Oceanography Exam 4

ghost fishing

'Ghost Fishing' is what fishing gear does when it has been lost, dumped or abandoned. Nets, long lines, fish traps or any man made contraptions designed to catch fish or marine organisms are considered capable of ghost fishing when unattended, and without anyone profiting from the catches, they are affecting already depleted commercial fish stocks.

What roles do mangrove play in various ecosystems?

- They absorb most of the impact of tides from storms - help filter out pollution in water - provides nutrients and protection for small sea life with their roots. - nursery area

What is an average tropic efficiency? What does this mean in terms of energy movement up the food chain?

-percentage of usable energy transferred as biomass from one trophic level to the next -5% to 20% but average is about 10% Low efficiency energy: 1. don't digest everything consumed 2. cellular respiration uses up some energy 3. heat release the longer the food chain, the less efficent the energy will be transferred.

Describe the primary threats to the marine environment. What is the biggest current threat to marine ecosystems?

1. Overfishing 2. Coastal pollution 3. Habitat destruction 4. Warming 5. Acidification

Rockhopper

1. a small penguin with a yellowish crest, breeding on subantarctic coastal cliffs that it ascends by hopping from rock to rock. 2. (Fishing) informal Austral a fisherman who fishes from the rocks on the sea coast

Three kinds of fish?

>Agnatha-Agnatha are jawless fish. Lampreys and hagfish are in this class. Members of the agnatha class are probably the earliest vertebrates. Scientists have found fossils of agnathan species from the late Cambrian Period that occurred 500 million years ago.Members of this class of fish don't have paired fins or a stomach. Adults and larvae have a notochord. >Osteichthyes-This is the largest class of vertebrates. There are over 29,000 species of bony fish found in freshwater and marine environments around the world. Instead of cartilage, bony fish have bones. Bony fish also have a swim bladder. The swim bladder is a gas-filled sac that helps keep bony fish buoyant! They have paired pectoral and pelvic fins, and all but a few species have bones in their fins. They also have dorsal, anal, and caudal fins. >Chondrichtheyes-Chondrichthyes share many common characteristics among each other; their main defining feature is having a cartilaginous skeleton. Other features found in Chondricthyes include similar coloration patterns, placoid scales, pectoral fins, and ampullae of lorenzini.

How are penguins similar and different to normal birds?

>Penguins- flightless, lives mainly in colder climates of the southern hemisphere, well adapted to swimming, ability to hold their breath for a very long time, feed on crustaceans such as krill, fish, and squid, penguin's bones are rather solid compared to the bones of flight birds, thus meaning less energy is required to dive.The ways penguins nest vary greatly. Little blue penguins nest in burrows, Gentoo penguins make nests of plant materials, and King and Emperor penguins build no nest at all, the males incubate the eggs under a flap of skin and the eggs rest on the feet. >flying bird- feed on vegetation such as berries, fruit, and buds. A few species eat insects, bones of these and other flight birds are hollow,

what roles do Kelp play in various ecosystems in the ocean?

A host of invertebrates, fish, marine mammals, and birds exist in kelp forest environs. From the holdfasts to the surface mats of kelp fronds, the array of habitats on the kelp itself may support thousands of invertebrate individuals, including polychaetes, amphipods, decapods, and ophiuroids. California sea lions, harbor seals, sea otters, and whales may feed in the kelp or escape storms or predators in the shelter of kelp. On rare occasions gray whales have been spotted seeking refuge in kelp forests from predatory killer whales. All larger marine life, including birds and mammals, may retreat to kelp during storms or high-energy regimes because the kelp helps to weaken currents and waves.

How are hydrothermal vent communities different from surface pelagic communities?

A hydrothermal vent is a fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated water issues. Hydrothermal vents are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at spreading centers, ocean basins, and hotspots. The pelagic community lives in the water column above the seafloor and below the surface. It consists of free swimming creatures known as nekton. Unlike plankton that are at the mercy of the winds, tides and currents, nekton are capable of moving through the water at will.

Identify at least 4 different types of pollution which can harm many of the organisms in the oceans. How do each of these cause a problem?

