Topic 32

Question 1

Total amount of water on Earth can be constant for

Answer 1

millennia

Question 2

Aquatic biomes connected through the ..

Answer 2

hydrologic cycle

Question 3

Aquatic biomes could equally be defined by their..

Answer 3

flora and fauna

Question 4

Aquatic biomes mainly based on physical characters

Answer 4

• velocity
• temp
• clarity
• chemistry

Question 5

Rivers and streams

Answer 5

freshwater, lotic, plants and animals must be adapted to withstand current (firmly rooted, hide in less turbulent zones by debris on river bottom) drain landscapes into oceans,

Question 6

Lotic

Answer 6

water flows through the system

Question 7

Flow rate is an important determinant of..

Answer 7

communities this biome can support

Question 8

Streams organized into orders..

Answer 8

two first order streams connect to make a second order stream, the nile is a 6th order lactic system (leads to differences ins species composition)

Question 9

Riparian zone

Answer 9

transition between rivers edge and surround land

Question 10

River collects..

Answer 10

run off, sediment and detritus from surrounding land. also accumulate pollutants and toxins leached from surround lands

Question 11

Lakes and ponds

Answer 11

typically freshwater. lentic. collections of water is natural depressions in the landscape. depending on depth can be thermally stratified (lake baikal) some are highly saline (great salt lake 10x ocean)

Question 12

Lentic

Answer 12

water is stationary (non flowing)

Question 13

Photic zone

Answer 13

depth to which light can penetrate and support plant life.

Question 14

Littoral zone

Answer 14

shallow waters at shore

Question 15

Limnetic zone

Answer 15

deep waters where light still penetrates

Question 16

Profundal zone

Answer 16

deep waters where light doesn’t penetrate

Question 17

Benthic zone

Answer 17

lake floor

Question 18

Primary production of lakes and ponds can be determined by

Answer 18

color of lake. green is high, blue is low.

Question 19

Eutrophication

Answer 19

addition of nutrients supports massive algal blooms, severely reducing dissolved oxygen concentrations and drastically altering lake communities

Question 20

Wetlands

Answer 20

lotic systems formed from shallower depressions. transient moisture levels (high rate of succession) low levels of decomposition due to low oxygen.

Question 21

Function of wetlands

Answer 21

liver of the ecosystem (filter toxins and pollutants from surrounding land) natural flood plains.

Question 22

Wetlands were historically drained to..

Answer 22

produce agriculture land, this practice was responsible for the extirpation of malaria, vectoring mosquitoes form North America

Question 23

Marshes

Answer 23

dominated by herbaceous plants, important breeding grounds for water fowl.

Question 24

Swamps

Answer 24

dominated by woody plants, on every continent besides antarctica

Question 25

Bogs

Answer 25

Secluded to northern regions, floating mats of sphagnum moss, “peatlands”

Question 26

Estuaries

Answer 26

vertical gradients of salinity where ocean water sinks below incoming freshwater flowing from rivers. gradual slope of landscape buffers incoming tides. ultimate aquatic edge habitat (high diversity). often destroyed for coastal development

Question 27

Rocky intertidal zones

Answer 27

on sloping rock shores between average low and high tide levels. dominated by algal and invertebrates species that can adhere to substrate and survive periods of desiccation

Question 28

Kelp forests

Answer 28

found along temperate coasts, form an underwater “forest like” ecosystem.

Question 29

Coral reefs

Answer 29

tropical coasts (where water is roughly 18 C) similar to underwater rainforest ecosystem but supports even higher levels of diversity

Question 30

3 types of coral reefs

Answer 30

• fringing
• barrier
• atolls

Question 31

Fringing

Answer 31

on rocky substrate near coastline

Question 32

Barrier

Answer 32

separated from coast by lagoon

Question 33

Atolls

Answer 33

independent islands

Question 34

Variations in temp of coral reefs can lead to..

Answer 34

expulsion of symbiotic zooxanthellae and “bleaching”

Question 35

Marine environment is characterized by…

Answer 35

salinity, waves, tides, depth and vastness

Question 36

70% of the earths surface is covered by ..

Answer 36

the oceans and at its deepest point the ocean is 10 km

Question 37

Similar to lakes and pond oceans undergo thermal stratification w presence of a thermocline..

Answer 37

• photic zone
• middle zones
• bottom benthic zone

Question 38

The rain of organic material of the photic zone supports..

Answer 38

lower strata

Question 39

Open ocean thought of as a ..

Answer 39

desert like wasteland (only 1% of harvest fish stocks come form open ocean)

Question 40

Open ocean

Answer 40

all primary production comes form phytoplankton (algae, dinoflagellates, diatoms). some floating islands of Sargassum seaweed from discreet communities in the open ocean

Question 41

Pelagic

Answer 41

living in the water column

Question 42

Open ocean divided by depth

Answer 42

• epipelagic zone (200m)
• mesopelagic zone (200-1000m)
• bathypelagic (1000-4000m)
• abyssal (4000-6000m)
• hadal (below 6000m)

Question 43

Garbage island

Answer 43

great pacific garbage patch, predicted in 1988 by NOAA. discovered in 1997. forms from gathering of debris in ocean gyre funnelling it into the centre.

Question 44

Garbage island consists of

Answer 44

plastics, chemical sludge, and debris. estimated range from 700,000 to 15, 000, 000 km 2

Question 45

Hydrothermal vent communities

Answer 45

largest unexplored area on earth, recently discovered on ocean floor. adapt to extreme temp (heat from vents but otherwise temp is 0) and primary production from chemosynthesis, utilizing sulphur in place of oxygen and thermal energy from vents

Question 46

In reality to the ocean supports far more ..

Answer 46

phyla of animals than then terrestrial environment

Question 47

Deep sea species adapt to..

Answer 47

life under significant pressure.