Exam IV Review

If the Earth's axis was not tilted with respect to the ecliptic, how would the weather be different?

Climate patterns would be latitudinal, with no major changes in temperature during the year.

Which fish was the basis for a 500 year long fishery on the Grand Banks that collapsed in the 1990's?

Cod.

Capture of larger whale species was banned by the International Whaling Commission in 1985 and other than capture by some indigenous population, there is no killing of large whales anywhere in the world ocean today.

False.

Commercial fishing in Florida has far greater economic value than recreational fishing.

False.

Why can dolphins be harmed by fishing for tuna?

Fisherman set their purse seines around schools of dolphin that swim above schools of tuna.

As you know, Earth is layered inside. The layers have different sizes and densities. How do geologists know this?

From observing the transit times through the Earth of seismic waves generated by large earthquakes.

If two oceanic plates collide at a relatively fast speed, and one is much older and cooler and therefore more dense than the other, what will probably happen?

A & C (A trench will form & Large earthquakes will occur)

If the body fluids of an organism are more saline than the surrounding water, it is

gaining water to the surrounding water by osmosis.

In subtropical regions the salinity of restricted coastal waters is often _______ than the salinity of open ocean waters.

greater than

Climate models cannot stimulate the rapid rise in global average temperature in the second half of the 20th century century without including a large rise in

greenhouse gas concentrations.

At a depth of 50 meters, a red object would probably look

grey or black.

Florida does not have any known hot rock geothermal resources, however ________ can be used to lower home cooling and heating costs

ground water source heat pumps.

The _______ is an example of how relatively small amounts of PCB's can contaminate large water bodies.

Hudson River estuary

If our planet were without its ocean, but otherwise the same as it is today, would temperatures be more extreme than they are now or less extreme?

More extreme.

If you were standing on top of a high mid-Pacific island at 15 degrees north latitude, from which direction would you expect the wind to come?

Northeast.

A major disadvantage of photovoltaic solar systems is

PV solar can only generate electricity when the sun is shining.

How can satellite measurements show that absorption of thermal radiation from the Earth by greenhouse gases has increased?

Satellites can measure the intensity of thermal radiation within the specific bands of EM radiation that correspond to the wavelengths absorbed by greenhouse gases.

The Pacific gray whale population has recovered from early 20th century whaling losses.

True.

The population of southern hemisphere blue whales has almost completely recovered from whaling losses in the early 20th century.

True.

Which major industrial nation has not signed the UN Treaty of the Sea?

United States.

An endocrine disrupter is

a chemical that mimics natural hormones.

Charles Darwin's theory of coral atoll formation (which is likely true) involves

a lowering of the ocean floor.

Both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have

a negative mass balance.

125,000 years ago, the Everglades were

a shallow sea.

Storm surges are

associated with all atmospheric storms.

The oceans are warming. The warming [can/cannot] be explained by natural variation alone.

cannot

In the Northern Hemisphere winter, Earth is ________ the Sun than in the NH Summer.

closer to

Most of the mercury pollution in fresh and coastal waters comes from

coal burning power plants.

San Francisco's characteristic cold and foggy weather is caused by a

cold eastern boundary current.

The force driving the lithospheric plates is believed to be

convection cells in the upper mantle and the tug of the descending plates.

Since 1870, global average sea level

has risen.

Waves with the greatest propagation rate of velocity

have the longest wavelengths.

The ocean is slow to heat and slow to cool. This is related to a property of water known as

high heat capacity.

For an idealized tidal system, the side of the Earth facing the moon will experience a high tide, while the opposite side of the earth will have a

high tide also.

Geologic carbon sequestration captures CO2 and stores it

in deep saline aquifers and depleted oil and gas fields.

Since 2003, the average heat content of the oceans to a depth of 2000 m has

increased.

An organism's niche is like its _______ while it's habitat is its _______.

job, neighborhood.

In temperate, mid and high latitude regions, the salinity of coastal waters is usually _______ the salinity of open ocean waters.

less than

The climate driver that changed the most from 1880 to 2000 is

levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Climate is the ___________ weather.

long term average of

If the body fluids of an organism are less saline than the surrounding water, it is

losing water to the surrounding water by osmosis.

A chemical gradient of H+ ions between the thylakoid compartment and the stroma is used to

make ATP from ADP and P.

In photosystem I, light energy is used to

make NADPH.

Wind blowing from the north along the California coast causes water moving along the coast to

move away from shore (west).

Water particles in a deep-water wave

move in circular orbits

If sea level rises 1 foot, a barrier beach will

move landward 100-1000 feet.

