Marine Biology Final Exam Study Guide

Plate Tectonics

"HOW" behind Wegner's continental drift theory. the process that involves the entire surface of our planet. By which continents shift and landmasses move. Covered by a series of crustal plates (lithosphere) that rides on asthenosphere Lithosphere plates constantly moving

Bicarbonate

0.145 ppt, 0.41%

Potassium

0.390 ppt, 1.11%

Calcium

0.416 ppt, 1.18%

Diurnal

1 high/1 low tide per day. Uncommon. Occur on the coast of Antarctica and in parts of the gulf of mexico

Magnesium

1.295 ppt, 3.68%

Sodium

10.752 ppt, 30.59%

Chloride

19.345 ppt, 55.03%

Semidiurnal

2 high and 2 low tides per day. . Found on the east coast of north America, and most of Europe, and Africa

Sulfate

2.701 ppt, 7.68%

Transparency and Pressure at Depth

As depth increases so does the pressure and for every 10 m people descend more another atmosphere of pressure is added on to the body of the being. There is 1 atmosphere of pressure at sea level, marine organisms however are under the weight of water as well as the atmosphere. As pressure increases gases are compressed. Organisms have gas-filled structures inside them such as air bladders, floats, and lungs all shrink or collapse as they descend. Likewise for animals of greater depths their structure expand and harm the animal. Transparency is the ability of the sunlight to penetrate into the ocean so that plants can photosynthesize. If seawater weren't transparent there would be little for photosynthesis in the sea, and then only at the surface. Clear ocean water is most transparent to blue light, other colors are absorbed more than blue, so as depth increases more and more of these colors are filtered out and soon only blue light remains. At greater depths of around 1,000 m even blue light gets absorbed and only darkness remains.

Adhesion

Attraction of water molecules to another substance

Different wavelengths of light penetrate at different depths

Blue deepest. Red shallowest

Continental Margins

Boundaries between continental crust and oceanic crust. Continental Shelf - most landward and shallowest part of the continental margin. 8% of Ocean's bottom. Biologically richest area of the ocean. Width varies from 1km-750km. Ends at the Shelf Break which occurs at 120m-400m

Ocean Currents

Can occur as waves, tides, currents and gyres. Driven by wind patterns. When pushed by the wind the uppermost layer begins to move at a 45 degree angle because of the Coriolis effect. The top layer in turn pushes the layer below it and again the Coriolis effect comes into play. This layer moves slightly to the right of the layer above it and slower. Ekman Spiral- the process of movement being passed down through the column. Named after the Swedish oceanographer who discovered it. The effect of the wind decreases with depth. The upper of the water is called Ekman layer. The process of the different layers moving away from the wind source is called the Ekman transport. Gyres are large circular systems.

Coriolis Effect

Causes surface currents to move at 45 degrees from the wind that drives them. Lower water layers move at progressively greater angles from the wind in a pattern called an Ekman spiral. This produces Ekman transport in which upper part of water column moves perpendicular to the wind direction to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and left in Southern Hemisphere R in NH L in SH Toilet flushes

Convergence

Convergence is when two tectonic plates converge and collide into each other.

Gyres

Currents traveling in circular patterns. These currents regulate the earth's climate by transporting heat from tropical to polar regions and greatly affect the geographic distribution of organisms in the ocean

Oceanic-Continental

Denser (oceanic) forced under lighter (continental), creating trenches/earthquakes

Stability and Overturn

Down-welling, Upwelling, and Overturn

Geomagnetic Anomalies

Earth's magnetic field reverses

James Cook

English sea captain. included naturalist among his regular crew at sea. Sailed through all oceans and first to view the Arctic ice field. Mapped and brought back many specimens from coastlines. He was killed in 1779 in a fight with native Hawaiians. 3 voyages

Aristotle

Greek philosopher, described many marine forms and their features. First Marine Biologist

Hydrothermal vents

Located along the Mid-Ocean Ridges. Heated water forced through the crust and emerges in the vents. Water warmer than surrounding ocean and is visible as minerals precipitate. Water can exceed 700-800 degrees F. Spewing out minerals with most being sulfides. . Black smokers are chimney-like structures that progressively build up around a vent as the minerals solidify, the water they send out is back. There are also white smokers, snow blowers, and blue smokers.

How is a Marine Biologist not the same as an Oceanographer

MB study organisms that inhabit the sea. Oceanographers study physical aspects of ocean including tides, etc.

