Final Exam Flashcards
A drift current meter provides what info?
Current speed and flow direction.
What is a benefit of downwelling
Export of dissolved oxygen to the deep ocean
Why do subtropical gyres rotate in one direction and sub polar gyres rotate in the opposite direction
Subtropical gyres are generates by the westerlies and trade winds and sub polar gyres are generated by the polar easterlies
The global ocean conveyer belt circulation is most responsible for distributing what?
Heat
Offshore winds most likely result in what?
Costal upwelling
The floats that are programmed to measure deep currents are called what?
Argo
Why does upwelling increase biological productivity
It provides nutrients used by phytoplankton
Why do areas along eastern boundary currents typically have cool dry climates?
Eastern boundary currents are coming from the poles.
Where does deep water formation occur?
The polar regions
What is the name of the western boundary current of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre
Gulf Stream
If the Gulf Stream were to turn right into the Atlantic near the coast of SC the climate of northeast US would become _____ and the climate of Europe would become _____
Cooler, warmer
A breakdown of normal wind circulation due to wind reduction in the Pacific Ocean results in what?
El Niño.
What is generating force that starts surface currents?
Wind
What is the driving force behind the generation of deep water currents?
Density difference
What percentage of the winds energy is transferred to the oceans surface?
2 percent
What is the fundamental unit of taxonomic classification
Species
What is the function of Long appendages for most phytoplankton
Provides increased buoyancy
What kingdom does single cells algae belong in?
Protista
What usually describes cold water species when compared to their warm water counterparts
Large grow slowly and have a longer lifespan
Which organism type comprises the majority of earths biomass
Plankton
What best classifies a tuna
Nexton
What is an advantage of daily vertical migration by marine zooplankton
Predator avoidance
An organism that can make its own food without relying on other organism as is called what?
Autotrophic
Organisms living on the ocean bottom are called what?
Benthos
What strategy does a jelly use to avoid predators?
Transparency
Why are there more benthic species than pelagic species?
The benthic zone has more potential habitats
The surface water in which region should have the highest dissolved oxygen concentration?
Polar
What adaption decreases the effect of viscosity on swimming organisms?
Streamlining
Why does the dissolved oxygen concentration begin to decrease at the bottom of the epilagic zone
This is where respiration exceeds photosynthesis
An organism that lives in the plankton for only part is it’s life is called what?
Meroplankton.
What type of compound releases hydrogen ions when dissolved in water?
An acid
The density of water____below 4 degrees C
Decreases
On a sunny day, the sand is hot but the water is still cool. What property of water does this demonstrate?
High specific heat
Why is there little change in salinity below 1000 meters?
Surface processes don’t affect the deeper water
The freezing point of water ____ with the addition of dissolved substances and ____ at higher pressures
Decreases, decreases
Based upon latitude, where is salinity highest in the northern hemisphere?
Topic of cancer
What is the average surface ph of the ocean?
8.1
What is Te term for the total amount of solids dissolved in water?
Salinity
Why isn’t desalination more widespread?
It is energy expensive
A large influx of carbon dioxide to the ocean over an extended period of time will have what effect on ph?
Decrease the ph
If water temp decreases water density___ if salinity decreases density____
Increases, decreases
Changing the salinity of a body of water most often involves what?
Adding/removing fresh water
Which of the following exerts the greatest control over density at the oceans surface
Temperature
What areas on earth experience the greatest day/night temp variations
Interiors of land masses
What is the name of the layer of water marked by rapidly changing temp with depth
Thermocline
What is a dead zone?
