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30 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Pelagic zone
Open ocean waters
Plankton
(passive floaters or weak swimmers such as copepods, larval fish, and jellyfish) Slightly denser than Ocean water
nekton
(strong swimmers including most fish, squid, turtles, and marine mammals) Gas bladders to regulate buoyancy.
Benthic zone
environment of the sea floor at all ocean depths
intertidal zone
the area between low and high tide waters
Neritic zone
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)
bioluminescence
Light emitted from marine animals
filter feeder
animals equipped with features that strain food particles out of large volumes of water
benthos
Marine organisms that live in the benthic zone
Three basic life strategies characterize the benthic zone
Organisms may live attached to a firm surface

Construct burrows or tunnels or simply dig into sediment deposits.

Move freely on the sea floor
bioturbation
mixing of bottom sediments
Tide pool
a volume of water left behind in a rock basin or other intertidal depression by an ebbing tide
Salt marshes
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
Mangrove swamps
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
Kelp
includes various species of brown algae that grow to enormous size.
Coral
carbonate-secreting colonial animals
What Coral needs to grow?
•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
lagoon fringing reef
coral grows directly from the land with no lagoon present.
Great Barrier Reef
barrier reefs also grow out from the land but are separated from the mainland by a lagoonfringing
Atoll
reef which rings a landmass which has been eroded below the water’s surface
Elasmobranchsor or cartilaginous fishes
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.
Teleosts
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.
anadromous fish
Some bony fish like salmon are born in fresh water (rivers) but spend most of their life in the ocean.
catadromousfish
who breed in salt water but spend their lives in freshwater
schooling
Many species of fish reduce predation by swimming together as organized groups, keeping a certain distance between one another.
Pinnipeds
named for their distinctive swimming flippers, include seals, sea lions, and walruses
Vertical Migration
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
coral bleaching
Coral polyps have little pigmentation and appear nearly transparent on the coral’s white skeleton
Sea snakes
rare, occurring only in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans, usually around reefs.
Marine iguanas
herbivores, feeding mostly on seaweeds in the intertidal zone.