Marine Biology, Exam 1 (Ch 1 - 5, 10) Questions and Answers with
Verified Solutions | Latest 2026 Update
Q: Why did the Deepwater Horizon oil spill affect baby sea turtles?
Answer:
The oil spill affected baby sea turtles because sargassum, a type of sea weed, is
shelter for sea turtles and other critters, when the oil spilled rescuers knew to look for
the sea turtles in this area to save them. What does trophic mean? What is a trophic
structure? Trophic means - "of or relating to feeding or nutrition" A Trophic structure
is the feeding levels of organisms. Why is understanding the trophic structure of an
organism important? It is vital to understand because: A large part of an orgs niche
revolves around what they consume if you are interested in orgs conservation you
have to know a lot about it including orgs role in the trophic structure. More and
more orgs are going through changes in orgs population so the more you know about
their niche the more you can predict over-abundance or extinction. What are primary
producers? Bottom level of trophic structure autotrophs (make own food from
sunlight) (wo them no life on earth) What are the differences between producers and
consumers? Producers photosynthesize to get energy consumers eat to get the energy
second hand. What does it mean to have different levels of the trophic structure? The
different levels show where and how the energy is traveling. What is an apex
predator? Top predator in trophic structure is the apex predator.
,Q: What are mesopredators?
Answer:
The middle level of predators are mesopredators. What are trophic pyramids?
Trophic Pyramids show the levels of producers and predators from the base of
producers to the top apex predators. Define the term keystone species. Keystone
species - a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend such that if
it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically. What is a trophic cascade?
When you have an apex predator controlling the mesopredators and the producers
later creating a cascade when removed. Do predators help regulate ecosystems? Yes
they help to regulate the producers. What was the main organism in Robert Paine's
first experiment that was removed and caused a trophic cascade? What organism
took over in that first experiment? Starfish, the organism that took over was muscles.
Did the number of species in this first experiment increase or decrease? Decreased
Explain the killer whale-sea otter-sea urchin-kelp forest trophic cascade (you can use
Figure 13.27 to help you as well). By having more or less killer whales controlling
the sea otters who control the sea urchins who control the kelp forests you can have
more or less kelp in the ocean just by removing or adding killer whales. Are sea
otters considered keystone species? Yes What is biodiversity? The variety of life in
the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.
, Q: What types of biodiversity are there?
Answer:
Ecosystem - diverse plants and rock / water types that make up the area. Species -
diverse species of animals in that ecosystem. Genetic - diverse genetic differences of
those species in the ecosystem. Why is biodiversity important? The density of the
biodiversity in an ecosystem can make it more or less stable / resilient to change. Is
coral a keystone species? Yes they are a producer and habitat / shelter breeding
grounds for other species, also form interdependent relationships with fungi. Many
others depend on them for survival. Should we care about biodiversity? Yes
biodiversity is extremely important and is vital for the survival of orgs on earth, cut
too many links and we could risk losing it all. Biodiversity is a safety net to prevent
this. What is COML? How long did it last and what did we find out from it? COML
is the Census of Marine Life. It lasted for 10 years and we found more than 6,000
candidates for new species, created the OBIS (Ocean Biogeographic Information
System) for storing past and new information online available, created bar coding to
separate closely related species. What are the 3 main themes about biodiversity for
the COML successor project "Life in a Changing Ocean"? Continuing to discover
and map new species, Understanding how marine ecosystems function, and
Assessing the impacts of human use of marine resources. Explain the example
George gives about the trophic cascade in Yellowstone Park. What was the apex
predator? How did adding that apex predator back in change the environment? The
apex predator was the wolves that were introduced back into the park, by adding
them back in they killed off many of the deer which were abundant, by doing so
many of the plant life sprung back and the forest reanimated.
Verified Solutions | Latest 2026 Update
Q: Why did the Deepwater Horizon oil spill affect baby sea turtles?
Answer:
The oil spill affected baby sea turtles because sargassum, a type of sea weed, is
shelter for sea turtles and other critters, when the oil spilled rescuers knew to look for
the sea turtles in this area to save them. What does trophic mean? What is a trophic
structure? Trophic means - "of or relating to feeding or nutrition" A Trophic structure
is the feeding levels of organisms. Why is understanding the trophic structure of an
organism important? It is vital to understand because: A large part of an orgs niche
revolves around what they consume if you are interested in orgs conservation you
have to know a lot about it including orgs role in the trophic structure. More and
more orgs are going through changes in orgs population so the more you know about
their niche the more you can predict over-abundance or extinction. What are primary
producers? Bottom level of trophic structure autotrophs (make own food from
sunlight) (wo them no life on earth) What are the differences between producers and
consumers? Producers photosynthesize to get energy consumers eat to get the energy
second hand. What does it mean to have different levels of the trophic structure? The
different levels show where and how the energy is traveling. What is an apex
predator? Top predator in trophic structure is the apex predator.
,Q: What are mesopredators?
Answer:
The middle level of predators are mesopredators. What are trophic pyramids?
Trophic Pyramids show the levels of producers and predators from the base of
producers to the top apex predators. Define the term keystone species. Keystone
species - a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend such that if
it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically. What is a trophic cascade?
When you have an apex predator controlling the mesopredators and the producers
later creating a cascade when removed. Do predators help regulate ecosystems? Yes
they help to regulate the producers. What was the main organism in Robert Paine's
first experiment that was removed and caused a trophic cascade? What organism
took over in that first experiment? Starfish, the organism that took over was muscles.
Did the number of species in this first experiment increase or decrease? Decreased
Explain the killer whale-sea otter-sea urchin-kelp forest trophic cascade (you can use
Figure 13.27 to help you as well). By having more or less killer whales controlling
the sea otters who control the sea urchins who control the kelp forests you can have
more or less kelp in the ocean just by removing or adding killer whales. Are sea
otters considered keystone species? Yes What is biodiversity? The variety of life in
the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.
, Q: What types of biodiversity are there?
Answer:
Ecosystem - diverse plants and rock / water types that make up the area. Species -
diverse species of animals in that ecosystem. Genetic - diverse genetic differences of
those species in the ecosystem. Why is biodiversity important? The density of the
biodiversity in an ecosystem can make it more or less stable / resilient to change. Is
coral a keystone species? Yes they are a producer and habitat / shelter breeding
grounds for other species, also form interdependent relationships with fungi. Many
others depend on them for survival. Should we care about biodiversity? Yes
biodiversity is extremely important and is vital for the survival of orgs on earth, cut
too many links and we could risk losing it all. Biodiversity is a safety net to prevent
this. What is COML? How long did it last and what did we find out from it? COML
is the Census of Marine Life. It lasted for 10 years and we found more than 6,000
candidates for new species, created the OBIS (Ocean Biogeographic Information
System) for storing past and new information online available, created bar coding to
separate closely related species. What are the 3 main themes about biodiversity for
the COML successor project "Life in a Changing Ocean"? Continuing to discover
and map new species, Understanding how marine ecosystems function, and
Assessing the impacts of human use of marine resources. Explain the example
George gives about the trophic cascade in Yellowstone Park. What was the apex
predator? How did adding that apex predator back in change the environment? The
apex predator was the wolves that were introduced back into the park, by adding
them back in they killed off many of the deer which were abundant, by doing so
many of the plant life sprung back and the forest reanimated.