A low oxygen area caused by eutrophication
The rate at which photosynthetic and chemosynthetic organisms convert energy into organic matter is referred to as…
Primary production
Which of the following are the most productive marine algae
Diatoms
Why are Continental margins more biologically productive than the open ocean
There are more available nutrients along the continental margins
Why does the mid latitude region usually have to phytoplankton Blooms per year
Phytoplankton are limited by sunlight and nutrients at different times of the year
What percentage of organic material from the surface makes it too deep ocean floor
1%
What is the major limiting factor to phytoplankton production in the tropical oceans
Lack of nutrients
What is the major limiting factor to phytoplankton production in the pool oceans
Lack of sunlight
Why is more of the oceans biomass supported by photosynthesis then by chemosynthesis
Because there is more available sunlight and water and nutrients for photosynthesis
Which of the following are most often responsible for a harmful algal blooms
Dinoflagellates
Which type of consumer feeds on plants and animals
Omnivores
Satellites can measure which pigment to determine ocean productivity
Chlorophyll
What is the average percentage of energy that is transferred from one trophic level to another
10 percent
Which area of the ocean usually has the greatest light penetration
Open ocean
What factor determines which play is subducted are a subduction zone
Density
Based on present day plate movement, in the future the Atlantic Ocean will get____ and the Pacific Ocean will get____
Bigger, smaller
Areas of volcanic activity that are not located at plate boundaries and do not change position are called____
Hotspots
What polarity is earths magnetic field at present?
Normal
The solid layer of the earth that moves and makes up the plates is the…
Lithosphere
The study of earths field in the geologic past is called…
Paleomagnetism
Mountains are created at what specific plate boundary
Continental-continental convergent boundary
The plastic layer between the surface of the earth in which the plates float is called the…
Asthenosphere
The mid ocean ridge where new crust is created, is called a
Spreading center
Which of the following is the term for plate boundary where the plates are moving away from each other new crust is being created
Divergent
Which of the following features associated with an oceanic oceanic convergent boundary
Volcanic island arc
What is the name of the supercontinent hypothesized by Alfred Wagner
Pangaea
Areas where crust is being destroyed and recycled are called….
Subduction sones
If the earth is four .6 billion years old why is the oldest ocean for only 180 million years old
Because the oldest crust is destroyed at subduction zones
The geophysicist______ was the first to come up with the idea of continental drift
Alfred Wagner
Which of the following is the term for the plate boundary type where crust is neither created nor destroyed but the plates are moving laterally past each other
Transform
Which of the following caudal fin types is found on sharks
Heterocercal
Which of the following is one of the reasons that gray whales undergo such extensive migrations each year
To feed in the Arctic
Why do tuna need more myoglobin than other fish such as grouper?
It allows them to swim faster for a longer period of time
Why are marine mammals able to stay under water longer than humans
They use oxygen more efficiently
Which family of baleen whales swims with their mouths open in scams the water service for small pray
Right whales
Why is anthropogenic noise pollution such a problem for marine mammals
It can cause strandings
What is the cue for gray whales to start their migration from the arctic
The formation of pack ice
Which fin is most often used to propel high speed fish
Caudal fun
Which organisms have rigid gas containers in their bodies
Cuttlefish
How do fish benefit from maintaining a constant body temp
Increased swimming speeds
What is a significant adaption of deep sea organisms
Bioluminescence
What is the primary function of a dorsal fin
Stabilization
Which order of marine mammals is vegetarian
Sirenia
Which order of marine mammals has prominent canine teeth
Carnivora
How does schooling of fish benefit reproduction
It increases the chance of fertilization
Why is there a greater coral diversely in the Pacific Ocean then in the Atlantic Ocean
Because of plate tectonics
Why aren’t there extensive kelp forests on the east coast of the United States as compared to the West Coast
The East Coast does not have a benthic substrate in which the kelp can attached
What is a known cause of coral bleaching
Increased water temps
What is the most significant stressful organisms in the high tide zone of a rocky shore
Disiccation
What is the most important organisms found at hydrothermal vents
Archaea
Why are high nutrient concentrations in the water harmful for coral Growth
Because turbidity increases due to planktonic Algal growth
Which part of the coral reef protects organisms and some of the reef from wave action
Buttress zone
What organisms live between the sediment particles of a sandy beach
Meiofauna
Which type of sediment covered shore is considered the lowest energy environment
Mud flat
Why is the majority of benthic biomass found on the continental shelf
Because biomass is correlated with primary production
Why are smaller more delicate plate coral found 50 to 100 m down on a coral reef
Wave energy is lower in this area
What is the area called where water that is very high and salinity trickles out of the seafloor
Hyper saline seep
What is the basis of life at a hydrothermal vent
Chemosynthesis
Why do corals need zooxanthellae
For food
Why does a male fiddler crab have one claw that is significantly longer than the other
To attract females
What is the most significant mode of transport of lithogenous sediment
Water
Increasing carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere will cause what to happen to the calcite compensation Depth
It will become shallower
What resources are produced in the ocean floor by bacteria breaking down organic matter
Gas hydrates
What is the major mineral component of lithogenous sediment
Quartz
A calcareous ooze would be dominated by which organism
Foraminiferan
And the device upon what you are reading this question has components need from resources from the ocean floor. What are they called?
