Prelim 2

Question 1

According to UNESCO, how many marine species face the possibility of extinction by the end of the century if humans continue without significant change in how it treats the oceans?

Answer 1

50%

Question 2

How much of the ocean surface has been set aside as environmentally protected areas?

Answer 2

1%

Question 3

Which two groups of marine organisms are especially threatened with species extinctions at this time?

Answer 3

sharks and corals

Question 4

Which statement best defines Net Primary Production?

Answer 4

the net difference between photosynthesis and respiration

Question 5

The compensation light level refers to the light level where

Answer 5

net primary production is zero

Question 6

Subtropical gyres have low levels of primary production per square meter because

Answer 6

??? none of the above

Question 7

Why is primary production higher in the eastern equatorial Pacific than in the western equatorial Pacific?

Answer 7

the thermocline is shallower in the eastern equatorial Pacific than in the western Pacific

Question 8

What accounts for the year-round high levels of primary production in coastal regions?

Answer 8

enhanced tidal mixing over shallow continental shelf regions

Question 9

Which is true about the critical depth?

Answer 9

it is the depth at which the time phytoplankton spend below compensation depth losing carbon just balances the time they spend above gaining carbon, resulting in 0 net primary production

Question 10

What percent of global primary production takes place in the ocean?

Answer 10

50%

Question 11

Oceanographers classify organisms into broad groups based on

Answer 11

• autotrophic
• heterotrophic
• body size

Question 12

The exploitation efficiency of the protozoan grazer community in tropical regions is expected to be

Answer 12

high

Question 13

The main reason that coastal upwelling regions have much higher amounts of harvestable fish production each year is because

Answer 13

none of the above

Question 14

Prochloroccus

Answer 14

the main contributor to primary production in open-ocean oligotrophic environments

Question 15

The biological carbon pump is most efficient in

Answer 15

eutrophic conditions

Question 16

What typically sets the lower limit in the elevation within the rocky intertidal for a given species?

Answer 16

competition with other species or predation by other species

Question 17

What prevents a single rocky intertidal species from eventually out-competing all other species and becoming the only species in the rocky intertidal?

Answer 17

Intermediate physical disturbance, such as big storm waves, wipes the rock clean and restarts the whole process of competition among all species

Question 18

What happens to the abundance of kelp forests when sea otter abundance increases?

Answer 18

kelp forest increases

Question 19

What is coral bleaching?

Answer 19

this occurs as a result of the breakdown in the symbiotic relationship between the coral and its zooxanthellae

Question 20

Coral bleaching and the subsequent coral death begins when normal ocean temperatures are

Answer 20

increases by about 1% for a few weeks

Question 21

With an epic scale effort to rapidly de-carbonize the global energy system and limit global warming to 1.5C, what percentage of coral reefs will still be lost?

Answer 21

70-90%

Question 22

What percentage of coral will be lost if global warming reaches 2C?

Answer 22

100%

Question 23

Which of the following comes closest to representing the earliest form of whale Pakicetus?

Answer 23

wolf

Question 24

Which source of underwater sound may be the greatest threat to whale population survival?

Answer 24

ambient noise from commercial ship traffic

Question 25

Which of the following nations are currently hunting whales in large numbers?

Answer 25

Norway, Iceland, and Japan

Question 26

The two opposing forces and or energies that determine the three phases of water are

Answer 26

H bonds and thermal kinetic energy

Question 27

If you added an equal amount of heat energy to the ocean, atmosphere and land, which one would you experience the smallest temperature change?

Answer 27

ocean

Question 28

How much of the excess heat that has accumulated in the earth system as a result of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions has been taken up by the ocean?

Answer 28

93%

Question 29

When winds blow over the surface ocean to cause evaporative cooling, what happens to the heat that leaves the ocean surface?

Answer 29

it is transferred from the ocean to the atmosphere as latent heat in the form of atmospheric water vapor

Question 30

Where is the surface ocean salinity typically highest?

Answer 30

subtropical gyres

Question 31

The conveyor belt circulation explains, in part, why nitrate and phosphate concentrations in the deep ocean are

Answer 31

low in the deep North Atlantic and high in the deep North Pacific

Question 32

Oxygen concentration reaches a minimum level just below the sunlit layer (eutrophic zone) of the ocean because

Answer 32

microbial respiration fueled by dead organic material consumes oxygen down to low levels

Question 33

What is expected to happen to the oxygen minimum zone in response to global warming?

Answer 33

the concentration of oxygen will decline

Question 34

Carbon dioxide is high in the deep ocean because

Answer 34

microbial consumption of organic matter and associated respiration produces carbon dioxide

Question 35

In which direction would carbon dioxide diffuse across the air-sea interface if deep water were brought up to the surface and into contact with the atmosphere

Answer 35

CO2 would diffuse out of the ocean

Question 36

At the current rate of CO2 emissions, how much more acidic will the ocean be relative to pre-industrial levels?

Answer 36

170% increase

Question 37

What happens to the Walker Circulation Cell in the transition from normal to El Nino conditions?

Answer 37

the Walker Circulation Cell slows down or reverses

Question 38

What happens to the Cold Tong in the eastern Pacific during El Nino conditions relative to normal condition?

Answer 38

the Cold Tong becomes less cold and shrinks back toward the Peru coast

Question 39

What happens to the global average temperature during an El Nino year?

Answer 39

rises pretty dramatically

Question 40

How can the effects of El Nino conditions in the Pacific be transmitted to the far reaches of the globe?

Answer 40

variation in the position of the jet stream in the atmosphere

Question 41

At current CO2 emission rates, what sort of timelines are we facing before polar seas become corrosive to calcium shells and coral reef growth is slowed or stopped altogether?

Answer 41

in 20-30 years

Question 42

Are humans now powerful enough to prevent a future ice age from happening?

Answer 42

yes

Question 43

What is the level of certainty that the observed global warming is largely causes by humans?

Answer 43

95% confidence level

Question 44

What is the estimated asset value, associated with low-lying megacities around the world, that are vulnerable to a 1 meter sea level rise by the end of this century?

Answer 44

in the tens of trillions of US dollars range

Question 45

How soon might we see the Arctic Ocean completely ice-free during summer periods?

Answer 45

ice free as soon as 2030

Question 46

What must happen to global CO2 emission to stay below a 2C warming?

Answer 46

the entire planet has to go to net zero emissions by 2050

Question 47

On the scale of all the generations that have ever existed on planet earth, is the present generation super special?

Answer 47

yes, this generation is the generation that will decide the fate of humanity

Question 48

What is the key hurdle in Cornell’s 2035 zero carbon emissions plan?

Answer 48

developing earth-source heating for the campus