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110 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
• Nekton
o Organisms that can propel themselves throughout the ocean
• Types of fish
o Bony
o Sharks
o Skates
o Rays
• Diadromous
o Fish that migrates between fresh and saline envirnoments
• Fish body shape
o Compressed- laterally flattened
o Depressed- Bottom-dwelling
o Elongated- open ocean fish and eels
• Camouflage techniques
o Countershading
o Disruptive
o Mimetism
o Mimecry
• Countershading
o Top dark, bottom light
• Disiruptive coloring
o “Tropical fish” (i.e. fake eyes)
• Mimetism
o Change color with background
• Mimecry
o Look like (i.e. stones, grass, etc.)
• Chromatophores
o Pigment used to change colors
o Able to contract and expand
• Lateral line
o Senses vibrations
• Distance perception
• Detects low-frequency vibrations
• Directional water flow
• Fish gas exchange
o Extract oxygen from the water
o Water pass through gills in opposite direction of blood flow
o Countercurrent exchange
• Swim blader
o Originally organ of respiration
o Maintains neutral buoyancy
• Schooling
o Gives impression of large animal
o Facilitates locating food
o Hydrodynamic advantage
o Increased reproductivity
• Reproductive strategies
o Internal or external
o Sequential hermaphrodites- born one sex and change sex during life
o Sychronous hermaphrodites- both sperm and egg organs
o Embryonic development
• Oviparous- egg layers
• Ovoviviparous- egg retainers
• Viviparous- live bearing
• Synchronous hermaphrodite
o Both sperm and egg organs
• Sequential hermaphrodites
o Born one sex and change sex during life
• Oviparous
o egg layers
• Oviviporous
o egg retainers
• Viviparous
o Live bearing
• Nictitating membrane
o Lateral, eyelidlike structure that protects the eye from being injured
• Shark jaws
o Unhinged
o Located at tip of snout
o Usually ventral
• Sting rays
o Cartolinogous fish
o Colors and patterns
o Bottom feeding
o Some endangered
o Razor sharp tails, some elctrical
• Feeding habits
o Eat: fish, crustaceans, molluscs, marine mammals and other sharks
o Tiger sharks = “garbage cnas of the sea”
o Prey on weak and inferior
o Eats between 1-10% of total body weight per week
o Methods of collecting and eating food:
• Triangular teeth
• Teeth often break while sharks are eating, replaced by teeth in reverse rows
• Seize, grasp and tear food
• Jaws are loosly connected to head: upper jaw extences forward, teeth of lower jaw puncture and hold prey, and upper teeth slice
• Bottom feeders: Upper jaw pick up prey
• Filter feeders: reduced, non-functional teeth
• Ampullae of Lorenzini
o Sensory system around sharks heads
o Pores that lead to jelly-filled canal to a membrane sac (ampullae)
o Ampullae = sensory cells innenverted bt nerve fibers
o Detect weak electrical fields
• Shark senses
o May detect: temperature, salinity, changes in water pressure, mechanical stimuli, and magnetic fields
• Largest turtle
o Leatherback turtle
• Most threatened turtle
o All eight are on threatened species list
o Loggerheads
o Leatherbacks- less than 115,000 females worldwide
• Carapace
o Dorsal (top) side of shell
• Plastron
o Ventral (bottom) side of shell
• Parrots beak
o Jaw shape
• Reproduction season
o Females nest a few weeks after mating (March- October)
• Sea turtle highways
o Routes to beach, nest, lifetime… migrations
• Caruncle
o Extension of upper jaw that falls off shortly after birth
• Swimming frenzy
o Continuous swimming for 24-48 hours after the hatchling enters the water
o Gets the young turtle into deeper water where it is less vulnerable to prey
• Threats (turtles)
o Predators- Sharks and whales
o Eggs- Fish, dogs, birds, racoons, crabs
o Fibropaplilomas- tumorlike growths on skin
o Humans
• Protection measures (turtles)
o ALL 8 species under threatened/endangered lists
o CITES
o Protecting nests
o Controlling lighting
o Wildlife refuges
o Managing sex ratios
• Types of cetaceans
o Toothed/Odontoceti whales
o Baleen/Mysticeti whales
• Blowholes
o Aids in respiration
o When surfaced, the whale exhales and inhales then descends
• Pods
o Family groups
o Not all live in
• Breath puffs
o Formed by air
o When surfaced, the whale exhales and inhales then descends
• Callosities
o Baleen/right whales
o series of growths on their head
• Devil fish
o Gray whales
o aggressive response to being hunted.
