oceanography ch. 15

Which of the following are among the first organisms to colonize a rocky shore?

Rock weed

The common annelid found in a sandy beach environment is the ________.

lugworm

Under ideal conditions, the giant brown bladder kelp can grow up to two ________ per day.

feet

The most important members of hydrothermal vent biocommunities are microscopic ________.

Archaea

Which of the following factors does not limit coral growth?

High sediment load in the water

Which of the following sediment-covered shores represents the lowest-energy environment?

Mud flats

Stinging cells and camouflage are adaptations to cope with which of the following adverse conditions of the rocky intertidal zone?

Predators

Which of the following protects itself with stinging needlelike cells called nematocysts?

Sea Anemones

The most successful adaptation for living on a sediment-covered shore is ________.

burrowing into the sediment

Zooxanthellae are autotrophic marine protists that are found in the living tissues of some simple marine invertebrates such as corals, sea anemones, and jellyfish. Zooxanthellae are ________.

dinoflagellates

Some organisms living in the high water portion of the intertidal zone cannot survive in the supralittoral zone because they ________.

have planktonic larval forms

The loss of color (coral bleaching) in coral reef organisms can be a result of ________.

loss of zooxanthellae

Organisms that live in the spaces between sediment particles are called ________.

meiofauna

The relationship between the protistan zooxanthellae and the polyps of reef-building corals is best described as a/an ________.

mutualistic symbiosis

The distribution of benthic biomass is related to ________.

primary productivity

The most important limiting factor in rocky intertidal communities is ________.

space

The intertidal zonation of sediment-covered shores is best developed on a ________ sloping, ________-sand beach.

steeply; coarse

The three varieties of seeps on the seafloor include hypersaline, hydrocarbon, and ________.

subduction zone seeps

Primary producers in hydrothermal vent communities are ________.

sulfur-oxidizing archaea