1. Unit 3 Review
Marine Ecology

2. Unit 3 Review 1. List some examples of producers in marine ecosystems.
Algae
Kelp
Plankton
Pickleweed
Seagrasses
Trees (in mangroves)

3. Unit 3 Review
2. Why are food webs useful tools in ecology? What do they represent?
They show the relationship between the producers and consumers.
They represent the energy flow in the ecosystem.

4. Unit 3 Review 3. What is a niche?
The way of life of a species, its roll in the community. Each species is thought to have a separate, unique niche
Can be described as what it eats, where it lives, and what eats it.
Examples?

5. Unit 3 Review 5.What is a trophic level?
4.Why are there so many more producers in an ecosystem than top consumers?
Energy is lost as it passes up through the trophic levels.
5.What is a trophic level?
The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food chain.

6. Unit 3 Review 6. Describe how energy flows through an ecosystem.
Sunproducersprimary consumers  Secondary consumers  Tertiary consumers  Decomposers
Unit 3 Review

7. Unit 3 Review
A. Neuston
Includes the organisms that live on the top surface of the ocean and just below the surface, only includes a few inches.
Covers about 71% of the Earth’s surface
Lots of plankton and algae

8. Unit 3 Review B. Continental shelf
Between the low tide mark and the open ocean
Located in the photic zone, so there is photosynthesis and abundant plant life
Upwellings of nutrients occur here
Abundant animal life
Unit 3 Review

9. Unit 3 Review C. Estuaries
Where fresh water empties into the ocean’s salt water
Act as a dumping ground, filter, and absorber of nutrients
Wide range of salinities
Make an excellent nursery for juveniles of ocean species

10. Unit 3 Review D. Salt Marshes
Exist in estuaries where there are flat, gently sloping, nutrient rich sediments.
Lots of plant life like pickleweed, cordgrass, and salt grass
Can find large communities of invertebrates, water birds, juvenile fish, larva, eggs, etc.

11. Unit 3 Review E. Mangrove Swamps Found in tropical climates
Salt water and fresh water
Tangled stilt-like roots allow for air exposure for oxygen exchange and provide habitat for juvenile fish and invertebrates
Unit 3 Review

12. Unit 3 Review F. Seagrasses
Live entirely under water, except during rare ultra-low tides
Live as deep as 30m, no fresh water
Usually in under water colonies like pastures
Release pollen into the current to reproduce
Provide food for microbes, invertebrates, fish, turtles, manatees, and dugongs.

13. Unit 3 Review G. Intertidal Zones
Underwater part time and exposed to the air part time
Lots of invertebrates like barnacles, limpets, mussels, sea stars-with adaptations to help them maintain moisture when exposed to air

14. Unit 3 Review H. Beaches Sand and waves
Sand helps protect coastlines from waves
The sand looks empty, but it is full of meiofauna and other organic material-rich in life
Worms, mollusks, and fish live in submerged sand

15. Unit 3 Review I. Kelp & Seaweed Forests Found globally in cool water
Most productive are in coastal waters with upwellings
Ample sunlight and nutrients
Provide habitat for substantial ecosystem
Kelp, sea urchins, otters

16. Unit 3 Review J. Coral Reefs
Most scientists believe coral reefs are the most taxonomically diverse ecosystems in the ocean
The Indo-West Pacific has the world’s highest marine diversity
More than 2,000 species of fish
Water is relatively free of nutrients

17. K. Arctic
Northern ring of shallow continental shelf, with a deep sea
Much of this is permanently frozen
Life is scarce under the ice cap, around the edges life is more abundant
Polar bears, seals, walruses, whales, fish
Unit 3 Review

18. Unit 3 Review L. Antarctic More extreme climate then Arctic
Massive amounts of nutrients result from the spring melting of ice-the largest nutrient rich area on Earth
Supports massive phytoplankton blooms
Copepod and krill populations are larger than any other species population found in any other ecosystem
Unit 3 Review

19. Unit 3 Review M. Abyssal Zone
Deep ocean beyond the continental shelves
Most of the nutrients come from marine snow-the constant fall of sediment, dead organisms, and fecal pellets from above.
Brittle sea stars, sea cucumbers, sea lilies, angler fish, viperfish

20. Unit 3 Review N. Whale Falls deep ocean
Whale carcasses provide massive amounts of nutrients
Scavengers first-hagfish, deep sea spider crabs, sleeper sharks
Second stage-worms, small crustaceans, other small organisms feed
Third stage-decaying bone feed chemosynthetic bacteria

21. Unit 3 Review O. Hydrothermal vents
Heated water, near edges of continental shelves, Mid- Atlantic Ridge
Chemosynthetic bacteria that feed on sulfides form basis of food web
Tube worms, crabs, shrimp
Unit 3 Review

22. Unit 3 Review P. Hadal depths
Deep ocean trenches where continental plates collide
Deepest parts of the ocean
High pressure, no light, not much known about the ecosystem or life there