Marine Biology - Unit 1 Test

What are other methods used to map the ocean floor? (K)

Satellite altimetry is the other main method for mapping the ocean floor, and uses satellites to measure the time it takes for a pulse to travel to the ocean floor and back.

SONAR

SOund Navigation And Ranging

What is SONAR and how is it used in oceanography? (K)

SOund Navigation And Ranging is a way to send sound waves down the ocean, and use the amount of time it takes for them to come back, and the speed of sound, to calculate the depth of the ocean.

Why are the oceans salty? What are the major components of that salinity? (K)

Salt comes from land deposits as water flows into the ocean, as the water cycle continues and water evaporates, the salts stays in the ocean, meaning levels and increasing constantly.

(11) How does temperature and salinity affect seawater density? (K)

Saltier water is more dense and therefore sinks further down the ocean than non-salty water.

run-off

Water that flows over the ground surface rather than soaking into the ground

Explain how we can use the mid-ocean ridge and particularly the mid-Atlantic ridge to predict that the Pacific Ocean will become smaller and the Atlantic Ocean will become larger in the future. (C) (A)

We can determine that due to the existence of the mid-oceanic ridge and the mid-atlantic ridge, the plates in the atlantic ocean are divergent and therefore are expanding it, while the plates in the pacific are convergent and therefore shrinking it.

What are 4 environmental characteristics of the benthic region? (K)

- High pressure - No light - Extremely cold temperatures - Lack of oxygen

(21) Why do we find tidal bulges on the Earth opposite the side facing the Sun or Moon?

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(22) Why are tides important for marine organisms? (A)

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(23) What is the role of wind in upwellings? (K)

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(24) El-Nino and La-Nina have significant effects on global weather patterns. Explain (K) (C)

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(25) Describe specifically how HK is connected as a system to others across the Earth by identifying where the wind and water go. (A)

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(26) Think about what activities in Asia might affect other regions (wind and water) and how activities in other regions affect us here? (A) (PS)

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(27) Why do you think there are international laws for dumping waste/trash/chemicals in the ocean, rather than just local laws? Do these laws only need to extend to nearby neighboring countries? Explain. (A)

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How do the moon's phases relate to tidal levels? (C)

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deep-ocean trench

A deep valley along the ocean floor beneath which oceanic crust slowly sinks toward the mantle.

Ocean Current

A directional movement of ocean water; surface currents result from steady winds over the ocean surface; deep currents result from density variations due to temperature and salinity differences.

continental shelf

A gently sloping, shallow area of the ocean floor that extends outward from the edge of a continent

(15) What is the "plastic garbage patch" and how are marine biologists trying to solve this problem? (K) (A) (PS)

A gyre of marine debris particles. The patch is characterized by exceptionally high relative concentrations of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of gyres. Very few things are actually being done to solve it. Many teams are trying to reseacrh the garbage patch though to try to bring attention to it and through that, find a solution.

salinity

A measure of the mass of dissolved salt in a given mass of water

divergent boundary

A plate boundary where two plates move away from each other

tsunami

A series of waves in a body of water caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean, caused by an underwater disturbance.

Seamount

A submerged mountain on the ocean floor that is at least 1,000 m high and that has a volcanic origin.

El-Nino

An irregularly occurring and complex series of climatic changes affecting the equatorial Pacific region and beyond every few years, characterised by the appearance of unusually warm, nutrient-poor water off northern Peru and Ecuador, and drought off the coast of Australia, typically in late December.

Mid-ocean Ridge

An undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced; along a divergent plate boundary

precipitation

Any form of water that falls from clouds and reaches Earth's surface.

