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THIS OUTLINE IS CURRENTLY BEING REVISED FOR 2012
Topic Outline for Marine Ecology
A. Basic ecological terms and ecosystem concepts
B. History of marine ecology
C. Salinity of the oceans
1. General information
2. Constituents of seawater
3. Salinity determination
4. Salinity variability
5. Physiological effects of salinity
a. Osmoconformers
b. Osmoregulators
(1) Hyperosmotic regulators
(2) Hypoosmotic regulators
D. Dissolved gasses of major importance in seawater
1. Oxygen
2. Carbon dioxide
3. Nitrogen
E. Temperature
1. Effects on organisms
a. Survival
b. Temperature and reproduction
c. Size and temperature
2. Vertical stratification
3. Horizontal stratification
4. Temperature and distribution
5. Biopolarity
F. Density of seawater
G. Solar radiation
1. Importance
2. Factors influencing amount of light entering the sea
3. Selective absorption of light in water
4. Zones based on light penetration and primary production
5. Transparency
6. Plants responsible for photosynthesis
H. Water masses and circulation
1. Prevailing winds and surface currents
2. The Coriolis Effect and Ekman flow
3. Vertical circulation
a. Atlantic deep water
b. Antarctic bottom water
c. Antarctic intermediate water
d. Convergent and divergent currents; upwellings
I. Plants and animals of the sea
1. Classification according to habitats
a. Pelagic and benthic
b. Neritic and oceanic
c. Subdivisions of the oceanic (epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathypelagic, abyssopelagic, hadal)
d. Subdivisions of the benthic (littoral, sublittoral, bathyal, abyssal, hadal)
2. Classification based on mode of existence (plankton, nekton, benthos)
3. Classification by trophic levels
a. Autotrophs (producers)
b. Heterotrophs (herbivores, carnivores, decomposers)
4. Classification according to size
a. Plankton
(1) Net plankton (Macroplankton)
(2) Nanoplankton
(3) Ultraplankton
b. Benthos
(1) Macrobenthos
(2) Meiobenthos
(2) Microbenthos
5. Body size and mortality rates
a. Plankton
b. Benthos
6. Color in marine algae
7. Color in animals
a. Functions
b. Color variation in invertebrates with depth
(1) Pleustron
(2) lower mesopelagic and bathypelagic (dysphotic)
(3) abyssopelagic (aphotic)
c. Cryptic coloration
(1) Morphological and physiological color changes
(2) Chromatophores (melanophores, guanophores, erythrophores, xanthophores)
(3) Color in tropical species
(4) Color variation with habitat in fish
8. Feeding
a. Filter feeding
(1) Ciliary feeding
(2) Setose feeding
b. Predation
(1) Tentacles with nematocysts or colloblasts
(2) Suctorial feeding
(3) Proboscis
(3) Radula and proboscis (drills)
(4) Raptorial feeding
(5) Ingestion on prey whole
c. Deposit feeding
d. Browsing (algal film grazers)
J. Reproduction and mortality
1. Relation to population stability
2. Correlations between numbers of offspring and chance of survival
3. Adaptations for survival of offspring in harsh environments
K. Larval life and dispersion
1. Importance of planktonic larval forms
2. Alternation of generations (motile and sessile)
3. Types of larval development in crustaceans
a. Metamorphic
b. Epimorphic
c. Anamorphic
L. Structure of life in the sea
1. Distribution of biomass with depth
a. Relationship to energy production
b. Production vs. consumption (trophogenic and tropholytic zones)
2. Community structure, productivity, food chains, & food webs
3. Vertical migration
a. Causes of migrations; examples
b. The deep scattering layer
c. Patterns of migrations
(1) Diel (diurnal) migrations
(2) Longer term migrations
(a) Seasonal
(b) ontogenetic
(3) Regional differences
M. Nutrient cycles
1. Source of primary nutrients
2. Processes of replenishing nutrients to the surface
a. Upwelling (Antarctic divergence, Peruvian upwelling, vertical convections, upwelling
along Californian coast)
b. Turbulent mixing processes
c. Eddy diffusion
3. Vertical distribution of nitrates, phosphates, and silicates
4. Nitrogen and phosphorus cycles
5. Factors influencing the uptake of nutrients
6. Nitrogen fixation by Trichodesminum
N. Primary production in the sea
1. Factors influencing the rate of photosynthesis
a. Light (P/I curve)
b. Nutrients
2. Phytoplankton production
a. Common types of phytoplankton
b. Estimates of production rates
3. Fate of primary fixed carbon
a. Fixation into new cellular material
b. Loss through respiratory and excretory processes
c. Loss of algal cells by sinking, grazing, and turbulence
4. Distribution of production
5. Production on the sea bottom
a. Benthic plants (marine macrophytes)
(1). Large marine algae (Kelps and rockweeds)
(2). Sea and marsh grasses (turtle grass, eel grass, cord grass, mangroves)