Agricultural Runoff-Rainwater washes pesticides and fertilizers into smaller water sources such as streams and rivers, which ultimately carny those toxic chemicals into the ocean. Sewage-Animal waste and human wastewater from toilets and other household activities such as bathing and laundering as well as food preparation are often washed directly into the ocean from coastal communities. Dumping-A portion of the billions if not trillions of tons of trash produced each year finds its way into ocean waters. Oil-Petroleum products used for fuel are mined from the earth deep below the ocean surfaces. Occasionally, offshore drilling rigs experience accidental leaks.

How do we categorize major groups of plankton?

The two kinds of plankton are phytoplankton and zooplankton. Phytoplankton are plants. Zooplankton are animals

Are kelp and algae true plants?

Algae are a diverse group of all photosynthetic organisms that are not plants. Algae are important in marine, freshwater, and some terrestrial ecosystems So although kelp is commonly called a plant, according to scientists, all types of kelp are actually types of eukaryotic algae. Algae are simpler than flowering plants that lack tissues to carry water and food from one part to another.

What roles do algae play in various ecosystems in the ocean?

Algae are the ultimate source of food and energy for other organisms in aquatic ecosystems. As primary producers, algae form the basis of the aquatic food web.Algae also provides the major source of oxygen to other organisms. During the growing season, algae can absorb and synthesize nutrients and trace metals.Algae can be found in lakes, oceans, hot vents, and boiling springs near volcanoes, desert sands, snow, and ice.

Are polar bears major predators of penguins?

All penguins live in the Southern hemisphere, the opposite of polar bears.

What are urchin barrens?

An urchin barren is an area of the subtidal where the population growth of sea urchins has gone unchecked, causing destructive grazing of kelp beds or kelp forests (specifically the giant brown bladder kelp, Macrocystis).

Why are coral reef ecosystems so diverse and productive if they are usually found in warm, clear, nutrient-poor waters? How do they get the nutrients/food?

And this is accomplished in the relative absence of dissolved nutrients (N and P) in the clear, "oligotrophic" water. Rather than being a "poor" system, however, the coral reef is a "rich" living system that manages to have (and keep) it's nutrients largely tied up in solid, living matter. The standing stock of reef fish represents a significant nutrient resevoir for a these systems. Coral animals take advantage of both forms of nutrition by hosting plant-like algae (protists) in their tissues. The majority of the coral's energy needs are provided by tiny algae called zooxanthellae, which live inside the coral and produce food using the sun's energy from carbon dioxide and water. The protist algae and the coral animals live together in a symbiotic relationship. This partnership allows corals to live in nutrient-poor environments where sunlight is a plentiful source of energy and the supply of planktonic food is limited. Corals also use their tentacles to capture tiny marine animals called plankton. At night, the corals' tentacles extend from their bodies and wave in the water, collecting plankton to eat.

What characteristics define a mammal?

Are vertebrates (which means they have a backbone or spine). Are endothermic. Also known as "warm-blooded," endothermic animals regulate their own body temperate which allows them to live in almost every climate on Earth. Have hair on their bodies. Produce milk to feed their babies. This allows them to spend more time with their young and teach them important skills they need to survive on their own.

Explain how the principle of discounting can be used to partially explain why we tend to overuse marine resources so quickly.

Because todays money isn't worth as much later

Why do exotic species pose a threat to local marine ecosystems? How are they typically introduced?

By acting as predators, pathogens, or superior competitors to native species -control of native species -control of soil erosion -reduction of over-harvesting -perceived aesthetic value

How are algae and kelp similar and different from true plants?

Did you know that seaweed is not a plant? First of all, algae may be unicellular, colonial, or multi-cellular. Plants, on the other hand, are only multi-cellular. Holdfasts, stapes and blades compose multi-cellular algae. In comparison, plants have roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds and cones. The roots of plants not only hold them in place, they nourish them. Plants possess vascular systems, which allow for the uptake and transport of water and nutrients. In contrast, each cell in algae must obtain its own nutrients from water for survival

Why are some types of fishing damaging to marine ecosystems

Dredging Seafloor trawling blast fishing

What are the two major types of pinnipeds?

Earless Seals or True Seals (phocids) Eared Seals, sea lions (otariids)

What are the major threats to sea turtles?

Entanglement in fishing gear Poaching and illegal trade of eggs, meat, and shells. Coastal development. Plastic and other marine debris. Global warming. Ocean pollution.

