Ecology

Question 1

Pelagic

Answer 1

Relating to upper layers of the open sea.

Question 2

Benthic

Answer 2

Anything associated with or occurring on the bottom of a body of water. The animals and plants that live on or in the bottom are known as the benthos.

Question 3

Four shapes of marine bacteria

Answer 3

Bacillus, Vibrios, Spirilli, Coccus

Question 4

Photoautotrophs

Answer 4

use of light as a source of

E for the synthesis of organic matter

Question 5

Chemoautotrophs

Answer 5

obtain E from the
oxidation of reduced and inorganic
compounds (e.g., nitrifying bacteria,
sulphobacteria, methanogens)

Question 6

Heterotrophs

Answer 6

are unable to synthesize
organic matter autonomously from inorganic
molecules

Question 7

Viriobenthos

Answer 7

viruses in marine sediments or within benthic

organisms.

Question 8

Virioplankton

Answer 8

viruses in sea water o planktonic organisms.

Question 9

Viruses

Answer 9

biological entities of sub-microscopic size, which
cannot live or reproduce outside the host cells because they lack
metabolic activity and biosynthetic functions.
100 nm
Viruses have single- or doublestranded DNA or RNA, but never
both nucleic acids.
They infect all forms of life (e.g.
animals, plants, fungi), including
prokaryotes.

Question 10

Capsid

Answer 10

The proteic coat that surrounds the viral genome

Question 11

Capsomers

Answer 11

Identical repeating units of the capsid

Question 12

Size of most marine viruses

Answer 12

Between 30 and 60 nm in size

Question 13

Viral abundance in seawater

Answer 13

1 L of sea water contains 10^9 to 10^11 viruses

Question 14

Viral abundance in sediment

Answer 14

1 kg of sediment contains 10^10 to 10^13 viruses

Question 15

Factors influencing the abundance of Benthic Viruses

Answer 15

prokaryotic production, concentration of nutrients, organic matter load of sediments

Question 16

Viral shunt

Answer 16

The viral shunt pathway is a mechanism that prevents (prokaryotic and eukaryotic) marine microbial particulate organic matter (POM) from migrating up trophic levels by recycling them into dissolved organic matter (DOM), which can be readily taken up by microorganisms.

Question 17

Population

Answer 17

All organisms of a certain species living in a specified area

Question 18

Demography

Answer 18

Statistical study of populations – to describe populations and how
they change over time

Question 19

Mark-recapture calculation

Answer 19

N (population size)
M (marked)
C (captured)
R (animal found to be marked)

N = MC/R

Question 20

Types of survivorship curves

Answer 20

Type 1 - Convex, Type 2 - Diagonal, Type 3 - Concave

image: https://cdn.britannica.com/42/6542-050-B6E0E2B9/survivorship-curve-II-Type-I-curves-III.jpg

Question 21

Trophic Level

Answer 21

The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food web.

Question 22

Just a reminder to review calculating trophic levels!

Answer 22

Unit 4 - Foodwebs

Question 23

Fecundity

Answer 23

the ability to produce an abundance of offspring or new growth; fertility.

Question 24

Order of taxonomy

Answer 24

Kingdom
Phylum
Sub Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

Question 25

Semelparity

Answer 25

A species is considered semelparous if it is characterized by a single reproductive episode before death

Question 26

Iteroparity

Answer 26

A species is considered iteroparous if it is characterized by multiple reproductive cycles over the course of its lifetime.

Question 27

Phytoplankton

Answer 27

Plankton that produce there own food (autotrophic/photosynthesize); primary producers.

Question 28

Holoplankton

Answer 28

organisms spend entire life as plankton

Question 29

Meroplankton

Answer 29

spend larval stage as plankton

Question 30

r/K selection

Answer 30

r/K selection theory relates to the selection of combinations of traits in an organism that trade off between quantity and quality of offspring.

Question 31

Logistic growth

Answer 31

In logistic growth, population expansion decreases as resources become scarce, leveling off when the carrying capacity of the environment is reached, resulting in an S-shaped curve.

