Biology

 
1. 1. Describe the physical and chemical characteristics of estuaries.
2. 2. Give two examples of how estuarine organisms are adapted to living in an estuary.
3. 3. Contrast the four major estuarine habitats: open water, mudflats, salt marshes, and mangrove
forests.
4. 4. List and discuss the most significant physical factors that influence subtidal communities.
5. 5. Summarize the lottery hypothesis.
6. 6. Explain deposit and suspension feeding.
7. 7. What is the seagrass bed community like?
8. 8. Why are seagrass beds ecologically significant?
9. 9. List the general characteristics of hard-bottom subtidal communities.
10. 10. Why are the kelp forests/beds often referred to as “the rainforests of the sea?”
11. 11. Describe and explain how two different rocky intertidal organisms adapt to the physical factors
present in the intertidal zone, including the following: type of substrate, exposure to air, and wave action.
12. 12. Compare and contrast the morphological and behavioral adaptations for three different intertidal
organisms in both rocky and soft-bottomed intertidal communities.
13. 13. Compare and contrast the various modes of competition in the rocky intertidal communities, such as
competition for space, grazing, predation, availability of food, feeding relationships, and ecological succession.
Give examples of each with specific organisms.
1. 1. What are coral reefs made of?
2. 2. Characterize cnidarians.
3. 3. Differentiate between hermatypic and ahermatypic coral.
4. 4. How do coral colonies form?
5. 5. How do zooxanthellae benefit coral?
6. 6. Characterize the two main components of the epipelagic.
7. 7. Why are phytoplankton so important?
8. 8. Discuss the importance of zooplankton.
9. 9. Differentiate between holoplankton and meroplankton.
10. 10. What is the general rule in the epipelagic food chain?
11. 11. What is the main thermocline?
12. 12. What are photophores?
13. 13. How is having an extendible jaw an adaptation for feeding in the mesopelagic?
14. 14. Summarize the differences between vertically migrating fishes and those that do not vertically
migrate.
15. 15. Describe and explain how two organisms living in an estuary cope with salinity fluctuations ranging
from highly saline to freshwater.
16. 16. Compare and contrast the morphological adaptations for three different organisms that live in mud
flats, salt marshes, and mangrove forests. Focus on salinity, oxygen, sunlight, and detritus as contributing
factors.
17. 17. Compare and contrast the soft-bottom sub tidal and unvegetated soft-bottom communities and how
primary production plays a role in each community and how it affects the inhabitants. Focus on how the organisms in
each community feed, what their mechanisms of feeding are, and how it can be related to primary production, or lack
thereof.
18. 18. Compare and contrast the rocky bottom subtidal and soft-bottom subtital communities and how the
substrate plays a role in the type of organism that inhabits the area.
19. 19. Describe and explain kelp communities with highlighting the physical structure and how these
organism play an important role in the community as well as globally.