Marine Biology Exam 1 Quiz Questions

Bacteria are particularly important in ecosystems because

Many are decomposers/saprophytes and recycle essential nutrients.

Tunas have all of these features except

Many scales.

In waters of the continental shelf, the main thermocline:

May not exist.

The process of meiosis in seaweeds will produce:

Maybe a spore that produces a gametophyte.

The planktonic animals that divers are likely to see are

Megaplankton like jellyfish.

The zoea larva of a crab is planktonic but it will develop into a larger adult form, this is an example of:

Meroplankton.

The relationship in which two co-habiting or cooperating organisms that benefit each other is called:

Mutualism

The red meat of tuna, salmon, and other pelagic fish is due to high levels of __________ in their bodies.

Myoglobin to store oxygen

Which of these are not included in the Kingdom Protista?

fungi

As on land, which of the following is the most important nutrient in the ocean for plants?

nitrate

Salps and larvaceans

Are chordates, like the tunicates.

Anaerobic bacteria generally

Are heterotrophs.

Which of these is a primary producer?

Diatom

The mesopelagic is the open-ocean zone that has enough sunlight for some use of vision by animals but not enough to support photosynthesis.

True

In most temperate waters, how many algal blooms per year are there?

Two: one in spring and one in fall

Which of these features is not used to characterize major groups of seaweeds?

Type of roots

A food pyramid consists of 10 million calories' worth of diatoms. How much of this is passed on to third level consumers, such as large fishes?

10 thousand calories

The fastest pelagic fishes have been clocked at speeds of _____ or more.

100 km/hr

Prokaryotic cells have:

A cell wall.

A diver sees a fish swim slowly to a large coral head, where a colorful small fish swims in an odd pattern and approaches the bigger one. The coral head may be:

A cleaning station.

A biologist monitors a small area of a sea cliff. Two filter-feeders are present. Over time, one of them, a colonial ascidian, completely overgrows a neighboring coral. This interaction is an example of

A competitive interaction.

An example of predation is

A snail drilling a hole into a clam and then sucking out the flesh.

Lichens are a type of fungus and a ____________ thus they are considered autotrophic.

Algae

The growth of phytoplankton in many temperate waters is characterized by

An annual peak in the spring, when nutrients and light are both sufficient; and an annual low in the winter, when light, but not nutrients, is limiting.

A beneficial result of an El Nino Event is

An increase in warm-water fishes.

A biologist suspects that a polychaete worm uses active transport to remove a pollutant from its tissues. Evidence for this idea would be which of the following?

An increased concentration of the pollutant at the exits of its excretory organs as opposed to inside its tissues

Some snails grow thicker shells as a defense when exposed to predation by lobsters. This is an example of:

An inducible defense.

What is the major use of algin?

As a stabilizer and emulsifier in the dairy industry

When is water is most dense?

At 4°C.

Asexual reproduction in diatoms usually results in

Auxo-spores.

Which of the following causes waves begin to break and create surf?

Because the bottom of the wave motions begins to drag along the bottom as it approaches the shore.

Cordgrasses of salt marshes

Belong to the same family as sea grasses. Tolerate total submergence in seawater. Can excrete excess salt. Provide habitat and breeding grounds.

Many marine organisms release millions of eggs and sperm into the water where fertilization occurs. This reproductive strategy is called:

Broadcast spawning

Seagrasses are considered to belong to the Kingdom Plantae because they

Carry on photosynthesis. Can attach to sand. Have chlorophyll. Have specialized tissues that transport nutrients and food.

Besides being saprophytes bacteria are ecologically important because they also?

Can carry on nitrogen fixation.

Red tides: will most adversely effect which of these fisheries?

Clams and mussels

Some of the highest primary production in a pelagic environment occurs in

Coastal upwelling areas.

Net primary productivity can be determined by:

Comparing oxygen production by photosynthesis in a clear bottle vs the production of CO2 in a dark bottle due to respiration.

Many copepods feed by

Creating water currents that draw in cells.

Which of the following organisms are often responsible for toxic red tides and for the diffuse bioluminescence of the open sea?

Dinoflagellates

Surface water may become more dense and sink through the water column where it will displace and mix with deeper water. This process may also carry dissolved oxygen to greater depths than normal. This process is known as:

Downwelling

A major factor in creating upwelling is:

Ekman transport

Rapid unchecked growth of populations as seen in the explosion of the human population is called:

Exponential growth

Because the tropics are much warmer and have more sunlight, tropical waters are typically much more productive than polar and temperate waters.

False

Marine snow refers to the large amount of dissolved organic material that falls from the epipelagic zone in the oceans.

False

Members of the holoplankton spend part of their life cycle in the plankton and their adult lives on the sea floor.

False

Most epipelagic food chains are fairly simple and have fewer trophic-levels than other marine food-chains

False

Planktivorous nekton are the smaller species of fish only.

False

Today cyanobacteria form a relatively minor component of the ocean's primary producers.