• Echolocation
o Toothed whales
o capability of emitting sounds that travel from their melons (or foreheads) and reflect off objects
o scientists do not agree where the sound comes from (nasal/larnyx)
• Baleen filaments
o The teeth of Baleen whales used to filter food
• Whale behaviour
o Breaching is when cetaceans leap clear out of the water.
o Flipper or fluke slapping is when a cetacean slaps the water with its flipper or fluke (a fluke is the word for a whale tail).
o fluke waving or "fluking up" is when the tail is raised vertically out of the water
o porpoising is when an animal moving in and out of the water in a series of high-speed leaps.
o Spouting/blowing is when whales must swim to the surface and exhale through their blowhole.
o Spyhopping is when a whale head sticks its head straight up out of the water
o Sounding is whale diving. Each species has a distinctive way of diving.
• Whale lice
o unique species of small crustaceans that live on whales’ skin
• Bubble nets
o with the air that they release from their blowholes. The whales dive deep then swim up in a spiral pattern, all the while releasing a steady stream of bubbles. As the bubbles rise they form a bubble cage, which traps the fish or plankton that the whales are pursuing. Then the whales swim up through the center of the bubble cage with their jaws open and capture a great gulp of food.
• Causes of whale strandings
o Natural phenomenon.
o Intentionally to rest or seek safety of land or to rub their skin.
o Disorientation, confusion of sonar signals in shallow water, or effects of parasite infestation of the inner ear
o whales using the earth's magnetic field to navigate their environment.
o Single stranding are most often the result of illness or injury.
o Mass or multiple strandings are rare.
o Often result in the death of a whole group of whales.
o Cetaceans in a mass stranding that are released one by one tend to re-strand themselves--possibly because of attachment.
o Of 78 species of cetacea, only 10 species regularly mass strand and another 10 species occasionally strand.
• Whaling
o Fishing of whales
• Whale Threats
o Drift nets
o Direct harassment from fishermen to keep out of nets.
o Accidental catching (non-target species)
o Contamination: DDTs PCBs are chemical that are accumulated along the food chain, and therefore they specially affect cetaceans
o Maritime circulation- acoustic contamination produced by maritime traffic, a higher industry activity, off-shore drilling, etc. (echolocation)
• ICW (International Convention For the Regulation of Whaling)
o Washington, 2nd December, 1946
o The purpose was to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry.
• Symptoms of over fishing
o fish depleted, concluding that world fisheries cannot sustain at their present levels
• Passive vs. active fishing
o Passive fishing- fishermen do not go to the fish areas; they wait until the fish pass by. (used by Egyptians and Greeks)
• Hooks
• Fixed nets
• Traps
o Active fishing- men went out to look for fish (harpoons)
• The fish are captured with nets that are towed behind the vessels (nets = cylindrical or cone shape)
• Threatened fish species
o Anchovies, Tuna, Salmon, Cod, Sharks
• Non-target species
o Some fishing techniques are less selective and capture non-target species (trawling, bottom-trawling, gillnets, drift nets, etc.)
• Aquaculture
o developed to situate fishing at the same level as agricultura
o First developed in China 4000 years ago
o replace some protein of fish caught at sea with fish brought up in tanks
o Developed countries use aquaculture to develop fish of high economical value, while underdeveloped countries use aquaculture to obtain another source of protein
o most common aquaculture species are molluscs and crustaceans
o Some species are used for medicinal and pharmaceutical products
o plants can be on land, controlled in coastal areas or at open sea
• Mariculture
o specialized branch of aquaculture involving the cultivation of marine organisms for food and other products in the open ocean, an enclosed section of the ocean, or in tanks, ponds or raceways which are filled with seawater
o Non-food products produced by mariculture include: fish meal, nutrient agar, jewelries (e.g. cultured pearls), and cosmetics
• Fishing restrictions
o to control the activities of individual fishers or fishing operations can be sorted into four categories:
• Taxation on input; vessel licensing
• Taxation on output; restrictions on catching techniques
• Limited entry control
• Catch quota and technical regulation
• Estuaries
o Coastal area where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with saltwater from the ocean (bays, lagoons, harbors or sounds)
o Protected from the full force of the ocean by mudflats, sandspits and barrier islands
• Estuaries zonation
o First zone- where the river begins to meet the saltwater: fresh water than saltwater
o middle zone- where there is an almost equal mix of fresh and saltwater
o last zone- where the water begins to flow into the ocean, and is mostly saltwater
• Estuaries habitats
o Salt marshes (temperate areas)
o Mangrove forests (subtropical and tropical areas)
• Estuaries threats
o Soil is rich in nutrients soil (decaying plants and animals)
o Plants and animals attract other animals to the estuary.