Many products come from the sea including medicine

Marine environment and its habitats support recreation and tourism. Marine organisms produce oxygen used by aerobic organisms, including humans

Oceans help to regulate climate

Marine organisms can cause problems directly to human life or through property

Continental-Continental

Neither subducted and instead goes upwards and creates mountains

Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere

Northern= 61% of total area is ocean Southern=80% of total area is ocean

Structure of the Earth

Originated 4.5 billion years ago from dust. Due to heat associated with these events, early Earth was like molten, Allowed materials to settle by density as materials cooled. Heavier materials settled deep in the Earth. Earth's location relative to the sun allows water to stay liquid-essential for life

The Gases dissolved in Seawater

Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen. Gases dissolve at sea surface from atmosphere

4 Ocean Basins

Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Artic

Basins

Pacific= the deepest and largest ocean, almost as large as all the others combined Atlantic= a little larger than the Indian Ocean and the two are similar in depth Indian =a little smaller than the Atlantic Ocean but similar in average depth Artic= the smallest and shallowest ocean. All of them together is called the world ocean. The southern ocean is the body of water that surrounds Antartica.

Continental Drift

Proposed in 1912 by Alfred Wegner. Suggested that all continents were joined as one continent called Pangea. Proposed Pangea began breaking 180 million years ago, and the continents moved or floated to their present locations. At the time, the proposal wasn't widely accepted because he couldn't explain how it occurred. After the discovery of plate tectonics in the late 1950s and the 1960's they put all the evidence together.

Upwelling

Pushing deeper waters toward surface, Pushes nutrients to surface

Upwelling

Pushing deeper waters toward surface. Pushes nutrients to surface

Rule of Constant Proportions

Regardless of salinity, percentage of ions in seawater is always the same.

Waves

Result of wind over surface Size of waves is also larger when fetch is larger. fetch, seas, swell, surf.

Tides

Rhythmic rising and falling of sea surface. Caused by gravitational pull of moon. Water on side of moon = high tide. Water at 90 degrees of moon = low tide. Bulges (tides) opposite moon caused by centrifugal force

Mid-Ocean Ridges

Rise from the ocean floor. Chain of submarine volcanic mountains. At regular intervals, ridge displaced by faults in Earth's crust

Charles Darwin

Sailed on HMS Beagle as naturalist Collected and wrote descriptions of organisms observed Described many organisms that were unknown

Salinity of Water

Salinity normally 35% in ocean Estuaries normally 15-25% Other areas can be higher if evaporation is high and no rivers bring freshwater to that area.

Charles Wyville Thompson

Scientific leader of Challenger Expedition 1872-1876. First major exploration devoted to studying marine organisms. Published 50 volumes of information

Edward Forbes

Studied seafloor around British Isles, Aegean Sea, and others. Discovered that species on seafloor vary greatly depending on depth. Principle of Marine Biology = zonation. Died prematurely, but most influential Marine Biologist of his day

Subduction

Subduction is the downward movement of tectonic plates into the mantle and the trenches are called subduction zones. Convergence is when two tectonic plates converge and collide into each other.

3 layers

Surface= top down 200m - stays mixed well Intermediate= 200-1500m - major temperature change (thermocline); less mixing Bottom= below 1500m - low mixing and uniformly cold

What determines the density of water

Temperature and salinity of seawater determine its density. temperature has a greater effect on the density than salinity.

Temperature of Water

Temperature in the open ocean varies from -2 and +30 C (28 and 86 F). temperatures below 32F are possible because salt water freezes at a colder temperature that pure water. Varies considerably more than salinity, so it has more influence on density than salinity.

Density

The saltier the water the denser it is, and the warmer water is less dense. The density of seawater depends on temperature and salinity. Temperature and salinity can both be measured by lowering specialized designed bottle and thermostats on a wire down into specific depths and at that depth a weight slides down a wire and shuts the lid of the bottle and trap a water sample for research and the thermometers are also triggered to freeze the temperature reading so it doesn't change on the way back up.

Overturn

The sinking of surface water that has become more dense than the water below

Where do solutes come from

The weathering of rocks, hydrothermal vents and solutes that were delivered in rivers from land runoff

Great Ocean Conveyor

Thermohaline circulations mixes oceans when warm surface waters, travelling to poles, becomes more dense and colder. Controls our climate Global Warming

Down-Welling

Water sinks due to changes in salinity, Brings gases from surface to deeper layers

Down-welling

Water sinks due to changes in salinity. Brings gases from surface to deeper layers

Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs)

allows for direct exploration of marine environment when SCUBA isn't an option. Controlled from the vessel or shoreline.

Continental Rise

base of the continental slope and most seaward. Formed by sediments that have been pushed down from the continental shelf/slope "Underwater River Delta" has deep sea fans where sediments accumulate. Formed by sediments building up on the sea floor at the base of the continental slope.