Compared to the highest levels of pre-industrial carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the 420,000 years, current carbon dioxide levels are

much higher than at any time in the last 420,000 years.

Submarine canyons occur

near the edge of ocean basins associated with continental shelves and slopes.

Most deep bottom water forms

near the ocean surface in the Antarctic.

The youngest seafloor rocks are found

near the rift valleys of the mid-ocean ridges.

Despite higher capital costs, thermal solar systems have the advantage

of generating electricity when the Sun is not shining.

The magnetic striping of the seafloor is considered evidence of seafloor spreading and

periodic reversals in the polarity of the Earth's magnetic field.

The free oxygen in our present atmosphere is thought to have been produced by

photosynthesis.

Pig farming is related to water quality in some East Coast estuaries because

pigs carry parasites that can infect marine organisms.

The concept of 'effective risk' states that the practical risk of an event is its multiplied by

probability of occurrence, the cost to society, or the economy if it occurs.

Fertilizer applied to lawns can add unwanted nutrients to estuaries because

rain washes fertilizer into storm sewers directly connected to estuaries.

Waves tend to be parallel to the shore when they break due to the process of

refraction.

The definition of living species depends ultimately on

reproductive isolation from other species.

According to the atmospheric circulation model developed in the text, air tends to

rise at 30 degrees north and rise at 60 degrees north.

Since about 1870, global sea level has

risen about 240 mm.

The period of wind waves is usually expressed in

seconds.

The largest volume of oil added to the oceans globally comes from

shipping.

Which fishing method produces the greatest amount of bycatch?

shrimp trawls.

During a magnetic reversal, the north end of a compass needle would point

south.

The presence of a baymouth bar is evidence of

strong longshore transport.

If caught in a rip current, you should

swim parallel to shore.

Captain Quint's boat, the Orca, in the movie Jaws was a

swordfish harpoon boat.

The Andrea Gail, the fishing boat that went down south of Nova Scotia during the 'Perfect Storm' was a

swordfish longliner.

Boca Grande Pass has a world famous recreational fishery for

tarpon.

The Principle of Constant Proportions states

that the ratio of major salts in samples of seawater from various places in the open ocean is a constant.

It has been suggested that selenium in fish prevents harm from mercury when the fish is eaten. The current scientific status of this hypothesis is

that the scientific information to date is ambiguous as to the action of selenium on mercury uptake.

The Greenhouse Effect refers to

the action of gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide and water vapor, that absorb long wave radiation from the Earth's surface, warming the lower atmosphere.

The Suess Effect is the decrease in the ^13C/^12C ratio in the atmosphere and in the oceans the Suess Effect is caused by

the addition of plant-based carbon to the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels.

The oxygen levels in the atmosphere are decreasing as CO2 levels increase. This is a 'fingerprint' for _________ as the source of the 'new' carbon in the atmosphere.

the burning of fossil fuels

The power for tropical cyclones comes from

the condensation of warm, dry air.

The temperature of most of the world ocean is the temperature of

the deep and bottom waters.

One reason salmon farming can harm wild fish population is

the food fed to the salmon comes from smaller forage fish.

The primary force that causes tides in the sea is

the gravitational attraction of the moon and the sun.

The term "photophosphorylation" refers to

the light cycle of photosynthesis.

Osmosis is

the movement of water across a semi-permeable membrane.

A map of benthic productivity in the world ocean closely matches a map of primary productivity because

the principal food source for benthic organisms is the photic zone above.

The term salinity refers to

the total amount of dissolved solids in seawater.

Bycatch is

the unwanted organisms captured in a net or on longlines.

Shellfish can accumulate harmful toxins from toxic algal blooms because

they are filter feeders.

One reason carp and tilapia are much easier and less expensive to farm than salmon or cod is because

they can tolerate very high levels of dissolved oxygen in the water.

A long-term effect of wave refraction is

to straighten a coast.

The Coriolis effect causes objects moving in the northern hemisphere to appear to veer off course

to the right, or clockwise when viewed from above.

Tampa Bay is an example of a

vertically mixed estuary

Britain's weather is ___________ than would be expected at that latitude because of the influence of surface currents.

warmer and wetter

Coral bleaching occurs when

warmer waters force corals to expel their sumbiotic zooxanthellae.

The single most influential agent changing the shore and coast is

wave action.

When waves approach the shore a series of changes take place. One change is that the

wave crest forms a steep peak.

When waves approach the shore, a series of changes takes place. One change is that the

wave crest forms a steep peak.

The diameter of the orbits of water particles in a deep-water wave is equal to the

wave height.

