, named Ehux (Emiliani huxleyi)
What are red and brown tides?
tides that are caused by toxic chemicals or decay so they can use up all the oxygen in the water column
An overwhelming number of zooplankton are?
crustaceans
What percentage of marine animals are crustaceans?
70
What is a keystone species?
a species that, by its very presence (or absence), has a HUGE effect on the ecosystem.
What is an example of a keystone species?
krill
What is ecology?
How organisms interact with each other and with their environment
What are some examples of biological factors?
crowding, predation, shading from light, availability of food, availability of a mate
A species’ response to an environmental factor often follows what?
a bell-shaped curve (Gaussian distribution)
What are the two population shapes?
J and S
What does a J shaped population curve mean?
exponential growth, no control
What does an S shaped population curve mean?
oscillatory, with control
What are some predation strategies?
foraging, scavenger, ambush, filter feeding, deposit feeding
What is symbiosis?
close interaction of two species
What is parasitism?
one organism benefits, the other is harmed
What is commensalism?
one organism benefits, the other is not helped or harmed
What is mutualism?
both organisms benefit
What is biomass?
the amount of carbon/g/meter squared per day or per year
What do we look at to see what happens to productivity in communities?
trophic (feeding) steps
What is the transfer efficiency between trophic steps?
10%
What is the order of the Trophic Pyramid?
Tuna Carnivorous fish Carnivorous zooplankton Herbivorous zooplankton Phytoplankton
What are the three structures of marine communities?
Photosynthetic, detrital, chemosynthetic
What types of marine communities have a photosynthetic structure?
open ocean and coral reef
What types of marine communities have a detrital structure?
deep sea floor
What types of marine communities have a chemosynthetic structure?
hydrothermal vents and cold seep
What percentage of fish species school?
25%
What is schooling good for?
mating, cooperative hunting, avoid bigger predators
What does DSL stand for?
Deep Scattering Layer
How was the DSL discovered?
by SONAR
What is the DSL?
A mass of swimming organisms, millions of them, that stay more or less together and move up and down near the photic-aphotic boundary to feed.
What are characteristics of the deep sea floor?
dark, cold, hypersaline, highly pressurized
Where are many kelp forests found?
West Coast of North America
What are some fish with Mercury in them?
Swordfish, Orange Roughy, Tuna, Sharks, Marlin
What are some fish with PCBs?
Flounder, Crabs, Shellfish
What are some good fish to eat?
Mahi Mahi, Tilapia, Wild Alaskan Salmon, Wild Striped Bass
What is the formula for speed?
Wavelength/Period
What is the formula for steepness?
Height/Wavelength
The phytoplankton are called the primary producers because
they use sunlight to turn CO2 and water into available energy and they are part of the base of the food chain and trophic pyramid
The least productive areas of the oceans are
they middle of the gyres
Biological amplification…..
involves the concentration of pollutants in organisms
When buying coastal property, you know you can get flood maps and erosion maps online from
Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) & U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
