Tides and Intro to Life Flashcards
Describe the ocean zones?
Pelagic Oceanic Epipelagic Mesopelagic Bathypelagic Abyssalpelagic Hadalpelagic
Describe the benthic zone
Associated with the benthos
Can be at the coastal edge or deep in the bottom of trenches
Describe pelagic
Associated with the water column (does not touch the bottom)
Anywhere in the water column
Which are the benthic zones?
Intertidal Continental shelf Continental slope Abyssal Hadal
Which are the pelagic zones?
Epipelagic Mesopelagic Bathypelagic Abyssalpelagic Hadalpelagic
What is the nertic?
Area above the continental shelf
The portion of the ocean near the coast between the shore and where the continental shelf slopes down and becomes the continental slope.
What are ocean zones?
Open ocean area beyond the continental shelf
Describe epipelagic
Surface waters where light and life is abundant.
Describe mesopelagic
Area below the epipelagic where visible light is present but not enough for photosynthesis
The twilight zone
Which are the areas with zero light?
Bathypelagic
Abyssalpelagic
Hadalpelagic
What are the different oceanic biomes?
Equatorial Tropical Subtropical Temperate Polar
Describe equatorial climates?
Areas near the equator that has high levels of moisture and low temperature seasonality
Very stable
Describe tropical climates
Location north and south of the equator that has summer rainy seasons and winter dry seasons. Very stable.
Describe Subtropical
Areas dryer than tropical locations bounded by tropic of cancer or capricorn. Very stable
Describe temperate
Zones between subtropical and polar zones. Sasonally variable
Describe polar
Areas near north and south poles with short summers and long and cold winters. Seasonally variable
Describe the continental shelf?
The shallowest part of the ocean
The proximity of the shore ensures a good nutrient supply and adequate light.
Have some of the highest biological productivity within the ocean.
What is surface salinity?
Total amount of salt dissolved in seawater.
Varies in ocean surfaces
What is the biological significance of salinity?
Ocean salinity is realtive constant.
Marine organisms tend to be adapted to a specific and narrow salinity range.
Slight changes can harm most organisms.
Why is light important in the ocean?
Seawater is transparent for photosynthesis.
Red is absorbed first and blue is absorbed last.
What are the types of light and saltwater?
Very turbid
Moderately turbid
Clear water
What is very turbid water?
Cloudy with sediments
Water absorbs blue wavelengths to make water seem yellow-green. All light doesn’t penetrate very deep.
What is moderately turbid coastal water?
Clear except for plankton
What is clear water?
Little or no plankton or sediment
Will be blue with light the penetrates the deepest.
What are tides?
The rising and falling of Earth’s ocean surface.
What is an intertidal zone?
Strip of seashore that is submerged at the high tide and exposed at the low tide
What causes tides?
Complex interactions between gravitational and rotational forces acting on the Earth-moon-sun system.
Follow a daily cycle and influence both coastal and pelagic organisms.
What are spring tides?
The largest difference between the highest high tides and lowest low tide (during new moon and full moon)
What are neap tides?
Smallest difference between the highest high tide and lowest low tide (1st and 3rd quarter moon)
What is the tidal range?
Tides usually have a cycle of 2 lows and 2 high per day.
What are semi-diurnal tides?
2 high and 2 lows of roughly equal magnitude.
East coast of N America, Europe and Africa
What are mixed semi-diurnal tides?
1 high high tide and 1 low low tide, 1 smaller high tide, 1 smaller low tide
In West coast Canada and US
What are diurnal tides?
One high and one low tide per day
Uncommon! Occurs in restricted basins and near poles.