Hydrogen Bonding

bonds between water molecules

Shear Boundaries (Transform Faults)

boundaries in which when two plates move in such a way that they slide past each other neither creating or destroying lithosphere. energy released in the form of an earthquake

Heat capacity

capacity to store heat. has one of the highest heat capacities of any naturally occurring substance

Continental Slope

dramatic depth change and more seaward. Begins at shelf break and continues to the sea floor. the closest thing to the exact edge of the continent. Begins at the shelf break and descends down to the deep-sea floor. Submarine canyons beginning on the continental shelf cut across the continental slope to its base at a depth of 3,000 to 5,000 m.

Early explorations of the pacific islanders and Phoenicians.

extensively sailed the Mediterranean, Red, Black Seas, Indian and Eastern Atlantic Oceans

Research Vessels

floating labs for exploring marine environments for extended periods of time

Water Vapor

formed when molecules of water escape hydrogen bonds

High latent heat of melting

ice melts at relatively high temperatures. Water has a higher latent heat of melting than any other commonly occurring substance

Leo (Long-term Ecosystem Observatory)-

installed off of the New Jersey Coast in 1996. Now known as the Costal Ocean Observatory (COOL). Has grown to include underwater gliders, shore-based radar, ship measurements, and moored instruments, and is being integrated with similar systems into a single network covering the United States from Maine to Florida

Cohesion

molecules are attracted to each other

Swell

once away from the wind the waves settle into these smoothly rounded crests, and troughs

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs)

operated independently of human control

Subduction Zones

plates collide and one goes under the other, forming trenches

Sea Floor Spreading (Divergent)

plates pull apart and mantle pushes up through cracks creating new sea floor.the entire process by which the sea floor moves away from the mid-ocean ridges to create new sea floor, and the ridges are called spreading centers.

Remote Sensing

satellites used to view large expanses of ocean at the surface only.

Oceanic-Oceanic

smaller plate forced underneath, creating trenches/earthquakes

Marine Biology

study of organisms that live in the sea (includes all water of some salinity)

Tide Tables

tables that are able to predict the time and height of high and low tides. Available for most coastal areas. Combination of theoretical equations and actual tide observations.

fetch

the amount of open water, wind blows over

Venus (Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea)

the first cables were laid under the sea in 2006 off of the coast of British Columbia and for the MARS (Monterey Accelerated Research System) off of the coast of California in 2007. Both are fully operational and form a part of a larger network NEPTUNE (North East Pacific Time-integrated Undersea Networked Expirements) which extends from British Columbia to Oregon, Neptune is part of the Ocean Observatories Initiative.

Core

the innermost layer mostly made of iron and the pressure in there is more than a million times that at the surface of the earth and the temperature is said to be over 4,000 degrees Celsius (7200 F). Has a solid inner core and a liquid inner core, thought that the swirling motions of the liquid material in the iron-rich outer core produce the earth's magnetic fields

Mantle

the layer outside of the core. Most of it is said to be solid, but it is very hot near the melting point of rocks. Much of the mantle flows slowly like a liquid, swirling and mixing over hundreds of millions of years.

Water column stratification

the least dense water at surface and densest water on the bottom

Crust

the outermost and therefore the best-known layer of the earth. It is extremely thin compared with the deeper layers like a rigid skin floating on top of the mantle.

Underwater Research Station (Aquarius)

underwater research and residential facility located in FLorida Keys. Approximately 60 feet underwater and allows researchers to stay at this depth for days or weeks.

Deep Sea Submersibles

underwater-manned submarines like "Alvin"

Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA)

used for direct human exploration of oceanic environment for longer periods and at deeper depths. After the war Gagnan and fellow Frenchman Jacques Costeau modified the apparatus using it to breathe compressed air under water. Using it for the first time they could descend below the surface but were still limited to less than 50 m 165 ft.

Sound Navigation Ranging (SONAR)

used to map seafloor depths and formations influenced by submarine warfare during ww2.

Surf

waves that become so high and steep that they fall forward and break

Density

when molecules are closer together, water is more dense. colder water is denser than warmer water

Mixed Semidiurnal

when the successive high tides are of different sizes. Found on the west coast of the united states and Canada

Neap Tides

when the sun and moon are at right angles so their effects partially cancel and the tidal range is less pronounced. Occur during the 1 and 3 quarters of the lunar cycle. in between spring tides

Spring Tides

when the tidal range of successive high and low tides is large. during new and full moons

Shelf Break

where slope abruptly gets steeper

Seas

while wind is blowing it pushes the wave crests up into sharp peaks and "stretches out" the troughs