Patterns in the marine environment

Question 1

What is marine ecology?

Answer 1

the branch of marine science that studies the interactions between organisms and their biotic and abiotic environments, and the effects that these interactions have on patterns of distribution and abundance of organisms. It is studied from the level of individuals up to whole ecosystems and over varying spatial and temporal scales.

Question 2

Name the 5 levels over which marine ecology can be studied

Answer 2

Individual, population, community, ecosystem and palaeo-marine ecology)

Question 3

Give an example of mutualism in a marine environment (individual-level ecology)

Answer 3

a cleaner wrasse picking off parasites from a reef fish

Question 4

Give an example of commensalism in a marine environment (individual-level ecology)

Answer 4

a giant own limpet shell can be secondary substrate for other animals and algae living in rocky shore environments

Question 5

What is population-level ecology and what effects it?

Answer 5

How populations of the same species are distributed, and is dependent on growth, dispersal, life history, and ability to adapt to new and changing environmental pressures

Question 6

What is community-level ecology and what effects it?

Answer 6

the distribution/abundance of different species in a community, effected by inter-specific competition, grazing/predation, disease, disturbance and facilitation/succession.

Question 7

Give 2 examples of community-level species distribution?

Answer 7

sponges and other encrusting invertebrates on mangrove roots compete for space, and predation by seastars can cause the biological lower limit to the distribution of mussels

Question 8

What is ecosystem-level marine ecology and give the 5 main variables it is effected by?

Answer 8

how whole ecological communities interact with its physical environment, including the spatial and seasonal patterns of temperature, depth, salinity, up/downwelling, geological forces, historical factors, cyclical/sporadic climate processes and anthropogenic impacts

Question 9

What is palaeo-marine ecology?

Answer 9

how the abiotic and biotic environment shaped the distribution, abundance, diversity and evolution of life in the oceans over time

Question 10

Give 3 processes which may have effected an environment’s palaeo-marine ecology?

Answer 10

past mass extinction events, evolutionary radiations and global climate/geologic processes

Question 11

Define biodiversity

Answer 11

patterns in the variety of life

Question 12

Define biogeography

Answer 12

large-scale distribution of species

Question 13

What is a planktotrophic organism?

Answer 13

organism with a free-swimming, free-hunting larval stage

Question 14

What is a lecithotrophic organism?

Answer 14

organisms with a sessile larval stage

Question 15

Give an example of a mutualistic relationship between a grazer and filter-feeder

Answer 15

barnacle (filter-feeder) living on tip of limpet (grazer)

Question 16

What is functional diversity?

Answer 16

a measure of the number of different functionally distinct species (e.g. grazers, predators, etc) in a given area

Question 17

What is a keystone species?

Answer 17

A species which, if removed, has major ecological consequences for other species

Question 18

What is the littoral zone?

Answer 18

the area where land meets sea (and zonation is most apparent)

Question 19

Describe zonation on a Pacific Northwest rocky shore

Answer 19

upper side of littoral zone - littorinid & lichen, then a barnacle zone, mussel zone, and lower side is a macroalgae zone

Question 20

What is macro-ecology?

Answer 20

the relationship between organisms and their environment at large spatial-scales

Question 21

What are the 3 components of biodiversity?

Answer 21

ecological, organism, and genetic

Question 22

What is the difference between a morpho-species and cryptic species?

Answer 22

Morpho-species look different to eachother but fall within the same species, and cryptic species look similar but cannot interbreed.