O. Benthic invertebrates
1. Epifauna and infauna
2. Feeding habits and distribution of macrobenthos
3. Benthos life histories
4. Methods of estimating benthos production
a. P/B ratios
b. Biomass changes
5. Economic value of benthic invertebrates
P. The intertidal zone
1. Factors that interact to determine the distribution of shore invertebrates.
a. Wave shock
b. bottom type
c. Tidal exposure
2. Rocky shores
a. Limiting factors of rocky intertidal habitats
b. Adaptations to environmental conditions
c. Defense mechanisms
d. Rocky intertidal zonation
(1) Supralittoral
(2) Supralittoral fringe
(3) Midlittoral
(4) Sublittoral fringe
(5) Sublittoral
e. Caribbean zonation
(1) Supralittoral fringe (white, gray, and black zones)
(2) Midlittoral (yellow zone, pink zone at bottom)
(3) Sublittoral fringe (bottom of pink zone = beginning)
f. Causes of zonation
(1) Physical factors
(2) Biological factors
3. Loose rocks and boulders
a. Limiting factors
b. Types of biota
4. Intertidal sand beaches
a. Limiting factors
b. Types of organisms that inhabit the surface
c. Adaptations to living in sand habitats
d. Conditions below the sand surface
e. Types of organisms
(1) Burrowers
(2) Interstitial fauna
5. Intertidal muds
a. Conditions for deposition
b. Ecological conditions above and below the mud surface
c. Adaptations of invertebrates to living in mud
d. Typical mud flat organisms
Q. Estuaries
1. Physical features
2. Classification based on physical features
a. River dominated
b. Marine dominated
c. Evaporite
3. Pollution
4. Productivity of unpolluted estuaries
5. Economic importance of estuaries
R. Tropical communities
1. Coral Reefs (hermatypic and ahermatypic corals)
a. Conditions necessary for coral reef formation
b. Types of reefs (fringing, barrier, atoll)
c. Associations (Zooxanthellae)
d. Coral structure
e. Reef composition (slides)
f. Nutrition
g. Growth and calcification
h. Reproduction
i. Species interactions (competition, commensalism, mutualism, predation)
j. Catastrophic mortality and recovery of reefs
2. Mangrove forests
a. Features that allow mangroves to live in marine waters
b. Zonation
c. Reproduction
d. The mangrove community (associated organisms)
e. Succession and mortality in mangroves
S. Mass mortality in the sea
1. Volcanism
2. Earth and sea quakes
3. Sudden changes in salinity
4. Sudden temperature changes
5. Plankton blooms
6. Hurricanes
7. Spawning runs
8. Stranding
9. Upwelling from the oxygen minimum zone
10. Changes in current patterns
T. Zoogeography of the Sea
1. Fauna of the tropical and subtropical regions
a. Indo-West Pacific
b. Tropical Atlantic
c. Tropical East Pacific
2. Northern regions
3. Arctic Ocean
4. North Pacific
5. Southern Pacific
6. South Atlantic
7. Southern or Antarctic Ocean
U. Oceanic Nekton
1. Composition of oceanic nekton
2. Adaptations of oceanic nekton
a. Buoyancy
b. Other adaptations
3. Special adaptations of marine mammals
a. Temperature maintenance
b. Respiratory modifications for diving
c. Osmotic adaptations