Download Worksheet 11.1 Oceans: Environment for Life

Worksheet 11.1 Oceans: Environment for Life
Reading pages 333-345 in An Introduction to the World’s Oceans
1.
Many organisms have ingenious adaptions to help stay afloat. What are three different adaptations used by different
organisms that provide floatation?
2.
How does the cuttlefish control its buoyancy?
3.
Some fish have swim bladders. What function do the swim bladders serve?
4.
What are two ways that fish fill their swim bladders?
5.
Why do you think that certain fish lack swim bladders? What advantage would they gain by not having a swim bladder?
6.
How does the giant squid reduce the density of its body tissues?
7.
How do whales and seals reduce the density of their body tissues?
8.
What is “preen” and why do seabirds have it?
9.
How do you think that so many fragile and delicate marine organisms such as jellyfish survive in the ocean without damage?
10. How does the salt concentration in the body fluids of fish compare to freshwater and saltwater?
11. How do fish maintain their osmotic balance?
12. How do sharks maintain their osmotic balance?
13. What would happen to a fish or shark if it was unable to maintain its osmotic balance?
14. What would happen to a freshwater frog placed in seawater? A saltwater sea cucumber placed in freshwater?
15. How does salinity limit the distribution of marine organisms?
16. What are two organisms that can migrate between freshwater and saltwater without damage?
17. How do cold water marine organisms differ from warm water marine organisms in terms of size form, and age?
18. Compare how temperature affects the distribution of cold blooded and warm blooded organisms?
19. Would you expect to find greater diversity of water temperature at the surface or at the depths of the ocean?
20. How do marine mammals such as whales and seals survive diving to extreme depths that would kill humans through nitrogen
narcosis and decompression sickness?
21. What is the deepest diving marine mammal? _________________ What is the longest-diving marine mammal? _________
22. What are two roles that dissolved carbon dioxide gas plays in the ocean?
23. Plant live is restricted to the ______________ zone, which has a depth of about ____________ in clear ocean water.
24. Would you expect the photic zone to be deeper at the equator or the high latitudes near the poles if the ocean is equally clear
at both locations? Explain your reasoning.
25. Below the photic zone is the __________ zone where there is no photosynthesis.
26. Light alone is not sufficient for marine plants to grow. What else do they require?
27. What are three different purposes for which marine organisms use bioluminescence?
28. How does bioluminescence differ from phosphorescence?
29. What are three different purposes for which fish use color?
30. Which marine organism is the master of color change?
31. How does countershading aid the survival of fish in nearshore areas?
32. In what ways does upwelling increase the population of marine organisms?
33. What are three properties of sea water that act as barriers to marine organisms?
34. Explain why the substrate of the sea floor becomes less diversified as one moves from the shore to the deep ocean.
35. What is the difference between the neritic zone and the photic zone?
36. Why do you think that most of the world’s commercial fisheries are located in the neritic zone?
37. What characteristics determine whether a plant or animal belongs to the plankton, the nekton, or the benthos?
38. What does the term “mitigation” mean with respect to aquatic habitat?
39. Can you think of any examples of mitigation in the Waco area?
40. Why are Spartina marshes along the east coast considered productive while those on the west coast are considered
destructive?