15.9.2: Chapter Questions
- Page ID
- 50296
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- Why don’t species live in all locations where their fundamental-niche requirements are fulfilled?
- Why do coral reefs sustain a very large variety of species, and why is the biomass of coral reef ecosystems greater than that of other ecosystems in tropical waters?
- What factors determine the types of corals that live on different parts of a coral reef?
- Describe the locations and environmental conditions that are appropriate for the development of kelp forests. Contrast these with the locations and environmental conditions appropriate for the development of coral reefs.
- Why must rocky intertidal species be more stress-tolerant than many other marine species?
- Why are rocky intertidal communities distributed in distinct bands of different species that follow depth contours?
- Why does the Sargasso Sea sustain a community of photic-zone organisms that are different and distinct from those found elsewhere in the oceans?
- What are the principal differences in physical characteristics between the Arctic Ocean and the ocean around Antarctica, and how do they affect primary production and species composition?
- Why does the species composition of hydrothermal vent communities change rapidly with distance from the vents?
Critical Thinking Questions
- Sea otters are increasing in numbers in California coastal waters, but one of their favorite foods, abalone, is heavily harvested, so they may rely more on urchins for their food supply. Describe what you think will happen to the kelp forests over the next several decades as a result of these changes, and how these changes will affect other species in the ecosystem.
- Describe the feeding, hunting, defensive, and reproductive characteristics that are desirable for carnivorous species that live in the Sargassum community. Compare and contrast these characteristics with the desirable characteristics for a carnivorous benthic species that lives in the deep oceans. Explain each of the differences.
- Hydrothermal vent communities throughout the oceans are separated, sometimes by substantial distances. However, some of the same species are found at many of the vents, regardless of their location. In addition, chemosynthetic bacteria species that are identical or very closely related to those found at the hydrothermal vents on oceanic ridges have been found in hydrothermal vent environments at the bottom of Crater Lake, Oregon, and Lake Baikal, Russia.
(a) What are the possible reproductive strategies that could explain these observations?
(b) Hypothesize ways that chemosynthetic organisms could be transported between their present locations and the locations of new vents or the locations of new lakes similar to Crater Lake and Lake Baikal.
(c) What studies do you think would be needed to prove or disprove your hypotheses? - If the Earth’s climate warms and both polar ice caps melt away completely, which ecosystem is likely to be changed more, the Southern Ocean ecosystem or the Arctic Ocean ecosystem? Explain the reasons for your answer.
- The temperature and salinity of the abyssopelagic environment vary little with latitude or from ocean to ocean. This environment is also uniformly dark and the pressure uniformly high. Does this mean that, if we were able to sample every species in a cubic kilometer of deep-ocean water, we could be certain that we had sampled a large majority of all abyssopelagic species that exist in the oceans? Why or why not?
- Coral reefs and kelp forests both have high species diversity compared to some other ocean ecosystems. What are the possible reasons for this high diversity?