Thurman: Biological Productivity And Energy Transfer

Front 1

what is gross primary production?

Back 1

total amount of organic matter produced per unit of time

Front 2

differentiate btwn new production vs. regenerated production

Back 2

New Production results from nutrients brought in from outside the local ecosystem
Regenerated production results from nutrients recycle within the ecosystem

Front 3

what are 3 ways to measure primary productivity?

Back 3

1. plankton nets
2. Gran Method (light and dark bottle method)
3. SeaWiFs (an instrument aboard the SeaStat satellite that measures chlorophyll concentration)

Front 4

what is the Gran Method of measuring productivity?

Back 4

it's aka the light and dark bottle method; light and dark bottles are suspended at various depths; photosynthesis and respiration occur in light bottles, but only respiration occurs in dark bottles. The net increase in oxygen in shallow clear bottles is proportional to primary production

Front 5

what is SeaWiFs?

Back 5

an instrument on SeaStar satellite; measures color of oceans and provides info on chlorophyll concentrations

Front 6

where does most of the productivity occur: continental shelf or open oceans?

Back 6

cont shelf

Front 7

productivity is often limited by this element even if all other nutrients are high (hint: there's a famous result known as the "[answer] hypothesis")

Back 7

iron

Front 8

why is most of the productivity found along the western margins of the continents?

Back 8

-there's a lack of western boundary currents
-ekman transport drives water offshore, causing upwelling

Front 9

True or False: the color that we see is the one that is absorbed

Back 9

False; REFLECTED

Front 10

in the oceans, what color is absorbed the most? reflected?

Back 10

red is absorbed; green and blue are reflected

Front 11

what is a Secchi Disk?

Back 11

a clear disk about 30 cm in diameter used to measure the clarity the water, which provides info on the depth of the photic zone

Front 12

when can the oceans be yellow green? blue?

Back 12

when there's lots of microscopic marine alage; when blue light is scattered;

Front 13

differentiate eutrophic vs. oligotrophic

Back 13

eutrophic is high productivity and oligotrophic is low productivity

Front 14

in what phylum do seed bearing marine plants belong to? give examples of some of these plants

Back 14

Anthophyta; eelgrass, surf grass, grasses, and mangroves

Front 15

what phylum are brown algae? green algae? red?

Back 15

Phaeophyta, Chlorophyta, and Rhodophyta, respectively

Front 16

where are brown algae found? green? red?

Back 16

brown: temperate and cold water
green: freshwater, intertidal zone or shallow bay rivers
red: warm and cold water; rare in freshwater

Front 17

brown, green, or red algae: one member of this group was found growing 268 m below sea level on a seamount

Back 17

red

Front 18

microalgae produce __% of food for marine animals

Back 18

99

Front 19

what are some examples of golden algae? what phylum are they in?

Back 19

diatoms and coccolithophores; phylum Chrysophyta

Front 20

where are diatoms most productive?

Back 20

coastal waters

Front 21

what is an individual plate of a coccolithophore called?

Back 21

coccolith

Front 22

what phylum are dinoflagellates in? why don't they contribute a lot of seafloor sediment?

Back 22

Pyrrophyta; their tests are made of cellulose, which is biodegradable and not preserved on the seafloor

Front 23

what is the scientific name of a dinoflagellate that caused 15 million fish to wash up dead in North Carolina's Neuse estuary?

Back 23

<i> Pfiesteria piscidia <i>

Front 24

how do humans suffer from Pfiesteria outbreaks?

Back 24

by breathing air, not by eating contaminated fish; memory loss, nausea, dizziness

Front 25

a red tide is aka....

Back 25

harmful algal bloom (HAB)

Front 26

seasonally, when are HABs most common?

Back 26

april to september in N hemisiphere

Front 27

what chemical is responsible for amnesic shellfish poisoning?

Back 27

Domoic Acid from diatoms

Front 28

give examples of incidents when birds were poisoned by diatom toxins and started attacking and/or washing up dead

Back 28

1. 1961
2. Sept 1991
3. 1998

-all in Monterey Bay California

Front 29

what are the units for measuring regional productivity?

Back 29

grams of carbon per unit of area per unit of time (gC/m^2/yr)

Front 30

what % of euphotic biomass is decomposed to inorganic nutrients before descending below the photic zone?

