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30 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Pelagic zone
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Open ocean waters
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Plankton
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(passive floaters or weak swimmers such as copepods, larval fish, and jellyfish) Slightly denser than Ocean water
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nekton
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(strong swimmers including most fish, squid, turtles, and marine mammals) Gas bladders to regulate buoyancy.
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Benthic zone
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environment of the sea floor at all ocean depths
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intertidal zone
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the area between low and high tide waters
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Neritic zone
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area seaward from the shore, across the continental shelf, to the shelf break at a water depth of 120 to 200 m (390 to 650 ft)
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bioluminescence
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Light emitted from marine animals
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filter feeder
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animals equipped with features that strain food particles out of large volumes of water
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benthos
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Marine organisms that live in the benthic zone
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Three basic life strategies characterize the benthic zone
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Organisms may live attached to a firm surface
Construct burrows or tunnels or simply dig into sediment deposits. Move freely on the sea floor |
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bioturbation
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mixing of bottom sediments
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Tide pool
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a volume of water left behind in a rock basin or other intertidal depression by an ebbing tide
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Salt marshes
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commonly occur along sheltered shorelines and are ecologically similar to sea grass beds in estuaries
Home to abundant marine life, and are refuges for waterfowl and other wildlife Transition zones between marine and terrestrial ecosystems |
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Mangrove swamps
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consist of tropical plant species including trees that grow in low marshy areas and can tolerate salt water flooding of their roots and lower stems
Compete successfully with local marsh grasses |
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Kelp
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includes various species of brown algae that grow to enormous size.
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Coral
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carbonate-secreting colonial animals
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What Coral needs to grow?
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•Corals are found in all ocean basins, but large reefs occur only in tropical waters, between about 30°N and 30°S
•they need warm water and cannot tolerate prolonged exposure to large temperature fluctuations colder or hotter. Small changes in sea surface temperature (SST) can threaten coral reefs •Need lots of oxygen in the water to survive and grow •Require clear water to grow and are endangered by high runoff from the land, oil spills, and other water pollution •Large stresses or changes in these conditions can kill the zooxanthellae, and without them corals cannot flourish. •Coral polyps have little pigmentation and appear nearly transparent on the coral’s white skeleton, a condition known as coral bleaching. •A rise in sea surface temperature of one to two Celsius degrees (2 to 4 Fahrenheit degrees) is sufficient to cause temporary bleaching |
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lagoon fringing reef
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coral grows directly from the land with no lagoon present.
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Great Barrier Reef
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barrier reefs also grow out from the land but are separated from the mainland by a lagoonfringing
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Atoll
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reef which rings a landmass which has been eroded below the water’s surface
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Elasmobranchsor or cartilaginous fishes
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include sharks, skates, and rays and are considered to be more primitive.
Their skeletons lack true bones and consist entirely of cartilage. Cartilaginous fishes have internal fertilization…they don’t lay eggs like bony fish do. |
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Teleosts
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bony skeletons, scales, and a flap covering their gills.
Most have a swim bladder, a gas-filled structure that can be inflated or deflated enabling the fish to adjust its buoyancy with changes in water depth. Fishes living on or near the ocean bottom are called demersalfishes and many of them are commercially important, such as cod, halibut, haddock, and sole. |
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anadromous fish
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Some bony fish like salmon are born in fresh water (rivers) but spend most of their life in the ocean.
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catadromousfish
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who breed in salt water but spend their lives in freshwater
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schooling
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Many species of fish reduce predation by swimming together as organized groups, keeping a certain distance between one another.
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Pinnipeds
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named for their distinctive swimming flippers, include seals, sea lions, and walruses
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Vertical Migration
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Each day at dusk, they come to the surface zone to feed on phytoplankton. As daylight comes, they return to the relative safety of darker, deep waters
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coral bleaching
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Coral polyps have little pigmentation and appear nearly transparent on the coral’s white skeleton
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Sea snakes
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rare, occurring only in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans, usually around reefs.
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Marine iguanas
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herbivores, feeding mostly on seaweeds in the intertidal zone.
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