Question | Answer |
Benthos | marine organisms that live on the sea bottom |
Nekton | swim strongly enough to move against the current |
Plankton | cannot move strongly enough against the current so they float along |
Would the sediment particle sizes be smaller or larger in turbulent waters? | the current washes away the fine particles and leaves mainly sand (so larger) |
What kind of organisms would live in benthos? | infauna - bury themselves, epifauna - organisms above the sediment, meiofauna - microscopic organisms in between the sediment particles |
At least 3 differences between the muddy bottom shelf community and the sandy bottom shelf community | muddy - finer sediment, close particles so less oxygen, more organic matter;
sandy - larger sediment, more oxygen, less organic matter |
Is the soft bottom shelf community vegetated or unvegetated? | needs to attach to a hard substrate so unvegetated |
Know what kind of plant has actual roots - algae vs. sea grass | sea grasses |
understand what role sea grasses play in that particular community | their decomposed leaves provide food not the plant |
a shelf community has very little in fauna, do you think algae or sea grasses most likely grow there? | algae (in fauna are more common in a soft bottom shelf community, epifauna in hard bottom shelf community - algae grow on hard surface) |
A couple ways an algae can defend itself from a grazer | foul tasting chemical, leather exterior (really tough) |
What kind of environment and conditions kelp needs to grow? | needs a lot of sunlight |
third dimension of a canopy (kelp forest) Why is it important to kelp organism? | forms upper part (allows more organisms to inhabit further up the surface) provides more living spaces |
A lot of dead kelp washing up the shore; what is the reason for this? | If there is a sea urchin population explosion, when that happens and they’re hungry the go for the holdfast of the kelp |
Difference between the sporophyte generation and gameophyte generation and which one is larger | Sporophyte is larger; two chromosomes is diploid is from the sporophyte, Gameophyte is microscopic (can't even see it) |