o Many fish species lay their eggs in estuaries: nurseries of the ocean.
o The abundant plant life provides a safe place for young fish to live.
o over 75 percent of fish caught by commercial fishing operations lived in an estuary for at least part of their life cycle.
o Habitats for birds- resting and feeding places when they migrate.
o Pollution Control- water from upland areas often carries sediment and pollutants. The marshy land and plants in estuaries filter these pollutants out of the water.
o Prevent shoreline erosion- Protect inland areas from flooding and storm surges.
• Estuaries functions
o Pollution- Dams block natural stream and river routes and cut off freshwater from estuaries, unbalancing the estuary
o Development- In the past, many estuaries where filled in and built on
• Mangroves
o Subtropic and tropic areas
o Habitats of estuaries
• Salt marshes
o Temperate
o Habitats of estuaries
• Importance of estuaries
o Soil is rich in nutrients soil (decaying plants and animals)
o Plants and animals attract other animals to the estuary.
o Many fish species lay their eggs in estuaries: nurseries of the ocean.
o The abundant plant life provides a safe place for young fish to live.
o Habitats for birds- resting and feeding places when they migrate.
o Pollution Control- water from upland areas often carries sediment and pollutants. The marshy land and plants in estuaries filter these pollutants out of the water.
o Prevent shoreline erosion- Protect inland areas from flooding and storm surges.
• Shores types
o Sandy shores- covered in sand (fine grains of rock, coral and shells)
o Muddy shores- covered with mud.
o Rocky shores- large rocks and rocky cliffs.
o Shingle shores- covered in pebbles and small rocks.
• Intertidal zone
o area of shoreline between the high tide and low tide marks
o Part of the day, it is covered in water and for part of the day it is dry or partially dry
• Vertical zonation
o Intertidal zone
o Area of shoreline between the high and low tide marks
o 4 separate regions
• Spray zone/supralittoral fringe- farthest from ocean
• High-ride zone/upper mid-littoral zone- exposed to some water during high-tide
• Mid-tide zone/lower mid-littoral zone- completely covered and uncovered twice a day by tides
• Low-tide zone/intralittoral fringe- usually covered by water most of the day
• Characteristics of intertidal organisms
o adapted to constantly changing environment, face many challenges
o Arthropods (crabs) and mollusks (clams and mussels) have shells that protect them from drying out and from being smashed on the rocks by waves.
o Limpets, starfish and seaweed attach themselves to rocks so they don't wash out with the tides.
o Crabs, mollusks, sea urchins and bacteria burrow under the sand when the tide is low.
o Animals burrow under the sand when the tide is out and come out to hunt for food when the tide returns.
• Tidal pools
o form in this region when water is trapped in depressions in rocks and the land.
o Some animals live in for their whole life; others wash in and out with the tides.
• Desiccation
o Drying out of living organizism
o Things that wash ashore and get stuck
• Sandy shores
o covered in sand.
o Sand is made up of fine grains of rock, coral and shells
• Economic value of sandy shores
o Tourism/recreation
• Benthic-pelagic
o Ocean floor-ocean water
• Pelagic regions
o Euphotic/sunlit zone (down to 300 m)- sunlight penetrates and photosynthesis occurs
• Home to a wide variety of marine species: sharks, tuna, mackerel, jellyfish, sea turtles, seals and sea lions, and stingrays.
• Water temperatures are warm
o Dysphotic/twilight zone (down to 1000 m)- some sunlight reaches this zone, but no photosynthesis occurs
• cold temperatures, increase in water pressure and dark waters.
• High abundance and low diversity.
