Test 2 Part 2

Question 1

The _ coastal waters provide lots of _ and _.

How (2)?

Answer 1

shallow; light; nutrients
Vigorous plant growth produces abundant food; high tide bathes the intertidal in plankton rich water
; waves and tides bring in more food of drifting seaweed and detritus

Question 2

Competition for space - the ability to outcompete depends on two factors

Answer 2

1. effective means of dispersal (first to occupy new patches of open space must get their offspring there)
2. ability to hold on to it (the ability to rapidly reproduce and disperse the young to the next opening

Question 3

Some organisms do not colonize open patches. They take over space already occupied.
Barnacles?
Owl limpets?
Other intertidal organisms?

Answer 3

Undercut their neighbors (loosening them from the rock);
keep a territory for themselves by bulldozing out intruders;
Grow over their competitors, making them vulnerable to waves, smothering them and blocking out precious sunlight

Question 4

Vertical zonation

Answer 4

the upper limit at which a species occurs is usually determined by physical factors,
and the lower limit is usually determined by biological factors
especially predation and competition.

Question 5

Tests to explore Zonation

Answer 5

Transplantation, removal, and caging

Question 6

Transplantation

Answer 6

Organisms are moved from one place to another:
mussels grown on panels, transplanted to different heights on pier piling
barnacles soon died if placed higher than they normally lived.
physical: body fluids showed desiccation

Question 7

Why don’t organisms live lower in the intertidal?

Answer 7

Competitors or predators set the lower boundary

Question 8

Removal experiment

Answer 8

one species is removed from an area, which is compared to an untouched control area

Question 9

Caging experiment

Answer 9

some sort of barrier stops animals from getting into study area (can be wire cages; anything that keeps the animal out)

Question 10

Why aren’t removal experiments practical?

Answer 10

Not enough time to remove all the predators or competitors

They move back into an area too fast after removal

Question 11

Succession

Answer 11

When a patch of space is cleared

new organisms often move into the patch and get replaced by others in a regular sequence.

Question 12

Ecological succession

Answer 12

refers to such a regular pattern of regrowth.

Question 13

Planktonic settlement and metamorphosis

Answer 13

Planktonic larvae select a particular environment on which to settle and undergo metamorphosis.
Metamorphosis may be triggered by specific
chemical
physical
& biological factors

Question 14

Soft-bottom intertidal communities

Answer 14

Sediment; organisms are able to burrow in easily
N.A:
East coast south of Cape Cod, almost all of the Gulf coast, rocky west coast

Question 15

The type of sediment depends on three factors

Answer 15

How much water motion there is
Where the sediment comes from
The slope of the land

Question 16

Soft bottoms are _ and _ _ in response to _, _, and _.

Answer 16

unstable; constantly changing; waves; tides; currents

Question 17

Advantage of living in the sediment?

Main food?

Answer 17

Bottom stays wet when tide goes out, desiccation not as critical as rocky shore.
Degree of desiccation depends on grain size
sand dries out quickly
partially responsible for coarse sand beaches having relatively little animal life.
Detritus

Question 18

Infauna depend on the _ _ _through the _ to _ the _ _.

Answer 18

circulation of water; sediments; replenish; oxygen supply

Question 19

Poroscity

Answer 19

water circulation through fine sediment is greatly restricted

Question 20

Factors of Muddy Bottoms

Answer 20

a lot of organic matter to decay
reduced water flow into sediment
Below the upper few centimeters of mud
the interstitial water is deficient of oxygen
below this depth, sediments have no oxygen = anoxic.
Many organisms overcome this oxygen shortage by
pumping oxygen-rich water from the sediment surface with siphons
or through their burrows.