Where do most marine organisms live?
Sunlit surface seawater
A species' success depends on the ability to do what?
find food, avoid protection, reproduce, and accommodate physical barriers to movement
What are the three classifications of Marine Organisms?
Plantkon, Nekton, and Benthos
Most of the worlds biomass is in the ________
ocean
The biomass on land is very _______ while the biomass in the ocean is very ______
Diverse, Uniform
What are Plankton?
Floaters, Anything that cant swim faster than the current, so usually smaller organisms
Most of the biomass on earth consists of what?
Phytoplankton
Why are plankton so small?
Because in the ocean there is friction that keeps the plankton from sinking
Why do plankton want a lot of friction in the ocean?
That friction prevents small things from sinking very rapidly
What are the two types of plankton?
Phytoplankton and Zooplankton
What are Phytoplankton?
Autotrophic, meaning they use photosynthesis and sunlight to produce their own food.
Ex: cocolithophores, diatoms, dinoflagellates
What are Zooplankton?
Heterotrophic organisms that consume phytoplankton as food, and many have hard exterior shells
What is the 1st level of feeding?
The Trophic level where zooplankton consume phytoplankton
What are Nekton organisms?
Any organism that can swim and swim faster than the current.
Why are only 2% of the 250,000 marine species Pelagic?
Because only a few types of species like tuna fish are that highly adapted to that type of environment
Nekton organisms can be characterized as:
independent swimmers, most adult fish, marine mammals and repties
What are Benthos marine organisms?
Bottom dwelling fish, that make up 98% of the 250,000 marine species in the ocean
Why is 98% of the 250,000 marine species benthic?
Because there are more places to hide making it easier to survive
Benthic organisms can live:
on the surface of the sea floor, in buried sediments, and can swim or crawl through water above the seafloor
Where are Benthic organisms most abundant?
in shallower water, but many live in perpetual darkness, coldness, and stillness
There are ____ land species than marine species
a)more
b) less
More
Why do some organisms want a high surface area to volume ratio?
Because it allows them to maximize friction to stay at the top of the ocean without sinking.
What do organisms posses that allow them to increase their surface area?
Unusual appendages which increases their surface area to volume ratio increasing their buoyancy allowing them to stay at the top of the water
Some mirco-organisms have ____ to increase their buoyancy
Oil
What types of organisms want to resist sinking?
Planktons, they also want to be smaller in size
Organisms have _______ appendages in cold seawater and _______ appendages in warm seawaer
fewer, more
Why do organisms have fewer appendages in the cold seawater?
Because the colder the water is the more dense it is allowing organisms to sink much much slower
Streamlining is important for what type of organisms?
Larger organisms because it allows for less resistance to the fluid flow
What are the characteristics of streamlined organisms?
Flattened body with a tapered back so that there is a much smaller wake
Why do large animals want to decrease friction?
so that they may swim faster
It costs ___________ for a 754 lb Bluefin Tuna
396,000 roughly 525 per pound
The oceans have what type of range of temperature?
narrow with smaller variations in the daily, seasonally, and annual temperatures
The deep ocean is nearly _______
Isothermal meaning the temperature does not change
What are the four reasons why the ocean temperature is more stable than land?
1. there is a higher heat capacity of water than land
2. ocean warming is reduced by evaporation
3. solar radiation penetrates into ocean layers
4. ocean mixing occurs
Marine species are ____ and have more _____ appendages in warmer water.
smaller, more
There are ____ species in warmer seawater
a)more
b)less
more
There is _____ biomass in cooler seawater, and why?
a)more
b)less
more, because of upwelling
Tropical organisms grow _______ , live _________ , and reproduce ____ often.
a)slower,longer,less
b)faster,longer,more
c)faster,shorter,more
d)faster,shorter,less
c)faster,shorter,more
Why do tropical organisms grow faster, live shorter, and reproduce more often?
The higher temperatures causes the metabolic rate to elevate which causes the organisms to live their lives much faster, which is why they reproduce more often
Salinity adaptations allow organisms to do what?
extract minerals from the seawater through diffusion because their cell membranes are permeable to nutrients allowing for the waste to pass through the cell to the ocean
What is diffusion?
Diffusion is the net passive movement of particles from a region in which they are in higher concentration to regions of lower concentration.
Diffusion occurs from _____ concentration to ______ concentration
higher, lower
_____ is really nothing more than diffusion of water molecules.
Osmosis
What happens in Osmosis?
Water molecules move from less concentrated solutions to more concentrated solutions
In more concentrated solutions, osmotic pressure does what to water molecules?
prevents the passage of water molecules
Organisms have _______ cell membranes when dealing with osmosis
semipermeable cell membranes that allows passage of water molecules but not salt
Why is Osmosis so important when dealing with the salinity of fish?
It is important because the salinity of the ocean is about 23ppt and the salinity of most fish is about 20ppt and without osmosis fish would not be able to maintain osmotic pressure therefore they would explode/implode
Marine fish are _______ and Freshwater fish are_____
a)hypertonic,hypotonic
b)hypotonic,hypotonic
c)hypotonic,hypertonic
d)hypertonic,hypertonic
c)hypotonic,hypertonic
Hypotonic fish means what?
the fish has a lower salinity than its surrounding water therefore water is sucked out of the fish by osmosis
Hypertonic fish means what?
the fish has a higher salinity than its surrounding water therefore water is pushed in to the fish by osmosis
How does osmosis occur in marine fish?
Since marine fish are hypotonic that means that water is going to be sucked out of the fish because the marine water has a higher salinity than the fish.
Therefore osmosis causes the marine fish to have to suck in a lot of water in
To counteract the osmotic pressure, Marine (hypotinic) fish do what?
-they have to drink large
qualities of water
-they secrete salt through
special cells
and
-they also have small volumes
of highly concentrated urine
How does osmosis work in Freshwater (hypertonic) fish?
Since Freshwater fish are hypertonic that means that osmosis is going to cause water to flow into the fish because the fish has a higher salinity than the water it is in and osmosis is the flow of water molecules from low concentrations to high concentrat
To counteract the osmotic pressure, Freshwater(hypertonic) fish do what??
-Do not drink
-cells absorb salt
and
-they have large volumes of
dilute urine
Animals extract dissolved ______ from seawater through ____
oxygen, gills
Gills exchange _____ and ___ directly with seawater
oxygen, carbon dioxide
_____ marine oxygen levels can kill fish
Low
Many marine organisms see well
a)true
b)fasle
a)true
Some marine organism are nearly _______ so that they may do what?
transparent, elude predators and stalk prey
Another form of marine adaptions to environment using color patterns is what?
camouflage
What types of Camouflage are there?
Countershading, disruptive coloration
What is Countershading?
camouflage where the organism is dark on top and light on the bottom
What is Disruptive Coloration?
camouflage where the organism has Large bold patterns, contrasting colors so that they may blend into backgrounds
Water pressure increases about _____ atmosphere with every ____ meters deeper
1 kg/cm^2
10 meters (33ft)
How can many marine organisms survive the pressure at such depths?
many marine organisms have no inner air pockets
AND
some organisms like the sperm whale have collapsible rib cages
Sperm whales can dive up to ____ km for up to a ___ minute duration
3km, 90
Sperm whales are able to survive underwater for so long because they:
redirect oxygen to their brain, have a reduced metabolism, and have collapsible lung cages.
Sperm whales have ____ which is used for what? which is their form of directing.
Spermacetti, echolocation