(13) How does the Coriolis Effect affect current direction? (K)

Because of the spinning Earth, wind and ocean currents closest to the equator will travel straighter, while wind and ocean currents further from the equator will deflect away from the equator. So that means currents in the northern hemisphere will deflect north and in the southern hemisphere will deflect south. It's the reason why hurricanes spin clockwise in the north and counter-clockwise in the south. As currents get closer to the poles, the speed of the Earth is slower, and the currents then head toward the equator in a big circular pattern.

hydrologic (water) cycle

Biogeochemical cycle that collects, purifies, and distributes the earth's fixed supply of water from the environment to living organisms and then back to the environment.

gyres

Defined as a vortex in air or sea, large system of rotating ocean currents (involved with large wind movements) caused by Earth's rotation and caused by Coriolis effect (determine circulation patterns from wind curl)

Wave

Disturbance which travels through a medium from one location to another, a long body of water curling into an arched form and breaking on the shore.

Easterlies

Dominant winds of the North and South pole. These winds move from east to west from the high pressure areas of the poles to the lower pressure areas of the tropics.

Westerlies

Dominant winds of the mid-latitudes. These winds move from west to east from the high pressure areas of the tropics to the lower pressure areas of the north and south pole.

Evaluate the statement made by the Scientific American article "Just How Little Do We Know About The Ocean Floor" that "95% of the Earth's oceans are unexplored". (C)

Even though we have many methods for mapping the ocean floor, the ocean covers 2/3 of the earth and is obviously incredibly vast and methods have not developed significant accuracy yet.

Choose an organism whose habitat is the benthic realm and explain how it adapts to these environmental characteristics. (A)

Glass Sponge: - They have a unique system of rapidly conducting electrical impulses across their bodies. This way they can respond quickly to external stimuli - Some sponges can reproduce asexually - Some species of glass sponges are capable of fusing together to create reefs or bioherms

convergent crust

In plate tectonics, a convergent boundary, also known as a destructive plate boundary (because of subduction), is an actively deforming region where two (or more) tectonic plates or fragments of the lithosphere move toward one another and collide, often causing earthquakes and volcanoes as a result of pressure, friction, and plate material melting in the mantle.

Trade Wind

Prevailing winds that blow northeast from 30 degrees north latitude to the equator and that blow southeast from 30 degrees south latitude to the equator, lower portion of the atmosphere

Summarize key events and people in the history of oceanography. (K)

See timeline

Benthic

The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean or a lake

condensation

The change of a substance from a gas to a liquid

evaporation

The change of a substance from a liquid to a gas

transpiration

The emission of water vapor from the leaves of plants

What global wind patterns contribute to the direction of gyres in the northern and southern hemisphere? (K)

The fact that the westerlies and trade winds blow in opposite directions and that the continents prevent water from circling the globe contributes to the formation of circular ocean currents, clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere.

(12) What is the global "conveyor belt" and identify where masses of seawater would be sinking and rising? (K) (C)

The global ocean conveyor belt is a constantly moving system of deep-ocean circulation driven by temperature and salinity. Cold, salty water is dense and sinks to the bottom of the ocean while warm water is less dense and remains on the surface.

Tides

The regular rise and fall of the ocean's surface influenced by the moon's gravity pulling on earth

Continental Slope

The steep descent of the seabed from the continental shelf to the abyssal zone

plate tectonics

The theory that explains how large pieces of the lithosphere, called plates, move and change shape.

spring tide

The tide generating force of the moon and the sun are working together.

(17) What happens to waves as it moves from deep to shallow water? (C)

The water closer to the surface starts going faster than the water near the seafloor thats getting more shallow, and therefore the wave crashes.

Rip Tide

When an opening in a sandbar allows the longshore current to pull through, creating pressure to flow out to the open ocean.

neap tides

When the two forces oppose each other.

convection current

a current caused by the rising of heated fluid and sinking of cooled fluid

Abyss

a deep or seemingly bottomless chasm.

(18) What causes tsunamis? (K)

caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean, caused by an underwater disturbance.

What are some challenges to mapping the ocean floor? (A)

the ocean covers 2/3 of the earth and is obviously incredibly vast and methods have not developed significant accuracy yet, instruments are often non protected from the water.

As an oceanographer, what regions in the world would you implement tsunami warning systems? (A)

the places where plates meet and could converge