Rocky Shores Flashcards

1
Q

Which phyla contain meiofauna?

A

Arthropods (ostracodes & amphipods), Mollusca (gastropods), Foraminifera (Forams).

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2
Q

What are the three types of seaweed?

A

Chlorophyta (greens, 7000spp), Rhodophyta (reds), Phaeophyta (browns, fucoids and kelps).

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3
Q

What are the main primary producers?

A

Seaweeds, microalgae.

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4
Q

What are the two types of microalgae primary producers?

A

Diatoms and Cyanobacteria.

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5
Q

What are examples of grazers?

A

Limpets, periwinkles, top shells, urchins.

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6
Q

What are examples of filter feeders?

A

Barnacles, sponges, sea squirts, mussels.

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7
Q

What are some examples of predators?

A

Shore crabs, dogwhelks, seastars, oyster catchers.

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8
Q

What is the littoral zone?

A

The near shore area where sunlight penetrates all the way to sediment.

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9
Q

What are the three parts of the littoral zone?

A

High intertidal, mid intertidal, low intertidal.

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10
Q

What organisms are found in the high intertidal?

A

Lichens, periwinkles, barnacles, isopods, etc.

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11
Q

What organisms are found on the mid-intertidal?

A

Barnacles, limpets, mussels, fucoids, whelks, green macroalgae.

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12
Q

What are the organisms found on the low intertidal?

A

Seastars, kelps, red and green macroalgae, urchins.

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13
Q

What causes patterns of vertical zonation?

A

1) Larval settlement & adult preference.
2) Physiological tolerance to environmental variables.
3) Biological interactions: interspecific competition/predation.

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14
Q

How do animals tolerate emersion?

A

They move into crevices, inhabit rock pools, and adapt their body size for volume rations, limiting water loss, or living in dense groups/under seaweed canopies.

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15
Q

What are meiofauna?

A

Fauna that are

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16
Q

What are the environment variables on the rocky shore? Where do they increase?

A

Physical, chemical, biological (plant/animal) variables, + unpredictability. They increase the further away from the low shore you get.

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17
Q

What are physical environmental variables?

A

Emersion factors: greater light/heat & lower humidity cause dessication in tropical & warm regions & cold/freezing in cold, temperate and polar regions.

18
Q

What are chemical environment variables?

A

Osmotic problems: greater variation in surface salinity but particularly in rock pools due to rainfall, runoff (lowering) and evaporation (raising.) In pools, variations in O2, CO2 & pH.

19
Q

What are biological plant environmental variables?

A

Photosynthesis: less time for uptake of CO2 and H2O, + poor function of photosynthetic tissue out of water. Less time for nutrient uptake (N, P, Si) for protein synthesis, etc.

20
Q

What are biological animal environmental variables?

A

Respiration and feeding: less time for O2 uptake, suspension feeding, tide-in foraging by swimming, crawling or walking more difficult in air?

21
Q

What is unpredictability in environmental variables?

A

Fluctuation in all factors, preventing acclimation.

22
Q

What is the sea in terms of environmental variables?

A

Highly stable: high and constant salinity, little temperature & pH change, plentiful raw materials for photosynthesis, nutrients, food for suspension feeders, supportive medium for swimming/crawling.

23
Q

What is the shore in terms of environmental variables?

A

Highly variable: variation in heat and light leading to extremes of hot and cold, winds interact with sunlight to create low relative humidity and hence desiccation stress, variable salinity due to rainfall & evaporation.

24
Q

What percentage of benthic invertebrates have planktonic larvae?

A

Around 70%.

25
Q

What are the advantages of direct developers?

A

+Predictable food source
+No water column predators.
+Suitable habitat ready when hatched.

26
Q

What are the disadvantages of direct developers?

A

+Large reproductive cost for mothers - egg cost & protection.
+Few eggs.
+Poor dispersal.
+Benthic predators.

27
Q

What are the advantages of lecithotrophic larvae?

A

+Own food supply.
+Less time for predation.
+Close to suitable habitat.

28
Q

What are the disadvantages of lecithotrophic larvae (e.g. limpets)?

A

+Fewer larvae produced.

+Lower dispersal distances (compared to planktotrophics).

29
Q

What are the advantages of planktotrophic larvae (e.g. barnacles)?

A

+Large numbers produced (scattergun approach).
+Capable of long periods in water column (up to 6mon)
+Increased dispersal distance from parents.

30
Q

What are the disadvantages of planktotrophic larvae?

A

+Unpredictable food source.
+Long exposure to predators.
+Last development stage must be timed when suitable habitat found - high probability of missing the mark.

31
Q

Why have many marine fauna evolved pelagic larval phases?

A

+Different food sources to adults: reduces competition.
+Potentially large dispersal range - facilitating colonisation of new regions + increasing gene flow.
+Possibility of breaking parasite cycles.
+No benthic predators.

32
Q

Where is competition important? What makes a good competitor?

A

Where resources are limiting, and large size and rapid growth.

33
Q

What are the three types of competition?

A

Exploitative, pre-emptive and interference.

34
Q

What is exploitative competition?

A

The ability to harvest limiting food resources.

35
Q

What is preemptive competition?

A

Competitor recruits to and dominates space.

36
Q

What is interference competition?

A

Competitors physically contest resources.

37
Q

What determines rocky shore communities (7pt)?

A
\+Recruitment success.
\+Resources - space and food.
\+Growth rates and body size/shape.
\+Competitive ability.
\+Biodiversity.
\+Predatory effects.
\+Disturbance - physical & biological.
38
Q

What are the causes of species range limits? (5pt)

A

Life history, population genetics, abundance distribution, spatial availability of habitat, oceanographic/atmospheric factors (or a combination.)

39
Q

What is phylogeography?

A

The study of historical processes influencing the modern distribution of organisms (biogeography) using molecular tools.

40
Q

How do humans create artificial rocky shore substrates?

A

By the building of seawalls, jetties, groynes, piers, riprap. The biodiversity is similar to natural substrates.