Question 32

Density dependence

Answer 32

In population ecology, density dependence pertains to the effect of the present and/or the past population sizes on the per capita population growth rate. Density-dependent processes take place when population growth rates are regulated by population density

Question 33

Life history patterns

Answer 33

Life-time pattern of growth, differentiation, storage and reproduction OR Characteristic set of biological episodes and responses occurring during the lifetimes of the individuals in a population - Connection between environment and biological responses - Variability in life history traits (plasticity)

Question 34

Life history strategy

Answer 34

a set of traits resulting from natural selection

Question 35

r/K

Answer 35

``` K = carrying capacity r = intrinsic growth rate ```

Question 36

dN/dt = rN (1-N/K)

Answer 36

Logistic model where: ``` N = Abundance t = time K = carrying capacity r = intrinsic growth rate ```

Question 37

r selected traits

Answer 37

fast growing, opportunistic, live in unpredictable habitats, broad niche, high fecundity, early reproduction, high/catastrophic mortality, short lived, highly productive. High resilience to exploitation (ex: sardines, anchovies) mnemonic reminder: saRdines

Question 38

K selected traits

Answer 38

Population controlled by competition and other factors, choose constant or predictable habitats, narrow niche, large body size, low fecundity, delayed reproduction. Low resilience to exploitation (ex: elephants, sharks) mnemonic reminder: sharKs

Question 39

Mutualism

Answer 39

symbiosis that is beneficial to both organisms involved.

Question 40

Plankton

Answer 40

All living organisms drifting in the ocean

Question 41

Bottom-up control

Answer 41

Resource/environmental control over a community of organisms (i.e. Nitrate related green tides in Brittany)

Question 42

Top-down control

Answer 42

Organisms control over a resource/environment (i.e. predator control over rodent populations)

Question 43

Exponential growth curve equation

Answer 43

dN/dt = rN where N = Population density at time (t) r = intrinsic rate of natural increase K = carrying capacity

Question 44

Logistic growth curve equation

Answer 44

dN/dt = rN(K-N/K) where N = Population density at time (t) r = intrinsic rate of natural increase K = carrying capacity

Question 45

OMZ

Answer 45

Oxygen minimum zones

Question 46

Pelagic Habitat compression

Answer 46

-

Question 47

azoic theory

Answer 47

Theory that there is no life below 600m due to extreme pressure conditions and the presumed absence of oxygen

Question 48

Challenger expedition

Answer 48

1872-1876 - discovered 4700 new species

Question 49

Magnometer

Answer 49

A magnetometer is a passive instrument that measures changes in the Earth’s magnetic field. In ocean exploration, it can be used to survey cultural heritage sites such as ship and aircraft wrecks and to characterize geological features on the seafloor.

Question 50

Deep Sea Hydrophone

Answer 50

Underwater microphone

Question 51

CDT

Answer 51

CTD stands for conductivity, temperature, and depth, and refers to a package of electronic devices used to detect how the conductivity and temperature of water changes relative to depth. The CTD is an essential tool used in all disciplines of oceanography, providing important information about physical, chemical, and even biological properties of the water column.

Question 52

Shelf break starts at

Answer 52

approx 200m with the exception of the antarctic shelf break

Question 53

DOC and POC

Answer 53

Dissolved and Particulate Organic Carbon

Question 54

POM

Answer 54

Particulate organic matter (POM) is a fraction of total organic matter operationally defined as that which does not pass through a filter pore size that typically ranges in size from 0.22 and 0.7 micrometers. The fraction that does pass through the filter is called dissolved organic matter (DOM).

Question 55

Meiobenthos

Answer 55

Meiobenthos, also called meiofauna, are small benthic invertebrates that live in both marine and fresh water environments. The term meiofauna loosely defines a group of organisms by their size, larger than microfauna but smaller than macrofauna, rather than a taxonomic grouping

Question 56

Estuary

Answer 56

Mixed fresh and ocean water areas

Question 57

Epifauna

Answer 57

animals living on the surface of the seabed or a riverbed, or attached to submerged objects or aquatic animals or plants.

Question 58

vagile/sessile

Answer 58

vagile - moves | sessile - lives permanently attached to rocks/seaweeds

Question 59

Types of Marine Forests

Answer 59

Any plants that have the capacity to conduct oxygenic photosynthesis in the ocean: Kelp forests, seagrasses, animal forests, mangroves, saltmarshes, microalgae, etc

Question 60

Climatic refugal populations

Answer 60

Populations that survive in the overlap of warm and cold ranges.

Question 61

Neritic Zone

Answer 61

Another name for continental shelf; penetration of sunlight permits photosynthesis by both plankton and bottom-dwelling organisms.

Question 62

SAAB

Answer 62

Sense Acuity And Behavioral hypothesis; Temperate fish larvae use a hierarchy of sensory cues (odor, sound, visual and geomagnetic cues) to detect estuarine nursery areas and to aid during navigation towards these areas.

Question 63

Recruitment

Answer 63

Relationship between number of spawners and the resulting progeny; recruitment is the process by which individuals are added to a population. ... High recruitment may increase a species' current and future abundance within a system, whereas low recruitment can lead to reduced current and future abundance.