False

Diatomaceous earth is used industrially as a

Filtering medium.

The northern limit of mangroves is set by which feature of the environment?

Frost

After eons of evolution on Earth today one might find the Archaea in which of the following habitats?

Hydrothermal vents

Sulfide-bacteria that carry on sulfur oxidation can usually be in found which location?

In mud flats

Primary production is highest

In the photic zone of neritic waters.

Several hagfish fighting over a remaining piece of a fallen whale carcass would be an example of:

Intraspecific competition

The biodiversity of the ocean environment is currently:

Is declining mostly due to human impacts.

A species' niche is defined as

Its special role in a community and all of its ecological interactions.

One of the shortest known pelagic food chains involves

Krill and whales.

Which of these is characteristic of flowering plants?

Leaves are present and sexually reproductive flowers.

A barnacle that is exposed to air at low tide inhabits the:

Littoral zone.

A population that has leveled off and is no longer increasing is said to be experiencing:

Logistic growth

Bacteriophages are:

Lysogenic viruses that reproduce by targeting bacteria.

Marine fungi may be common in which of these habitats?

Mangrove swamps

The major limiting nutrient for primary production in oceans overall is thought to be: nitrogen.

Nitrogen

Nitrate in the ocean generally comes from:

Nitrogen fixation from the atmosphere by cyanobacteria and archaea.

To achieve neutral buoyancy, a shark uses its

Oily liver.

Among red algae, dense clumps are characteristic of species living where?

On upper levels of rocky coasts

Which of these groups includes the largest algae, the giant kelps?

Phaeophyta

A sea grass bed is grazed heavily by sea turtles, yet continues to grow, even though it remains very short. The sea grass bed could have a high

Primary production rate.

Which of these is partially responsible for adding calcium-carbonate in the making of coral reefs?

Rhodophyte coralline algae

Green algae generally can be found in all of these habitats except:

Rocks exposed to heavy wave action.

Which of the following is a potential problem in achieving a significant reduction in the rate of the loss of biodiversity world-wide?

Scientists cannot actually measure how fast biodiversity is disappearing.

Damselfishes can be raised in captivity. In a small culture pool, only 10 can be kept because, if more are placed in the pool, they fight. Despite abundant food, only the largest 10 fish survive. This population's growth rate is said to be

Self-limiting.

Diatoms have a protective covering made out of which of the following materials?

Silica

A killer whale is considered to be a _____ trophic level consumer, while a baleen whale is a _____ trophic level consumer.

Sixth, second

The direct biochemical function of genes is to:

Specify the order of amino acids in one protein.

An example of a nektonic invertebrate would be a:

Squid

The total amount of phytoplankton is the water is the:

Standing stock

Larvae of reef fishes may locate a reef by which of these means?

Staying close to where their parents produced them

Vertically migrating zooplankton

Stop migrating if predators are not present.

Which of these means is not an effective floatation mechanism?

Streamlining

The calcareous mounds formed by colonies of cyanobacteria that still survive in the shallows of the tropical ocean areas are called:.

Stromatolites

Useful features for distinguishing between protistans include all of the following except?

Structure of the nucleus

Brown algae are dominant primary producers in which area?

Temperate rocky coasts

During summer, a satellite map of sea surface temperatures for the coasts of the U.S.A. usually shows very cold water off California. Why might this be so?

The current in the area runs from north to south originating off of Alaska.

Red muscle in fishes is used for constant cruising, while white muscle is used for quick bursts of speed.

True

Why can't desert lakes that have the same salinity as seawater support various types of marine fishes?

The ratio of ions in the total salinity is different from that in seawater.

Why are the Archaea are now considered to be separate from Bacteria?

There are great differences in their RNA.

To keep tunas and other pelagic fishes on display, public aquarium use big circular tanks. This is because

These fishes have no adaptations to avoid solid physical structures, such as walls.

The most unique feature of mangroves as a tree species is:

They can grow directly in saltwater

Protozoans such as foraminiferans are considered to be zooplankton because

They graze on other types of plankton.

Due to the Coriolis Force the which of the following is true of the major ocean current patterns or gyres?

They move clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere.

The rete mirabile is an arrangement of blood vessels used to:

To reduce heat loss

Nitrogen-fixing phytoplankton may be

Trichodesmium.

Cleaning associations benefit the cleaner species, which get a steady supply of food, and may benefit the cleaned host by removal of irritating parasites.

True

Dinoflagellates move using two flagella, one wrapped around a central groove, and one trailing free.

True

Drag upon the water column that slows sinking can be increased with spines and flat shapes.

True

Lipids are a major form of energy storage material that adds buoyancy to epipelagic organisms such as copepods and diatoms.

True

Most of the phosphorus entering the ocean is brought in by rivers.

True

Which of these does not apply to areas with upwelling?

Upwelling occurs year-round.

Foraminiferans and radiolarians feed by

Using a network of pseudopodia to trap food like Amoeba.