Chordata

Fish Extremely Diverse Gills, Fins, Scales this phylum is probably one of the most familiar to us. We are included in the Phylum Chordata, which includes all animals with a nerve cord (called a notochord) at some stage of their development. Marine life in this phylum include marine mammals (cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians, sea otters, polar bears), fish, tunicates, seabirds and reptiles.

What characteristics make a fish a fish?

Fish are a class of aquatic vertebrates. The combination of gills, fins and the fact that they live only in the water make fish different from all other animals. Fish spend all of their lives in the water and are cold-blooded with the exception of Tuna family and the Mackerel shark family

Describe how the environment influences where marine organisms are capable of living

In our oceans, there are a number of environmental conditions that affect the growth, survival and productivity of marine organisms. These include light availability, oxygen levels, water movement, salinitydensity and pH. These conditions often vary from habitat to habitat and will either support or limit the life processes of the marine organisms living there.

How can parts of the ocean be nitrogen limited? How do organisms eventually get to use it?

In the open ocean, as on land, fixed nitrogen is one of the most important growth-limiting nutrients for photosynthetic organisms (primary producers) such as algae and marine bacteria. Nitrogen can also serve as an energy source or as an oxidant for marine bacteria and archaea The ocean absorbs nitrogen gas from the atmosphere. In open-ocean areas with low concentrations of nutrients ("oligotrophic" regions), some of this nitrogen is taken up by microbes and transformed into various chemical compounds. .-Nitrogen gas (N2) from the atmosphere dissolves into seawater at the ocean surface. Nitrogen gas is the most abundant form of nitrogen in the ocean, but is not useful to most living things. -Dissolved nitrogen gas is taken up by just a few types microbes, which convert the nitrogen into a much more useable form, known as ammonium (NH4+). This process, known as "nitrogen fixation," is vitally important. Without it, very little nitrogen would available for thousands of other organisms that live near the ocean surface. -Ammonium is the form of nitrogen that is most easily consumed by microorganisms. For this reason, ammonium is consumed almost as fast as it is produced, a process called "assimilation." The result is that the nitrogen becomes incorporated into the cells of living organisms. -Some marine microbes consume nitrite and nitrate, another form of assimilation. -When microbes (and other organisms) die, they decompose, releasing ammonium and tiny particles containing particulate organic nitrogen (PON), as well as dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) into the surrounding seawater. -Some microbes convert ammonium to nitrite (NO2-) and then nitrite to nitrate (NO3-). This two-step process is called "nitrification." The result of this process is that nitrate is released into the ocean. -A host of organisms consume particulate organic nitrogen and dissolved organic nitrogen, converting some of the nitrogen back to ammonium. This process is called "remineralization." -To complete this complex cycle (which begins to look more like a Celtic knot), some microbes convert nitrate and nitrite back to nitrogen gas through a process called "denitrification."

What role does kelp play in temperate ecosystems?

Kelp provide habitat for commercially important species, such as abalone and crayfish and also for some of the fish popular for recreational fishers, such as wrasses. Even the kelp that is ripped from the ocean floor and tossed up on the beach after a big storm is important - both commercially and environmentally. Kelp harvested from beaches is used in fertilisers and personal care products - you probably use it every time you wash your hair. It's also a major food source for beach and estuarine ecosystems.

What are at least 4 ways that the government can regulate fishing inside of our territorial waters?

Licenses for fishing (regulates the commons or people that fish) Banned Gill nets (Tech limits) Restrictions for fishing gear Size Limits (sexual maturity) also maximum size

Arthropoda -

Many familiar types of seafood, such as lobsters and crabs, are arthropods. Arthropods have a hard exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed legs. Molt, Most abundance

What is a marine mammal?

Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean and other marine ecosystems for their existence. In terms of the various marine mammal species there are several distinct groups of marine mammals; sirenians (manatees and dugongs) cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), fissipeds, sea otters, pinnipeds (seals, fur seals, sea lions and walruses) and (as considered by some researchers and biologists) polar bears.

What is a marine reserve and how are they different from other policy tools that we can use to regulate fishing? Do they only help the area inside of the reserve? Explain!

Marine protected areas- not take (no fishing on reserves) managing the entire ecosystem not just one of the species no, it allows for the fish to go outside of the reserve after birth which in turn restocks all of the surrounding waters

Why do certain areas have high production in comparison to other areas on a map of global primary production?

