Marine Science Midterm Study Guide – Flashcards
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Percentage of Earth's surface covered by seawater?
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71%
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Oceanography is the study of?
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The oceans and all its phenomenon; such as waves, currents, and tides.
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Ways we obtain knowledge from the ocean.
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Satellites, ROV's, Scooba Diving, submarines, sonar, and dregding.
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Who was Charles Darwin? And what did his observations lead to?
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He was an English naturalist who sailed on the HMS Beagle around the world. He developed the theory on Natural Selection and published a book called Origin of Species.
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Who was the chief scientist on HMS Challenger?
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Dr. Charles Wyville Thomson
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Name of the first Marine Bio Lab.
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Woods Hole in Massachusetts.
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The Steps of the Scientific Method.
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Making observations, forming a hypothesis, experiment, gathering results: scientists record their data; analyzing in interpreting data, and drawing conclusions.
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The most important marine photosynthetic organisms.
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Phytoplankton: they produce majority of the worlds atmospheric oxygen.
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Salinity
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Saltiness of dissolved salt content (such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcuim sulfates, and bicarbonates) of a body of water.
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Explain relationship between pressure and depth, and know amount of pressure increases with what depth?
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The deeper you go in water, the stronger the pressure is. More depth=more pressure. 1 atmosphere per 10 meters.
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Explain role animals have in carbon cycle.
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The carbon dioxide that animals produce through process of cellular respiration is used by Autotrophs.
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Name the inorganic nutrient needed by marine photosynthetic organisms.
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Nitrogen/ Nitrates
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Explain the role oxygen had in the early development of the atmosphere?
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Oxygen was extremely rare at the early development of the earth. Mostly methane and sulfer.
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What are anaerobes?
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Anaerobes are organisms that grow without air and require oxygen-free conditions to live. Ex: Archaebacteria.
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List and know factors that organisms in the intertidal must deal with?
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Organisms must deal with extremes in temperature changes and desecration (process of drying out, lack of moisture.)
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Name the important nutrients for photosynthesis.
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CO2, H2O, sunlight energy- converted into sugar and O2 is released.
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Define eutrophication
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Process in which a body of water acquires a high concentration of nutrients. Increases the rate of supply of organic matter in the ecosystem.
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How many years ago did the solar system form?
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5 billion years ago.
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How did the first heterotrophs obtain energy?
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They obtained energy from chemo synthetic organisms.
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Who discovered and named Pangea?
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Alfred Wegener
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The two continents that suggested theory on continental drift.
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Africa and South America
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Explain subduction zone and faults. List and describe the three types of faults/ boundaries.
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Subduction zone: old crust sinks into mantle and is recycled. Faults: regions where plates move past each other. (transform faults) Divergent Plate Boundaries: located at mid-ocean ridges where plates move apart. Convergent: located at trenches where plates move toward each other.
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Name the fault where ocean plates move laterally away from each other.
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Transform faults. They cause earthquakes.
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Where do mid-ocean ridges form?
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From divergent plate boundaries, form along cracks where magma breaks through the crust.
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Describe continental slope.
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The descent from the continental shelf to the ocean bottom. It is between the user continental shelf and the deep ocean bottom.
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The four ocean basins.
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Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic.
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Name and describe the 4 types of ocean sediments.
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Hydrogenous: formed from a variety of chemical process. Biogenous: formed from remains of living organisms. Terrigenous: produced from rocks. Cosmogenous: iron rich particles from outer space.
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Polarity of a water molecule.
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Polar Molecule: different electrical charges, water molecule has 2 hydrogens and one oxygen. Hydrogen atom is slightly positive. Oxygen atoms are slightly negative.
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Describe adhesion and cohesion - Define ion.
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Cohesion: when hydrogen bonds in water stick together. (molecules) Adhesion: when water is attracted to the surface of objects that carry electrical charges. Ion: particles which are attracted to the polar water molecules.
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Name low energy light wave that is quickly absorbed by water.
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Red, orange, and yellow.
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What depth can 1% of surface light penetrate.
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100 meters (330 feet)
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Light absorbed by H2O is converted to?
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Heat
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What are acids? Bases?
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Acids: release hydrogen ions (0-6). Bases: bind hydroxide ions (8-14).