Rare earth elements
What is the type of sediment that is derived from the continents?
Lithogenous
What often speeds up the decent of small particles to the ocean floor
Decal pellets
What are of the ocean floor usually has the thickest sediment deposits
Continental shelf
For sediment be considered a biogenic ooze what minimum percentage must be biological matter
30 percent
What is the type of sediment that is not from earth
Cosmogenous
An abyssal clay with a brownish red color is rich in what element
Iron
What is the sediment type that comes from the remains of previously living organisms
Bio genius
A siliceous ooze is dominated by which microscopic algae?
Diatom
What method of sediment collection achieves the deepest penetration
Rotary drilling
What feature might cause a wave to break well before it meets the shoreline
Long shore sandbar
What feature is formed at the mouth of a river one more sediment is deposited than the longshore current can accommodate
Delta
Which of the following terms would be used to characterize the West Coast of the United States
Erosional and emerging
What is the net direction of longshore current along the east and west coast of North America
South
What has caused the greatest changes in sea level in the past 3000 years
Tectonic movements
What supplies the majority of sand in an individual beach compartment
River inflow
What is the name for the body of water between a barrier island and the mainland
Lagoon
Why does the East Coast of the United States had many barrier islands but the West Coast does not
The East Coast has a passive continental margin in the West Coast is an active margin
With continued sea level rise what is expected to happen to the total area of wetlands
It is expected to decrease
Which of the following zones is located between low tide line and the highest point on land affected by large storm waves
Shore
Which of the following terms would characterize the east coast of the United States
Depositional and submerging
What is causing barrier islands to migrate landward
Rising sea level
What ecosystem is usually found in the midlatitudes and supports low lying halophytic plants
Salt marsh
After playing in the ocean for a while Tom looks up and sees he has drifted quite a distance from his starting point. Why?
Long shore current has moved Tom parallel to the shore
If caught in a rip current what should a swimmer do?
Swim parallel to the shore until they no longer feel the current
What toxic compound found in petroleum is harmful to marine life
PAH
DDT has been banned in the us since 1972 but other countries continue to use it, why?
Because it decreases public health risks
What is the worlds largest oil spill
Kuwait 1991
What is the greatest source of oil to the ocean
Natural seeps
It is illegal to dump what into the ocean
Plastic
What is bioremediation
The use of bacteria and fungi to break down oil from a spill
What causes Minamata disease
Mercury
What type of oil spill was the deep water horizon in the Gulf of Mexico
Extraction
What is the worst issue associated with plastics in the ocean
Accumulation of toxic chemicals that are then ingested
What is used to assess how pollutants affect organisms
Environmental bioassay
Which of the following is the only country that has not adopted the law of the sea treaty?
United States
Where does the majority of plastic in the ocean go?
It remains at the surface
Storm drain runoff and any trash that flows with it is called what
Non point source pollution
The increase of toxic chemicals with increasing levels in the food web is referred to as what?
Biomagnification
What is the threshold morality rate that determines if a pollutant is toxic or not
50 percent