Generally, the fastest ocean currents are

western boundary currents.

Tropical cyclones tend to move

westward and poleward in both hemispheres.

The energy that drives the longshore currents is derived from

wind waves approaching the beach front at an angle.

If the Earth did not have an atmosphere, what would the average global temperature be (in degrees Celcius)?

-15

Near shore, if the wave crests are 200 feet apart, the wave will "feel" bottom when the depth is about

100 feet.

A wave has a period of 10 seconds and a wavelength of 150 meters. What is its velocity?

15 m/s

What is the approximate velocity, in m/s, of a tsunami if the water depth is 3600 m?

180.

The average annual global temperature began to rise very steeply in

1970's.

The total global marine fish catch began to decline around

1995.

If a wave train is moving at a speed of 10 m/s, the speed of its individual waves is

20 m/s

The average salinity of the world ocean is closest to

34‰

If you flew a plane to very high altitudes, at what altitude would 90% of the atmosphere be below you?

52,000 ft.

Roughly how fast do lithospheric plates move?

About 3 cm per year.

Why do coastal climates have similar daily and annual variations in temperature than areas away from the coast?

Because water has a high heat capacity.

Shark attacks are rare but one of the most dangerous sharks is the

Bull Shark.

How can we map the topography of the sea floor from satellites?

By using radar to penetrate the ocean floor.

Why is the average pH of the world ocean decreasing (becoming more acidic)?

Carbon dioxide levels are increasing in the atmosphere.

DDT greatly reduced the populations of eagles, ospreys and brown pelicans because

DDT caused the bird's egg shells to be too thin to be incubated successfully.

Would you agree that the position of the true geological edge of a continent is almost always the same as the position of its shoreline? (I'm not 100% sure about this one)

Disagree.

El Niño results due to an interruption of flow of the __________ Current in the Pacific.

Equatorial

The principal greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere by human activities, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, all began to increase sharply in the mid to late 1700's. What was going on historically in the 1700's that might have caused these increases?

The Industrial Revolution.

Why has southern Europe experienced a decline in winter rainfall?

The Northern Hadley cell has moved north.

Which of the following statements best describes the conservative constituents of seawater?

The concentration of conservative constituents change very slowly in the open ocean.

You are shown a picture of two copepod zooplankton species. One has long, wispy appendages and the other is compact and plain. Which one is the tropical species?

The one with long, wispy appendages.

Tropical phytoplankton tend to be smaller than high latitude phytoplankton. Why?

The surface area to volume ratio is larger for smaller sizes.

Early European navigators used a sextant-like device to measure the elevation of the Sun or North Star above the horizon to determine latitude, but they couldn't measure longitude directly. Why not?

They didn't have an accurate way of measuring time.

Factory ship stern trawlers were built and deployed by Soviet bloc countries in the 50s-70s. What was distinctive about these vessels?

They processed and froze the fish right onboard the ship.

The mid-ocean mountains, such as the ridges and rises,

are similar in origin to the Alps, the Rockies, and the Appalachians.

The movement of a substance through a biological membrane from a region of low concentration to a region of higher concentration is called

active transport.

The primary producers in vent and seep communities are

bacteria.

Warmer temperatures and water stress have caused massive tree loss in the western US from

bark beetles.

Karl Popper stated that to be considered a valid scientific theory, a theory has to

be capable of being found to be false [tested]

Bi wave surfers are towed into large waves because

big waves move too fast to catch by paddling.

Bottom trawls

damage bottom dwelling ecosystems.

Since satellite data began in 1979, the amount of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has

declined in all months of the year.

The amount of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has

declined sharply since 1979.

Global average temperatures began to rise sharply around 1970. However, since 1969 the amount of energy the Earth received, on average, from the Sun has _________.

decreased somewhat.

Waves with longer wavelengths travel faster from the area of their formation than short wavelength waves, separating themselves into groups having similar wavelengths and speeds. This process is known as

dispersion.

A disposal practice in southeast Florida that directly affects marine waters is

dumping hundred of millions of gallons per day of partially treated sewage into coastal waters.

Your job is to locate the world's plate boundaries. To do this, you can use only one map. The best map to choose for this job is a map that shows the worldwide locations of

earthquakes.

"Adaptation of organisms to their environment, and their interactions with the environment and other organisms" is a definition of

ecology.

The most numerous marine organisms probably are

extremely small photosynthetic bacteria.

Salmon farming can cause massive losses of juvenile wild salmon by

farmed salmon concentrate harmful algal toxins that are then released and kill the wild juvenile salmon.