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The percentage of average salinity of seawater.
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Seawater is 35 grams per kilogram or 35 parts per thousand. 35%
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Why seawater is considered buffered.
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Seawater is considered buffered due to the presence of bicarbonate ions.
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Explain global warming and global cooling. Earths Energy Budget.
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Global Warming: an increase in earths average temperature. Global Cooling: a decrease in earths average temperature. Earths energy budget: the amount of heat gained has to be equal to the amount of heat lost; the imbalance can lead to global warning and or global cooling.
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In which way is the majority of heat transferred from earth to atmosphere?
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Evaporation
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Define Thermocline.
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A zone in the ocean characterized by a rapid change in temperature with increasing depth.
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Define fetch and wind.
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Fetch: the distance over the water that wind blows. Wind: horizontal air movements, which is a common generating force for surface waves.
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Name types of currents that gyres are divided into?
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western-boundary currents, eastern boundary currents, and transverse currents.
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What are tsunamis?
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Tsunamis start out as shallow water waves. Not depth of water, but depth of wave.
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Name and describe the three types of tides.
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Diurnal tide: when one high tide and one low tide occurs each day. Semidiurnal: when two high tides and two low tides occur each day. Mixed semi diurnal tide: when the high tide and low tides are at different levels.
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Name the elements that compose carbohydrates, fats, and proteins- know the components of glucose.
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Carbohydrates: carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (1:2:1 ratio). The ratio is why they can be with water. Lipids: carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. But lipids cant be with water. Proteins: amino acids. Glucose: composed of C6 H12 O6, is a carbohydrate. Carbohydrates provide energy. Lipids: store energy, provide custom for organisms, and provide buoyancy. Proteins: provide body and muscular structure, natural enzymes, and transport chemicals within the organism. Nucleic acids: responsible for function, growth and reproduction.
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What makes up the hard exterior of crabs and lobsters?
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Chitin; is a polysaccharide.
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Another name for fats, oils, and waxes.
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Lipids.
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Know chemical units that make up protein- building blocks of protein.
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Amino acids. They are made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.
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What is the genetic info of on organism called?
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DNA: which is in the shape of a double helix. And has two strand sides: phosphate and sugar.
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DNA is organized into sequences called?
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Genes
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What is messenger RNA's function?
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Copies information from DNA through the process of Transcription. (Transcribe: copy or write)
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Explain gene pool.
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A set of all genes, or genetic information, that exists in a given time within a given population.
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Differences and contents between eukaryote and prokaryote cells.
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Differences: Eukaryotic- has a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles and prokaryotic cells do not have a nucleus or membrane organelles. Simm: Both contain genetic material(DNA) have cell membrane and both contain cytoplasm/ cytosol.
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What are chloroplasts?
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Organelles found in plant cells. Chlorophyll is a pigment that reflects green light. They are a plastic that contains chlorophyll and in which photosynthesis takes place.
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What is binary fission? Mitosis? They occur in which cells?
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Binary fission: asexual reproduction in which an organism splits in two. it is found in bacteria and other single called organisms known as prokaryotes. Mitosis: a type of cell division that results in two daughter cells each the same as the parent nucleus. Occurs in eukaryotes.
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Name the organism responsible for harmful algae blooms and explain how HABs occur.
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Dinoflagellates are responsible for harmful algal blooms occur due to eutrophication or the over abundance of nutrients in the water, usually caused by runoff containing fertilizer.
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What are viruses? Define nucleocapsid.
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A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of an organism. Are composed in a Nucleocapsid: the basic structure of a virus, consisting of a core of nucleic acid enclosed in a protein coat. Viruses are pathogens that are non living because they have no metabolism and need host cell to reproduce.
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Explain processes photosynthesis and chemosynthesis?
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Photosynthesis: plants absorb sunlight energy, carbon dioxide and water combine to form a sugar called glucose. Then oxygen is released. Chlorophyll absorbs sunlight energy and makes it available to power the photosynthetic process. Occurs in the chloroplast. Chemosynthesis: LOOK IT UP
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Three shapes of bacteria
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Bacillus: rod shaped. Coccus: spherical shape. Spirillum: corkscrew shape.
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Name the pigment found in bacteria but not land plants.
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Phycocyanin.