Primary production-Producing organic material from inorganic nutrients using light energy Controls on Primary Production-Phytoplankton biomass controlled by interaction of sunlight, nutrients, temperature, and grazing Global Primary Productivity: +Upwelling areas, brings nutrient rich water to surface - most productive +Coastal areas, nutrients from runoff, rivers - intermediate productivity, area +Open ocean - least productive, but largest area - as productive as deserts on land +Estuaries - as productive as the most heavily cultivated areas on land

How may the removal of a keystone predator affect an ecosystem? What would happen if you remove the sea otters from an ecosystem?

Removal of a keystone species would decrease biodiversity A keystone species' disappearance would start a domino effect. Other species in the habitat would also disappear and become extinct. The keystone species' disappearance could affect other species that rely on it for survival. Sea Otters can eat upwards to 35% of their body weight on food. Most of their food sources come from other sea life that eats kelp. Kelp forests are vast and diverse ecosystems that many creatures use to breed, and breed very productively. There are fields of these kelp forests off California coast, and sea otters are also present as a result. Sea otters keep these environments diverse and flourishing by eating a variety of sea life, such as crabs, sea urchins, lobster, etc. that keep the balance of the life cycle of sea life living in the kelp forests. Multiple times in history, humans have tried to take otters out of the ecosystem believing they were negatively effecting the environment because of their voracious appetite. Instead, humans did the exact opposite of what they were intending to accomplish. Humans thought that sea otters were eating too much of the fish that they themselves wanted to harvest, so they hunted sea otters to near record low levels. Sea urchin population exploded as a result because of the lack of sea otters that were their natural predators. As a result, the sea urchins ate vast quantities of kelp unchecked, destroying the habitat of many diverse breeds of fish who use it as a mating ground. Fish populations plummet

How are sea turtles similar and different to land turtles?

Sea Turtles- flippers, come back to the same beach that they were born for eggs laying, 4 species Land Turtles- 45 extant species

What is wrack? Why is it important?

Sea Wrack-the debris left at the high tide mark Wrack provides an important ecological link between the land and the sea. No plants or seaweeds can grow in the unstable, wave-washed sand of the beach; so, beach animals rely largely upon sources of food, like wrack, that drift onto shore from other ecosystems.

How do they differ from each other and from cetaceans?

Seals can go on land phocids do not have external ears but otariids do

What roles do seagrasses play in various ecosystems?

Shoreline Protection Sand Production Building Materials Nutrient Cycling Carbon Sequestration Primary Productivity Fish and Invertebrate Habitat Fisheries Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Products Biodiversity Recreation Tourism Education Cultural Resources

How do bony fish differ from cartilaginous fish?

Skeleton Eyelids Heart and Blood External Features Buoyancy Digestion and Evacuation Osmoregulation

What does it mean to be planktonic?

Small organisms that float or drift in great numbers in bodies of salt or fresh water. Plankton is a primary food source for many animals, and consists of bacteria, protozoans, certain algae, cnidarians, tiny crustaceans such as copepods, and many other organisms.

How are regions of the oceans defined by light availability?

Sunlight only penetrates the sea surface to a depth of about 200 m, creating the photic zone ("photic" means light). Organisms that photosynthesize depend on sunlight for food and so are restricted to the photic zone. Since tiny photosynthetic organisms, known as phytoplankton, supply nearly all of the energy and nutrients to the rest of the marine food web, most other marine organisms live in or at least visit the photic zone. In the aphotic zone there is not enough light for photosynthesis. The aphotic zone makes up the majority of the ocean, but has a relatively small amount of its life, both in diversity of type and in numbers. The aphotic zone is subdivided based on depth

How are manatees and dugongs different from each other and from other marine mammals?

Tails: Manatees have a large, horizontal, paddle-shaped tail with only one lobe, which moves up and down when the animal swims. Dugongs have tail flukes with pointed projections, like a whale with a slightly concave trailing edge. Manatees and dugongs are fully aquatic, but, unlike whales and dolphins, they are tolerant to different salinities, but are intolerant to cold and are only found in shallow, tropical waters. Often referred to as sea-cows, manatees and dugongs are the only herbivorous marine mammals. They are large and travel very slowly, and have algae grow on their backs.