• No plants in this zone- no light for photosynthesis
• Octopus, squid, and the hatchet fish that can be found.
• Adaptations to escapes predators:
• thin bodies that help them hide
• Red or black in color to blend in dark water.
• Sharp fangs and large mouths
• Large eyes
• stalk or wait for food to float or swim by.
• Make their own light with bioluminescence
• Bioluminiscence
o special organs in their bodies called photophores, giving out a greenish light
• Corals
o Building blocks of coral reefs
• Zooxanthellles
o single-celled algae which relationship with coral is responsible for coral to form reef structures
• Coral reefs types
o Fringing reef- is directly attached to shore or borders with an intervening shallow channel or lagoon.
o Barrier reef- reef separated from a mainland or island shore by a deep lagoon
o Atoll reef- a more or less circular or continuous barrier reef surrounding a lagoon without a central island.
• Coral reef fishes
o high biodiversity, although located in nutrient-poor tropical waters due to the process of nutrient recycling between corals, zooxanthellae, and other reef organisms.
o primary productivity is very high.
o Producers in communities include the symbiotic zooxanthellae, coralline algae, and various seaweeds.
o home to a variety of tropical or reef fishes: parrotfishes, angelfishes, damselfishes and butterflyfishes
o Other fish groups found on coral reefs include groupers, snappers, grunts and wrasses
o Over 4,000 species of fishes inhabit coral reefs.
• Coral reef threats
o Humans represent the single greatest threat to coral reefs
o Land-based pollution and over-fishing are the most serious threats
o Physical destruction of reefs due to boat and shipping traffic
o Cyanide and other chemicals in the capture of small fishes.
o Above normal water temperatures, due to El Niño and global warming, cause coral bleaching.
• Marine Protected Areas
implementation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
o Introduced in Southeast Asia and elsewhere around the world to attempt to promote responsible fishery management and habitat protection, potentially damaging extraction activities are prohibited.
o The objectives of MPAs are both social and biological, including restoration of coral reefs, aesthetic maintenance, increased and protected biodiversity, and economic benefits.
o Conflicts surrounding MPAs involve lack of participation, clashing views and perceptions of effectiveness, and funding.
• Hydrothermal Communities
o Low biodiversity, high abundance
o No photosynthesis, chemosynthesis used
o Very dark
o High water pressure
• Characteristics of hydrothermal animals
o Dark colored (red or black)
o Sharp fangs, large mouths
o Thin bodies
o Large or no eyes
o Make own light
o Don’t chase food (wait or stalk)
• Oceanic resources
o mineral deposits, oil and gas, electrical energy, food from marine animals and plants, transportation and recreation
• Marine reserves (resources)
o Physical- petroleum and natural gas, many minerals, fresh water extracted from seawater by desalination
o Energy- generating electrical power from waves, currents, and temperature differences in the oceans.
o Biological- marine animals and plants harvested for food and other uses
o Nonextractive- transportation and recreation
o These resources can be further classified as renewable or nonrenewable.
• Renewable- those that are replaced by natural processes
• Nonrenewable- present in fixed amounts and are not replaced (or at least are replaced extremely slowly)
• Drilling platforms
o Petroleum (crude oil) and natural gas pumped from offshore contribute substantially to the world supply of these products
• Oil formation
o Crude oil and gas form from the decomposition and chemical transformation of organic material in marine sediments.
o 1. Large amounts of plankton to accumulate on the sea floor in areas of low oxygen (so there are few scavengers to consume the accumulating organic matter).
o 2. The plankton-rich deposits gradually get buried to greater and greater depths, and over time the increasing heat and pressure transform this organic material into crude oil.
o 3. Further heat and pressure cause natural gas to form. Most oil forms at depths within two miles from the surface; most gas forms at slightly greater depths.
o 4. Oil and gas, being lighter than rock or sediment, naturally migrate upward once formed deep underground. Therefore, once oil and gas form, they must be trapped in some way, or they will leak upward and escape.
o 5. Oil and gas may become trapped beneath impermeable rock layers, called “caprock”. The oil and gas accumulate in these traps, forming a reservoir. Locating such reservoirs and extracting the oil and gas contained there is the goal of oil companies.
o The oil in a reservoir occurs not in large underground pools, but in small spaces (called pores) within the underground rock formations
• Caprock
o Oil and gas may become trapped beneath impermeable rock layers
• Tidal and Wave energy
o The first tidal power station was built at the mouth of the Rance River (14 meters).
o The Rance River is very narrow and when tides move in and out with the ebb and flood currents, the velocities are very high.