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Define stromatolite.
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Coral like community of Cyanobacteria microbes that form a thin layer of loving cells and filaments over an accumulated mass of dead and lithification material.
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The important role of bacteria.
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Marine bacterial are primary producers, decomposers, agents in bio geochemical cycles, also preforms important processes like nitrogen fixation.
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Which organism performs nutrient recycling in the marine environment?
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Heterotrophic bacteria
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Who carries out nitrogen fixation? Important process for what types of organisms?
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Cyanobacteria are capable of nitrogen fixation. It is an important process for autotrophic organisms.
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Zooanthellae belong to which group?
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Dinoflagellates.
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Dinoflagellates produce what?
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A toxin that causes harmful algae blooms.
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What is the ecological role of fungi?
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They are decomposers and which breakdown organic matter and recycle nutrients back to the environment.
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Name three types of algae, know phylum and explain how algae are divided taxonomically?
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Red, green, brown. Green: chlorophata. Red: rhodophyta. Brown: phaeophyta. They are divided taxonomically based on accessory pigments.
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Macro algae are know as?
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Seaweed.
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What color light penetrates the greatest depth in coastal waters?
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Green
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List factors that affect depth distribution of algae.
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Frequent wave action, temperature, light quality, salinity.
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Which algae utilize calcium carbonate?
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Red algae. It makes them hard like coral and deters herbivores from eating them. Like eating rocks.
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What are coenocytic?
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Green algae is coenocytic, meaning green algae has a condition that the body has one giant cell or a few large cells containing multiple nuclei.
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Which macrophyte group has highest number of species?
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Red algae.
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List the three types of algae used in manufacturing products?
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Carrageenan, alginate, agar
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Explain hydrophilous pollination.
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It is sperm bearing pollen that is carried by water currents to stigma of female plants.
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Explain important ecological roles of seagrass, salt marsh plants, and mangroves.
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Seagrass: food, home, shelter, habitat, they are primary producers, help stabilize sediment, clarity H2O, industrial sediment, and absorb run off from nutrients. Mangroves: stabilize sediment, habitat, shelter, and protect shorelines.
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What specialized characters do mangrove trees have? Function?
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Mangroves are trees with simple leaves, complex root systems. Plant roots help tree conserve water & stabilize trees in shallow, soft sediment of mud. Roots, in which many are aerial(above ground). Three types of mangroves: red, black, white.
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List the correct order for relationship of gas solubility in sea water.
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CO2>O>N. Seawater has more O than CO2 but less N than the atmosphere. Carbon Dioxide and water are converted into carbonic acid, that is then converted into bicarbonate ions. It is affected by temperature, salinity and pressure.
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List and describe three types of fault boundaries.
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Divergent: move apart. Form mid ocean ridges. Convergent: move toward each other. Form tranches. Transform: plates move past each other. Create earthquakes.
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What is the pH of seawater? Why is this important to marine organisms?
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pH: 8. Important because it can affect enzymes, metabolism and growth of marine organisms.
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List three ways salts are added and three ways salts are removed from the ocean.
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Added: rain, river runoff, rocks releasing salt when broken down and precipitation. Removed: sea spray, catching organisms, sedimentation.
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List structures of seaweed and describe its function.
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Thallus: body of the algae/ seaweed. Blade: leaf like park. flattened portion of the thallus, where photosynthesis takes place. Stipe: stem like structure that provides support for blades. Holdfast: root like structures that attach seaweed to hard surfaces like rocks.
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Describe greenhouse gases.
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Gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and CFCs that collect in the atmosphere and prevent heat from escaping back into space, trapping it in the atmosphere.
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List and describe the three ocean layers.
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Thermocline: temperature changes with depth. Halocline: salinity changes with depth. Pycnocline: density changes with depth.
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Explain binomial nomenclature.
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A system of naming that uses two words to identify an organism. Genus-species. First letter is always capitalized. Both is underlined or italicized.
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List and describe two reproductive cycles of viruses.
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Lytic and Lysogenic: Lytic: viral DNA is injected and kills host DNA circus replicates and then the host cell ruptures and dies. Lysogenic: viral DNA is injected and attatches to host DNA cell. Can go through multiple divisions before virus become active become active rupturing and killing host cell.