As the temperature of water rises, which of these happens?

Water molecules break free of hydrogen bonds.

Which of the following would be a serious warning sign of an oncoming tsunami observable from the coast?

Water receding out to sea, exposing reefs and leaving fish out of the water.

Harmful algal blooms can cause all of these problems except

Water stratification.

Why might the largest ocean waves of all occur just north of Antarctica?

Waves in the Southern Ocean can go around the world, and thus have the longest fetch.

When do the highest tides occur?

When the sun, moon and the Earth are in line during a full or new moon.

Salinity may not vary much from the surface to the depths far out at sea. If so, it would be easiest and least expensive to measure temperature versus depth with which devices?

XBTs

Viruses do not have

a nucleus

Like most plants, unicellular algae generally have which of these features?

chlorophyll

A sea anemone reproduces by fission. This form of asexual reproduction produces genetic:

clones

Which of the following are characteristics of water?

contains hydrogen and oxygen units polar molecule substance with high specific heat

Some dinoflagellates become zooxanthellae that inhabit the tissues of which of these animals, forming generally beneficial partnerships?

corals

Which of these animals probably could undergo vertical movement in the water with the least difficulty from changes in pressure?

deep-sea shrimp

A fish with an internal salinity of 14 parts per thousand tends to gain water from the marine environment by osmosis.

false

A giant kelp typically grows very slowly because much of its huge thallus is in deep dark waters.

false

All autotrophs have no need of respiration since they obtain their energy from nonliving sources.

false

All marine photosynthetic autotrophs/algae are green because chlorophyll is this color.

false

Many zooplankton animals such as jellyfish and salps use counter-shading and are dark blue or green on top and white or silver on the bottom.

false

Nitrogen and carbon are often limiting factors because each forms a relatively inert gas that few organisms can extract from the atmosphere.

false

Primary producers in the oceans are all microscopic photosynthesizers including bacteria, plants, and algae.

false

Primary production is the net gain in organic matter remaining after autotrophs have been consumed by heterotrophs.

false

Prokaryotes have nuclei but no mitochondria or chloroplasts.

false

Small marine organisms can rely only on diffusion for exchange of materials with the environment because of their low surface/volume ration.

false

The greatest differences between high and low tides occur when the sun and moon are at right angles to each other.

false

The holdfasts of seaweeds are analogous to roots because both provide an anchor and absorb nutrients and water to supply the entire algal body or thallus.

false

The most common pattern of reproduction in seaweeds is like that of animals, resulting in a diploid adult thallus and haploid gametes.

false

Zooplankton are too small to be effective vertical migrators, since this behavior involves a long-distance swim each day.

false

Which of the following ions is found in the lowest concentrations in seawater?

fluoride

The feeding and biological production interrelationships of all organisms in a given ecosystem is shown in a ____________ diagram.

food web

Salps and larvaceans trap phytoplankton using.

mucus

The maximum population of any organism that can be maintained by the available resources in an ecosystem is the:

the carrying capacity

Because of the patterns of plate tectonic movements, which of the following oceans is more likely to have a tsunami?

the pacific

Foraminifera are single cells that form chambered calcareous shells.

true

In a normal semidiurnal tide lunar cycle, the time between a high tide and the next low tide is approximately 6 hrs. 12 min.

true

In boiling water, nearly all of the hydrogen bonds are broken.

true

In some seaweeds, leaf-like portions called blades are kept near the sea surface with gas-filled bladders called pneumatocysts.

true

In summer, the thermocline of the surface layer of the "three-layered ocean" will be deeper than during other seasons.

true

In the pelagic realm, most primary production occurs in the epipelagic neritic zone.

true

Krill are not as numerous as copepods but are more likely to be eaten by large consumers such as birds, fishes, and whales.

true

Maintenance of biodiversity is of importance to humans because ecosystem efficiency may decline as species are lost.

true

Nitrogen (such as NO3-) and phosphorus (PO4-3) compounds are usually the most important nutrients for primary production in the oceans.

true

Picoplankton-sized primary producers in the epipelagic are dominated by prochlorophytes and cyanobacteria.

true

Sea grasses grow in clusters interconnected with horizontal root-like stems.

true

Species that exhibit resource partitioning are likely to be specialists rather than generalists.

true

Sperm and eggs generally have a haploid number of chromosomes.

true

The lateral line of fishes detects vibrations in the water.

true

The longer the fetch is, the greater the mass of water that is transported by waves. Therefore the larger the ocean the bigger the average waves.

true

The major ocean currents, called gyres, are caused mainly by the trade winds and westerlies moving the ocean water at an angle due to the Coriolis effect.

true

The westerlies are the primary wind belt in the Temperate Zone latitudes.

true

Trade winds in the Northern Hemisphere result from air sinking at about 30° N latitude, traveling back toward the equator, and moving from east towards the west relative to the ground due to the Coriolis effect.

true