• Ocean Thermal Energy- Energy from the earth’s interior
o Beneath the core there is molten rock at 1000ºC.
o The energy comes up in the form of water vapor or steam in underground reservoirs.
o Steam flows up through fissures and porous rocks with a lot of force
o The erupting column of water is a geyser
o The largest electrical power plant that used the water vapor is in New Zealand
o Reykjavik’s homes are heated by water vapor that comes from the interior of the earth. The water used to warm up the homes is then used for greenhouses
• Renewable and nonrenewable resources
o Renewable resources- replaced by natural processes
o Nonrenewable resources- present in fixed amounts and are not replaced (or at least are replaced extremely slowly).
• New sea drugs
o vital and growing industry.
o 10% of marine species may contain useful medical compounds
• Physical resources
o petroleum and natural gas, many kinds of minerals, fresh water extracted from seawater by desalination
• Energy resources
o generating electrical power from waves, currents, and temperature differences in the oceans.
• Biological resources
o marine animals and plants harvested for food and other uses
• Nonextractive resources
o Transportation, recreation and tourism
• The International Law of the Sea
o International agreement to which most nations are now bound, presently governs use of the oceans.
o The Law recognizes the following regions for any nation
• Territorial Waters
o Extending 12 miles from shore, over which a nation has exclusive control.
• EEZ
o Exclusive economic zone (EEZ) - extending 200 miles from shore, in which a nation has control over all resources, but cannot limit transportation and passage.
• High Seas
o Areas beyond EEZs, which are the common property of all countries.
• Pollutants
o Substance or energy that directly or indirectly interferes with the normal biological processes of an organism.
o Pollutants change the quality of the water, and/or affect the functioning of individual organisms, populations, or ecosystems.
o Pollutants which are biodegradable may not be harmful to all organisms in an ecosystem, in fact some pollutants can be beneficial to certain organisms. A pollutant though, is always damaging to the balance of the ecosystem as a whole.
• Quantity, persistance, toxicity
o Quantity - the amount of a particular pollutant present.
o Toxicity - the amount of a pollutant required to cause a certain amount or type of damage.
o Persistence - the length of time a pollutant lasts in an environment.
• Effects of global warming
o Sea level rise will continue, and possibly accelerate, over the next century and beyond, through a combination of mechanisms including:
• Thermal expansion of the oceans
• Melting of glaciers and ice caps
• Melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets
• Changes in terrestrial storage.
o Changes in sea level will be felt through:
• Increases in intensity and frequency of storm surges and coastal flooding
• Increase in beach erosion
• Severe impact on urban communities
• Increased salinity of rivers, bays and coastal aquifers;
• Increased coastal erosion;
• Loss of important mangroves and other wetlands
• Impact on marine ecosystems i.e. coral reefs.
• Biological Amplification
o synthetic organic chemicals (solvents, detergents and pesticidas) only need concentrations in the parts per million to be dangerous to marine organisms
o The toxins become more concentrated higher up the food chain
• Organisms affected by petroleum
o In 1993 three million metric tons of oil seeped into the ocean, of which only 8% was from natural sources.
o A certain amount of crude oil has naturally escaped into the oceans throughout geologic time. But human activities have vastly increased the amount.
o The main sources of ocean oil pollution are oil tankers (both from accidents and oil spilled during loading and unloading) and river runoff from urban areas (oil washed off of streets and parking lots)
• Intertidal and shallow-water subtidal marine organisms are most affected by oil spills.
• Insoluble components in the oil form a slick on the surface, which prevents gas diffusion and blocks sunlight. They also coat and suffocate marine and other organisms.
• Spills of refined oil consist of more biologically active components as well as toxic additives.
• Some forms of bacteria can break down the remaining tar after other components have evaporated.
• The cleanup of shorelines with detergent and high-pressure hot water can often due more damage to those communities than the oil.
• Coral Formation
o Calcium carbonate
• Threats to corals
o Humans: fishing
o Gobal warming: coral bleaching
o Coastal development: causes physical destruction
o Chemicals