Back 30

90%

Front 31

describe seasonal changes in productivity in the polar oceans

Back 31

productivity peaks during the summer; mainly light limited; water is isothermal year round, so nutrients are plentiful; when ice melts in summer, a low salinity layer forms on top that doesn't mix with deepr water, causign phytoplankton to float on the top and reproduce rapidly

Front 32

where is productivity the highest: the antarctic or arctic? why?

Back 32

the antarctic, because upwelling of N Atlantic Deep Water that is remained deep below for 300 yrs brings nutrients

Front 33

describe productivity in tropical oceans

Back 33

-Productivity is low year round because permanent thermocline prevents mixing, and productivity is nutrient limited even though there is lots of sunlight
- Nutrients are below 150 m, and highest concentrations occur between 500-1000 m

Front 34

what are some exceptions to the low productivity "rule" in tropical regions?

Back 34

equatorial upwelling region that’s best developed in E pacific, coastal upwelling when winds blow towards the equator, and coral reefs

Front 35

describe productivity in temperate oceans

Back 35

Fall bloom and spring bloom; fall bloom is shorter and smaller than spring bloom; productivity is light limited in winter and nutrient limited in summer;

Front 36

in temperate oceans, order these seasons from least productive to the most productive: winter, spring, summer, fall

Back 36

winter, summer, fall, spring

Front 37

what is the difference between a biotic community and an ecosystem?

Back 37

- Biotic community- "an assemblage of organisms that live together w/in some definable area"

Ecosystem = Biotic community + habitat + surroundings

Front 38

what is the difference between commensalism, mutualism, and parasitism?

Back 38

commensalism: + and o
mutualism: + and +
parasitism: + and -

Front 39

True or False: Generally, in parasitism, the parasite does not rob enough energy to kill the host, because if the host dies, so does the parasite

Back 39

true

Front 40

what is the difference between energy flow and biogeochemical cycling?

Back 40

energy flow is UNIDIRECTIONAL but biogeochemical cycling is CYCLIC

Front 41

what percent of the total carbon in the sea is involved in primary productivity?

Back 41

1% (so carbon does not limit productivity)

Front 42

what is the redfield ratio?

Back 42

the ratio in which you would expect to find carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in the oceans

105 : 15 : 1 (C : N : P, respectively)

Front 43

nitrogen fixers vs. denitrifying bacteria

Back 43

Nitrogen Fixers convert N2 to NO3 while Denitrifiers convert NO3 to N2

Front 44

why is nitrogen important biologically?

Back 44

N is an important building block of amino acids, which make up proteins

Front 45

• Total nitrogen fixed into inorganic molecules at any given time may be ____ times as great as yearly average of soluble nitrogen compounds

Back 45

10

Front 46

N atom must be recycled about __ times per yr

Back 46

10

Front 47

what limits productivity the most: Nitrogen or Phosphorus?

Back 47

Nitrogen

Front 48

True or False: Fluctuations of Nitrogen and Phosphorus concentrations are greater than those of Silica

Back 48

False.....Fluctuations in silica are greater than those of N or P because silica is dissolved directly into seawater; it doesn’t undergo bacterial decay

Front 49

Each P atom may have to be recycled ___ times per yr

Back 49

4

Front 50

what are trophic levels?

Back 50

each feeding stage in a food chain/web

Front 51

which organisms are often referred to as the "miniature cows of the sea"?

Back 51

zooplankton

Front 52

T or F: Individuals of a feeding population are larger in size and smaller in number than their prey

Back 52

True

Front 53

what is the transfer efficiency of most algal species?

Back 53

2%

Front 54

Define the gross ecological efficiency

Back 54

the ratio of energy passed on to next level / energy received form previous level

Front 55

___% of the food mass consumed by herbivores is available at the next trophic level

Back 55

10

Front 56

what is a Biomass Pyramid?

Back 56

the # of individuals and total biomass decrease at each successive trophic level, where the size of individuals increases up the pyramid, but the population decreases

Front 57

Free living bacteria and archaea may consume up to ___% of phytoplankton production

Back 57

50

Front 58

what is a Microbial loop?

Back 58

a cycling of energy and matter among phytoplankton, heterotrophic bacteria, and protozoans in the pelagic ecosystem w/out energy and matter being passed onto larger animals

Front 59

why are cyanobacteria important in the nitrogen cycle?

Back 59

they convert N2 to NO3 and are important producers in oligotrophic open oceans

Front 60

how small are viruses? what is their concentration in the oceans? why are they important?

Back 60

0.2 to 0.02 microns; 10 billion individuals per liter of seawater;

They play an important role in limiting abundance of microbes by limiting their population as much as 8% to 34%