Ecology of Water Column

• Plankton


  Collective term for organisms that drift in ocean currents
• T or F: Plankton dominate the well-lit portion of the water column since they do not have a well-development visual organ for navigating sea water

  False
• T or F: Plankton dominate the well-lit portion of the water column since they require sunlight for nutrition and they feed on autotrophic plankton as well


  True
• Plankton types are based on

  • Nutritrional mode
  • Habitat
  • Life cycle
  • Size
• Phytoplankton


  Plankton that are plant-like thus can conduct photosynthetic activities
• Phytoplankton


  diatoms, dinoflagellates, coccolithophores, cyanobacteria
• Zooplankton


  Plankton that are heterotrophs and detritivores
• Zooplankton


  Fish larvae, copepods, ctenophores, mysids
• T or F: Haliplankton are found in freshwater

  False
• T or F: Limnoplankton are found in freshwater

  True
• T or F: Haliplankton are marine organisms

  True
• T or F: holoplankton live their entire lives as plankton

  True
• T or F: Meroplankton live only a part of their life cycle as plankton


  True
• T or F: Nekton and benthos are examples of meroplankton wherein the former is a substrate dweller and the latter is a free swimming plankton

  False
• Plankton type based on their size

  • Megaplankton: >10mm
  • Macroplankton: 1-10mm
  • Mesoplankton: 0.5-1mm
  • Picoplankton: 0.2-2μ
  • Ultraplankton: <2μ
  • Nanoplankton: <5μ
  • Microplankton: 60-500μ
• T or F: A dense population of zooplankton is found in vertical migration

  True
• T or F: A dense population of phytoplankton are typically found at or near water surface

  True
• Phytoplankton blooms – dense populations

  • Nutrient input or warm temperatures
  • Emergence from dormant stages
  • Fish kills due to toxins, gill damage, hypoxia
  • HABs (Harmful Algal Blooms)
• T or F: phytoplankton are capable of forming chain or aggregations

  True
• T or F: phytoplankton are multicellular organisms

  False
• T or F: Phytoplankton are the base of the marine food web

  True
• T or F: Trees are responsible for the 50% of our global oxygen supply

  False
• T or F: Phytoplankton are carbon sinks

  True
• T or F: Mixotrophs carry food particles to deeper water

  True
• Types of phytoplankton

  • diatoms
  • dinoflagellates
  • coccolithophores
  • cyanobacteria
• T or F: Diatoms can either be planktonic or benthic

  True
• T or F: Diatoms are multi-celled

  False
• T or F: Diatoms have hard and porous cell wall which is carbon-based called frustule

  False
• T or F: Diatoms vary in shapes and sizes thus can either be pennate or centric

  True
• T or F: Dinoflagellates are single-celled

  True
• T or F: Dinoflagellates have 1 or 2 flagella and some have armored plates called theca

  True
• T or F: Some species of dinoflagellates are bioluminescent and all of the species are toxic for their defence mechanism

  False
• T or F: Coral symbionts (Symbiodiniaceae) is an example of Dinoflagellates

  True
• T or F: Coccolithophores are single-celled

  True
• T or F: Coccolithophores have silica-based plates called coccoliths thus it is very sensitive to climate change

  False
• T or F: Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic algae

  False
• T or F: Cyanobacteria contributed significantly to the nitrogen fixation and primary production in the ocean

  True
• T or F: Cyanobacteria can either be planktonic or benthic

  False
• T or F: Some Cyanobacteria cause toxic blooms

  True
• Zooplankton

  • microscopic
  • Drift or weakly swim in the ocean
  • Heterotrophic
  • Link between primary producers and high trophic level organisms in marine environment
  • bioindicators