What determines the sex of baby turtles?

Temperature

What kinds of factors are most important in determining what species are capable of living in different intertidal zones?

The attempt of two organisms trying to utilize the same resource is called competition. Competition shapes communities because there are usually limited resources.

What is the microbial loop?

The microbial loop is a depiction of the microbial food web. The pathway starts with dissolved organic matter (DOM) which makes its way through various trophic levels ultimately to the highest trophic levels Important because Up to 50% of carbon from PP is channeled in to here (higher in non-upwelling zones). Important in tropical seas b/c little new nutrients here.

Why do many scientists believe that animals migrate vertically in the water column?

The reason for this has long been attributed to the trade-off between obtaining tasty morsels in the surface ocean and avoiding becoming a tasty morsel for predators while they're there.

What are the two main categories of zooplankton?

The two types of zoo plankton are meroplankton and holoplankton. Meroplankton-Meroplankton are planktonic larvae that become either benthic or nektonic. Holoplankton-Live their entire life as plankton. There are MANY varieties. They make up 60-70% of all zooplankton in most locations.

How do toothed whales and baleen whales differ from each other?

There are about 65 different species of toothed whales. Toothed whales, including all dolphins and porpoises, have teeth, only one blowhole (baleen whales have two) and are generally smaller than most baleen whales. The only toothed whale longer than 13 metres is the sperm whale (they can measure up to 18 metres).

Mollusca

This diverse phylum includes an estimated 50,000 to 200,000 species of snails, sea slugs, octopuses, squids, and bivalves such as clams, mussels and oysters. Mantle, Muscular foot (movement), Rodula (feeding muscle)

Which country has jurisdiction over more ocean waters than any other country? Explain why this is.

United States Alaska and all of our Island give us a radius of 200 miles in every direction

How do sea otters differ from other marine mammals?

Unlike most marine mammals, the sea otter's primary form of insulation is an exceptionally thick coat of fur, the densest in the animal kingdom.

How are seagrasses and mangrove similar and different from true plants?

While seagrasses are considered vascular plants and have roots, stems and leaves, seaweed are multi-cellular algae and have little or no vascular tissues. The two differ in reproduction, structure, and how they transport nutrients and dissolved gases. They live in water up to 100 times saltier than most other plants can tolerate. They thrive despite twice-daily flooding by ocean tides; even if this water were fresh, the flooding alone would drown most trees. Growing where land and water meet, mangroves bear the brunt of ocean-borne storms and hurricanes.

Are seagrasses true plant?

Yes Only true marine angiosperm (flowering plant)

Are mangroves true plants?

Yes Tropical to subtropical plant

Sedentary animals that live somehow attached to an area have a body plan known as:

a polyp.

Why is it useful to put minimum and maximum size limits on the fish that can be caught?

because of the reproduction of the species bigger fish more reproducing to small its a baby

What are the primary characteristics of sea otters?

body of the sea otter is relatively long and heavy, making progress on land clumsy and slow, a coat of darkly colored (shades of brown), sparse guard hair and dense insulating fur that traps air and prevents water from contacting the skin; flattened hind feet or flippers for propulsion; retractile claws on the front feet; a loose flap or pouch of skin under each foreleg which is used to hold food items gathered from the sea bottom; flattened, rounded molar teeth with no cutting cusps; a horizontally flattened tail that aids in propulsion; a manner of swimming underwater by means of vertical undulations of the hind flippers and tail; and an external ear that resembles the ear of an otariid more than that of its closest relative, the river otter.

Explain how the problem of common pool resources can lead to over-exploitation of marine resources.

common-pool resource (CPR), also called a common property resource, is a type of good consisting of a natural or human-made resource system (e.g. an irrigation system or fishing grounds), whose size or characteristics makes it costly, but not impossible, to exclude potential beneficiaries from obtaining benefits from its use. Unlike pure public goods, common pool resources face problems of congestion or overuse, because they are subtractable.

bioaccumulation

gradual build-up of synthetic and organic chemicals in living organisms In the past, bioaccumulation has been an issue with pesticides such as DDT and hazardous industrial by-products such as dioxins and PCBs. Fish contaminated with high levels of mercury have received attention for the health risks they pose. But these materials are known poisons, so it is no surprise that they would attract special notice. More innocuous materials, however, can also present problems.

