IMS W5 Biology Flashcards
Taxonomy
Classifying organisms.
- morphological characteristics
- genes
- genomes
Convergent evolution
Organisms from different marine environments that evolved convergently with other organisms as it was the most efficient outcome.
Species
group of actually or potentially interbreeding organisms
Life
Ability of living things to capture, store, and transmit energy and the ability to reproduce.
Main elements of life
Carbon
Nitrogen
Phosphorus and silicon
Iron and trace metals
Food chain
Linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass. Different tophic levels with only 10% of energy being transported to the level above.
Levels in food web
Primary producers
Primary consumers
Secondary consumers
Tertiary consumers
Quaternary consumers
Apex consumers
Causes loss of energy between levels
- Energy dissipated as heat during respiration
- Part of the organic matter and leave the body as feces
- Not all of the individual organisms in a trophic level will get eaten by organisms in the next level up
Bottom level
decomposers
detritivores
Factionation
Method to understand how the foodweb works. Looking at the N isotopes or C isotopes and see how the heavier isotopes move through the food web.
Functional diversity of marine organisms
Energy assimilation
Trophic position
Habitat
Feeding strategy
Physical factors affecting organisms (7)
Light
Dissolved gases
Temperature
Salinity
Acid-base balance
Hydrostatic pressure
Nutrients
Adaptation strategies (10)
- Swim bladder for buoyancy
- Gills
- Streamlined
- Insulation
- Holding breath
- Luminous lure
- Smoke screen
- Counter-illumination
- Separable body part
- The burglar alarm
Feeding relationships
o Mutualism: both organisms benefit
o Commensalism: one benefits and the other is not harmed or benefited
o Parasitism: parasite benefits while host is harmed
Areas of the ocean
- Photic and aphotic zones
- Hydrostatic pressure
- Temperature differentiation
- Saline differentiation
- Nutrient differentiation
- Oxygen: oxygen minimum zones and deep in the sediments.
2 groups of pelagic organisms
- The plankton drift or swim weakly, going where the ocean goes, unable to move consistently against waves or current flow.
- The nekton are pelagic organisms that actively swim.
4 most abundant types of plankton
- Picoplankton – this category encompasses most other plankton types, which are very small. Almost always photosynthetic. Most abundant plankton and takes care of a lot of nutrients in the ocean.
- Diatoms – the dominant and most productive of the photosynthetic plankton. Found in different places in the ocean as they have different strategies of photosynthesis.
- Dinoflagellates – widely distributed single celled phytoplankton; use flagella to move. To be found in bloom situations. Bioluminescent plankton: can outgrow other organisms.
- Coccolithophores – small single-celled autotrophs.
Carbon cycle
Viral shunt/microbial loop
Heterotrophic loop
Different types of groups plankton
Zooplankton: heterotrophic plankton
Holoplankton: staying their whole life in the plankton community
Meroplankton: only in the juvenile stages in the plankton community.
Seaweed classification
- Chlorophytes are green due to the presence of chlorophyll and the lack of accessory pigments.
- Phaeophytes are brown. They contain chlorophyll and the secondary pigment fucoxanthin.
- Rhodophytes get their red color from the accessory pigments called phycobilin’s.
Marine angiosperms
Sea grasses
Mangroves
Community
Composed of many populations that interact in a certain location
Population
Group of organisms of the same species that occupy a specific area.
Habitat
Organisms physical location in its community
