Marine Environment L1

Question 1

List eight types of aquatic environment.

Answer 1

1) Streams and rivers
2) Wetlands
3) Groundwater
4) Ponds and Lakes
5) Estuaries
6) Marine environment (sea/ocean)
7) Intertidal
8) Salt Marsh & Mangroves

Question 2

What percentage of the Earth’s surface is water?

Answer 2

70%

Question 3

What percentage of all named species are invertebrates?

Answer 3

70%

Question 4

What percentage of all global water resources are salty?

Answer 4

97%

Question 5

How much freshwater is stored on Earth as ice? In what form is the remaining percentage of water held?

Answer 5

70% of freshwater is ice

Almost all of the remaining 30% is groundwater. Streams/rivers/lakes etc hold a tiny fraction of the Earth’s freshwater.

Question 6

How salty is saltwater?

Answer 6

There are 35 parts water per thousand of solutes

Question 7

Why is the marine environment important?

Answer 7

1) Vital for global nutrient cycles (including carbon)
2) Has different biomes
3) Species rich

Question 8

Define Primary Production

Answer 8

Primary productivity is the rate at which energy is converted by photosynthetic and chemosynthetic autotrophs to organic substances.

Question 9

Define Secondary Production

Answer 9

Secondary production is the generation of biomass of heterotrophic (consumer) organisms in a system. This is driven by the transfer of organic material between trophic levels, and represents the quantity of new tissue created through the use of assimilated food

Question 10

Approximately, how much carbon does the ocean absorb annually?

Answer 10

90 Gigatons (or petagrams, they are the same amount)

Question 11

Why are there more phytoplankton nearer coastlines?

Answer 11

1) The water is shallow and therefore warmer

2) Human waste production provides nutrients

Question 12

Why are there lots of phytoplankton found at the equator?

Answer 12

The equator is warm.

Question 13

What heats up Northern Europe and the North Atlantic?

Answer 13

Thermohaline circulation.

A rapid rise in greenhouse gas concentrations could disrupt the thermohaline circulation.

Question 14

What drives the climate in the UK?

Answer 14

The Gulf stream

Question 15

Give examples of shallow water environments.

Answer 15

1) Estuaries
2) Intertidal zones
3) Kelp forests
4) Coral reefs

Question 16

Define benthic zone

Answer 16

The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water

Question 17

Define pelagic zone

Answer 17

The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth

Question 18

What is the most important variable of the ocean?

Answer 18

Water depth

Question 19

Different _______________ penetrate to different depths.

Answer 19

Different wavelengths of light penetrate to different depths.

Question 20

________ light doesn’t penetrate very far.

Answer 20

Red light doesn’t penetrate very far (which is a shame because this is the sort of light most green plants use).

Brown and red algae absorb light of a different spectrum (that can penetrate deeper). E.g. blue light

Question 21

In what zone is most energy found in the ocean?

Answer 21

Most energy is in the Euphotic zone where photosynthesis occurs

Question 22

What is the euphotic zone?

Answer 22

The euphotic zone is the layer closer to the surface that receives enough light for photosynthesis to occur.

Question 23

What is marine snow?

Answer 23

In the deep ocean, marine snow is a continuous shower of mostly organic detritus falling from the upper layers of the water column. It is a significant means of exporting energy from the light-rich photic zone to the aphotic zone below.

Question 24

What happens to the ocean as it absorbs more CO2?

Answer 24

The ocean becomes more acidic as it absorbs CO2, casing a wide range of consequences, such as the slowing of skeletal growth in corals and coral bleaching.

Question 25

What percentage of CO2 emissions are absorbed by oceans?

Answer 25

33.3%

Question 26

What percentage of photosynthesis do phytoplankton account for on Earth?

Answer 26

Approximately 50%

Question 27

Phytoplankton include ___________ and ___________ such as the _________ and ____________.

Answer 27

The phytoplankton include photosynthetic bacteria (prokaryotes) and microalgae (eukaryotes) such as the cyanobacteria and diatoms.

Question 28

Define protist

Answer 28

a single-celled organism of the kingdom Protista, such as a protozoan or simple alga.

(find a reference)