Marine Biology Quiz 1 and 2 notes

• Marine Biology vs Oceanography:

  • Oceanography studies everything about the ocean & its properties, including physical, chemical, and biological aspects
  • Marine biology focuses on life forms & their relationships with the environment, which can be ecological or taxonomic
  • Both disciplines discuss organisms & ocean applications, often related to human use & benefits like transportation, pharmaceuticals, food, and livelihood
  • Human impact on marine species includes pollution, disruptive fishing practices, overfishing, and ocean acidification due to increased CO2
• History of Marine Biology:

  • Early classical studies by Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, etc., in the Mediterranean area
  • 18-19th-century naturalists like Lamarck, Cuvier, Darwin made significant contributions
  • Modern marine biology includes expeditions like HMS Challenger, discoveries of deep-sea organisms, and efforts by American marine biologists like Alexander Agassiz and marine research institutions like the Marine Biological Laboratory
  • Worldwide efforts by scientists like Fridtjof Nansen and Hardy focused on studying Arctic and Antarctic marine life
• Submersibles:

  • Deep submarine vehicles are crucial for exploring the ocean depths
  • Notable figures like James Cameron and Victor Vescoro have developed submersibles for deep-sea exploration
• Physical Oceanography:

  • Open Oceans:
  • Larger in size and influenced by regional climate and river output differences
  • Four main oceans - Pacific, Atlantic, Antarctic, Indian - vary in depths, climate, and river input
  • Marginal Seas:
  • Have smaller waves than oceans and are affected by limited connections with the open ocean
• Topography and Structure of the Ocean Floor:

  • Types of sediment:
  • Hydrogenous, biogenous, terrigenous, and cosmogenous sediments
  • Bathygraphic Features:
  • Topography includes continental shelves, slopes, abyssal plains, deep-sea trenches, and volcanic mountains
  • Sea floor spreading and Continental Drift:
  • Movement of magma in the mantle through convection currents and magnetic drift
  • Tectonic plate boundaries, subduction zones, and volcanic activity play key roles in continental drift
• Ocean Chemistry:

  • Components of the ocean include major ions, sea salt cycling, nutrients, trace elements, and gases
  • Factors affecting gas concentrations in seawater are crucial for understanding ocean chemistry
• Bacteria, Viruses, Protists:

  • Various marine microorganisms like diatoms, silicoflagellates, labyrinthulids, thraustochytrids, haptophytes, coccolithophores, alveolates, dinoflagellates, ciliates, choanoflagellates, and amoeboid protozoans play essential roles in marine ecosystems
• Multicellular Primary Producers:

  • Seaweeds are important multicellular primary producers with various structures like holdfast, stipe, blade, air bladder, and thallus
  • Reproduction and biochemistry of seaweeds, along with the characteristics of green and red algae, are significant in marine ecosystems
• Types of charts used in oceanography:

  • Bathygraphic charts:
  • Topographical maps showing land elevation and depths as values
  • Do not show contours
  • Physiographic charts:
  • Uses perspective drawing with coloring or shading
  • Better for visualizing depth
  • Easily shows shallow/deep parts of the ocean floor
  • Ex. Philippine Rise/Benham Rise
  • Shows a very shallow area off the coast of Luzon that allows coral reefs
• • Equator has equal area representation, but distortion at separate ends of the equator
• Map Projections:

  • Maps and charts are made by projecting features of the Earth’s surface with reference lines onto a surface
  • Different projections include cylindrical, tangential, and conical projection
  • Different projections will have accurate/magnified characteristics
  • Ex. Alberts Equal Area:
  • Anchored on the North American Continent
  • Most accurate
  • Down the equator, there are distortions in the area
  • Ex. Lambert Azimuthal:
  • Accurate Longitude and Latitude areas
  • Accurate GPS locations, but distortions in area
  • Ex. Mercator:
• • Allows constant diversification of life due to consistent environment
  • Highly stable:
  • Does not phase change easily
  • Facilitates homeostasis
  • Easier to attain in the marine environment
  • Less dense as a solid:
  • Allows bodies of water to remain liquid below surface ice
  • Buoyant and viscose:
  • Allows adaptations on support systems and streamlining
  • Organisms adapted to the marine environment have adapted to buoyancy and viscosity
  • Light attenuation:
  • Water selectively absorbs certain wavelengths of light
  • Changes wavelengths of light that are absorbed
• Physical Properties of Air vs Water:

  • Density:
  • Water is more dense
  • Buoyancy:
  • More buoyant in water
  • Viscosity:
  • Water is more viscous
  • Light Penetration:
  • Air is easier to penetrate
  • Conductor of Heat:
  • Water is a better conductor
  • Specific Heat:
  • Water has better specific heat
  • Allows oceans to not freeze over
  • Surface tension:
  • Water tends to stick to itself, allowing resistance to external forces
  • Universal solvent:
  • Good medium for molecular processes necessary for life
  • Liquid state:
• • Light is better absorbed in open oceans rather than in coastal waters due to turbidity
• Salt Water:

  • Made up of a relatively constant proportion of dissolved salts
  • Salinity is a measure of the concentration of dissolved salts in water
  • Trends:
  • Subtropics -> Low Precipitation -> High Salinity
  • Equator -> High Precipitation -> Low Salinity
  • Calcium and Bicarbonate:
  • Easiest to sequester for exoskeletons
  • Coral reef
• Sea Salt Cycling:

  • Mainly through the water cycle
  • Land sources:
  • Estuaries, volcanic activity, silica, sulfur
  • Aerial sources:
  • Extrusion of volcanic eruptions
  • Release hydrogen sulfide
  • Deposits into the condensate
  • Added to the seawater via rain
• Energy Budget:

  • Energy input and output
  • Facilitated by Earth’s oceans
  • Ground:
  • Reflects sunlight
  • Oceans:
  • Evaporation -> Clouds
  • Reflectors of solar radiation
  • Heat trapping
• Ocean Heating and Cooling:

  • Shape of the Earth:
  • Differential heating and cooling
  • Revolution on a tilted axis:
  • Effects on seasonality
  • Rotation of the Earth:
  • Coriolis effect
  • Air-Sea Interaction:
  • Transfer of momentum, heat, moisture, trace gases and particles
  • Produces ocean currents
• Classifications of Currents:

  • Western-boundary currents:
  • Warm water towards the poles
  • Eastern-boundary currents:
  • Slow, wide-moving cold currents
  • Transverse currents:
  • West to East, or East to West
  • Ex. circumpolar currents
• Sverdrups:

  • Specific unit to account for large amounts of moving water
  • Ex. Kuroshio
  • Carry much more water than the descending California currents
  • 1,000,000 m3/s
• Eddies:

  • Currents formed by fast-moving currents
  • Break away from larger currents
  • Circular
  • Dissipate to movement of gyres
• Gulf Stream:

  • Brings water upstream
  • Contributes to more tropical seasons of the East Coast
  • Allows greater fishery production
  • Brings nutrients and oxygen
• Humboldt Current:

  • Carries cold water from Antarctic currents
  • Galapagos penguins
  • Cannot usually exist due to the tropical nature of the Galapagos
  • Penguins
• East Australian Current:

  • Brings tropical waters downwards
• Ekman Spiral:

  • Frictional loss of energy as surface currents move down
  • Transfer of energy as it moves deeper down the water column
• Vertical mixing and thermohaline circulation:

  • Vertical overturn
  • During the summer, the surface water is hot enough to be less dense from the bottom
  • During the fall, surface water is less warm
  • Density to overturn
  • Water at the top can ascend, vice versa
  • Uniform mixing
• Upwelling and Downwelling:

  • Ekman spiral
  • Wind-induced vertical circulation
  • Upwelling:
  • Ekman suction
  • Downwelling:
  • Ekman pumping
• Waves:

  • Movement of energy through water
  • Generating forces and restoring forces
  • Deepwater waves
  • Forced waves
  • Free waves
  • Swells
  • Shallow-water waves
  • Refraction
• Structure of a Wave:

  • Wavelength
  • Crest
  • Trough
• Tides:

  • Centrifugal force
  • Produced by Earth’s spins on its axis
• Tides:

  • Tides can be measured from crest to crest or trough to trough
  • Crest is the highest part of a wave
  • Trough is the lowest part of a wave
  • Centrifugal force is produced by Earth's spin on its axis and pulls a portion of the ocean's waters
  • The Moon has an unequal orbit with apogee and perigee, dictating the maximum and minimum distance
  • Closer distance to the Moon results in a stronger pull on the tides
  • Interactions:
  • High tides: One side experiences centrifugal force, while the other side experiences gravitational force
  • Low tides: Areas of equal force
  • Sun:
• • Alignment of Earth, Moon, and Sun systems creates maximum and minimum tidal fluctuations
  • Spring tides produce maximum tidal fluctuations with high high tides and low low tides
  • Neap tides produce minimum tidal fluctuations with low high tides and high low tides
  • Tides can be diurnal (single low tide and high tide), semidiurnal (two low tides and two high tides), or mixed semidiurnal
• • Principle of Constant Proportions states that even in regions like the Red Sea with more salts, the proportions of salts against one another remain the same
  • Salinity map shows lowest salinity in the tropics and highest in temperate regions
  • Summer melt of glaciers affects salinity levels
  • Deep water is more acidic due to colder water holding ions better and trapping CO2
  • Sea salt cycling maintains stable oceanic salinity despite terrestrial runoffs
  • Nutrients in the ocean are materials needed for metabolic reactions, including phosphorus, nitrogen, silicon, and trace elements
• Ocean Chemistry:

  • Rosette cluster is a device used for water sampling in deep water
  • Chemists use tools to record different properties of the ocean
  • Ocean components include solutes, nutrients, gases, trace elements, and organic compounds
  • Major ions in seawater include sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium, chloride, sulfate, and bicarbonate
  • Average pH of seawater is 8, with variations affecting the distribution of hydrogen ions
  • Salinity of seawater is around 35ppt and varies by location, measured through electrical conductivity
• • Gases in seawater have different proportions than in the atmosphere and vary with temperature, salinity, and pressure
• Bacteria, Viruses, Protists:

  • Diatoms are siliceous organisms with pennate and centric forms that reproduce via fission
  • Diatomaceous earth is used for various purposes like liquor-making and abrasive chemicals
  • Silicoflagellates, labyrinthulids, and haptophytes are other types of protists with unique characteristics and functions
  • Coccolithophores are a subgroup of haptophytes with calcium carbonate skeletons
  • Alveolates have a distinct structure on their cell membrane and include dinoflagellates, important for harmful algal blooms
• • Ciliates, choanoflagellates, and amoeboid protozoans are other protists with specific roles in marine ecosystems
• Algae:

  • Seaweeds are primary producers arising from primary plastid endosymbiosis
  • Secondary plastid endosymbiosis involves a common ancestor and a red alga
  • Fouling communities are populations of different organisms growing on artificial structures
  • Environmental factors influencing seaweed zonation include temperature, light, salinity, and waves
  • Seaweed structures include holdfast, stipe, blade, air bladder, and thallus
  • Seaweed shapes can be filamentous, leaf-like, or coraline
• Seaweed shapes include: filamentous, leaf-like, and coraline
• Some seaweeds can deposit calcium carbonate in their cell walls