Oceanography Chapter 15 Homework

Some of the more common fauna of sediment-covered shores include bivalve mollusks, annelid worms, and crustaceans

True

Strong algal holdfasts prevent wave shock from washing macroalgae form the rocks in the upper intertidal zone.

True

The temperature of the ocean water has a significant effect on species diversity of benthic communities

True

Recent studies indicate that the deep biosphere, an environment that exists within the seafloor itself, may account for up to _____ of Earth's total bacterial biomass.

Two-thirds

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

burrowing into the sediment

The subtidal rocky bottom zone along temperate shorelines is dominated by:

kelp

Which of the following is a threat to coral reef survival?

All of the above

Hypersaline seep communities rely on photosynthesis

False

Nearly all of the larger organisms that inhabit sediment-covered shores are epifauna organisms.

False

The eastern side of an ocean basin tends to have a greater diversity of reef building corals than the western side.

False

The increase in the number of crown-of-thorn sea stars has been strongly linked to human activities

False

The supratidal zone of the rocky shore is the area between the highest high tide and the lowest low tide.

False

Zooxanthellae are important members of hydrothermal vent communities.

False

Organic matter decomposes most slowly in ______.

Mud flats

The relationship between the protistan Zooxanthellae and the polyps of reef building corals is best described as a:

Mutualistic symbiosis

A predatory echinoderm that lives and feeds below the sediment surface is the ______.

Sand star

An important predator of mussel beds in the middle tidal zone is the _____.

Sea star

Coral reefs contain 25% of all known marine species

True

Epifauna are those organisms that are either permanently attached to the bottom or move over it.

True

Meiofauna are small organisms that live between sediment particles on sandy beaches.

True

Sewage discharge and fertilizer runoff is detrimental to coral growth because it increases the:

amount of inorganic nutrients in the water that stimulates excessive legal growth

The primary producers in chemosynthetic vent communities are _____

archaea

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

dinoflagellates

Match the organism with the appropriate zone: Hermit crab

middle tide zone, tide pool

The organism posing the greatest threat to the kelp forest is the _____

sea urchin

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

subduction zone seeps

Primary producers in hydrothermal vent communities are:

sulfer-oxidizing archaea

The amount of life on the ocean floor depends primarily on:

the productivity of the surface above it

Species diversity is highest in coral reef communities

true