In a coral reef, different species of small fishes occupy the same ________ but different ________.

habitat, niches

Sponges:

have a skeletal framework.

What regions and what depths generally have the greatest productivity?

level of least productive to most productive of oceans are tropical, polar, temporate -North and South Atlantic: Large gyre systems, with low productivity. In the north Atlantic, the gyre is called the Sargasso Sea. -Pacific: Relatively high productivity, but still low in gyres. What causes these high productivity areas? -Indian: Typically low (0.2 gC/m2/day), but depends on seasons and monsoon winds, which can cause upwelling N of equator. -Southern Ocean: High productivity, high phytoplankton density can yield 1gC/m2/day! Over about 100 day season, that yields 100 gC/m2/year. Production can occur under ice! Conversely, in highly productive regions of the ocean, high phyto-plankton density near the surface limits the depth to which light penetrates, reducing productivity in deeper waters. Such self-limitation of primary productivity is a common dynamic in the ocean biosphere.

The most productive region in an ocean is the ________.

nearshore

characteristics of the primary groups of phytoplankton

net plankton-plankton that can be caught in a standard plankton net nanoplankton- very small plankton picoplankton-EXTREMELY small plankton Plankton- microscopic photosynthetic algae, protists, and cyanobacteria that drift in open water

Difficulties of living in the rocky intertidal zone include all of the following except:

nutrients.

What is meiofauna? Why are they important?

organisms that occupy the microspaces between particles or live on the individual particles minute interstitial animals living in soil and aquatic sediments Meiofauna are an important component of benthic habitats due to their small size, abundance and rapid turnover rates. They exhibit high abundance, diversity and productivity in many sedimentary habitats and play important roles in benthic food webs.

Brown algae are known as the ________.

phaeophyta

Chemosynthesis

the process by which chemicals such as sulfur are changed into energy; supports hydrothermal vent bio-communities

Photosynthesis

the process by which solar radiation is changed into energy; 99% of the ocean's biomass relies directly/indirectly on the organic matter supplied by photosynthesis; occurs when plant cells capture light energy and store it as sugars, and this is reversible using respiration Water + Carbon Dioxide +Light Energy=Sugar + Oxygen

biomagnification

the process in which chmicals not only accumulate but become more concentrated at each trophic level in a food pyramid. a pollutant moves up the food chain as predators eat prey, accumulating in higher concentrations in the bodies of predators causes accumulation of toxins in the food chain pollutants are fat-soluble and stay in the body fat of an organism the movement of fat-soluble pollutants through a food chain results in higher concentrations in the top consumer Exposure to fat-soluble toxins such as PCBs during pregnancy and nursing can be dangerous to the developing fetus, and may also affect growth and development in young children

The most important physical factor affecting rocky intertidal communities is ________.

the rise and fall of the tides

Define bycatch

the unwanted fish and other marine creatures caught during commercial fishing for a different species. with giant nets after a particular type of fish there sea animals that are thrown back by the fisherman

Annelida -

this phylum contains segmented worms. Earthworms are a familiar type of annelid to us. In the ocean, segmented worm species include such beautiful animals as Christmas tree worms. bilateral

Echinodermata

this phylum includes sea stars, brittle stars and basket stars, sea lilies, feather stars, sand dollars, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers. Tube feet

What are the two types of cetaceans and what are their defining characteristics?

toothed whales and baleen whales. Cetaceans are mammals, which means they are endothermic (commonly called warm-blooded) and their internal body temperature is about the same as a human's. They give birth to live young and breathe air through lungs just like we do. They even have hair. Unlike fish, which swim by moving their heads from side-to-side to swing their tail, cetaceans propel themselves by moving their tail in a smooth, up-and-down motion. Some cetaceans, such as the Dall's porpoise and the orca (killer whale) can swim faster than 30 miles per hour.

What are femtoplankton?

viruses Important because they affect the cycling of nutrients in two main ways: one, they return some of the carbon captured by photosynthesis into the water, instead of letting it progress up to the next trophic level; and two, they keep the marine bacteria population in check.

Describe some of the adaptations that sea birds exhibit which make them particularly well adapted for live on the ocean.

webbed feet, the ability to "fly" underwater, bill adaptations, such as a pelican's pouch, and the ability to fly over wide expanses of water