Relationships Among Marine Organisms

"Marine Food Web"

During the food web activity that my class did, I played the role of the benthic fish. This is an organism that lives at the bottom of the ocean. This organism eats crabs, worms, shrimp, mollusks. Larger fish, such as haddock and catfish mainly eat benthos as well as penguins. If this organism were to disappear, it would not affect and other organism that is at a lower spot on the food chain. This is because nothing at the bottom of the food chain will eat benthic fish, only organisms that are higher on the food chain will. The organisms that will be affected include penguins, whales, sharks, etc. This means that the neuston ecosystem will not be affected. 

"Phytoplankton"

Phytoplankton are very important to marine food webs because they are its foundation. They are the primary producers, meaning that everything feeds off of them or off of organisms that do. Neuston refers to organisms that float on top of water or live under the surface. These organisms consist of beetles, spiders, bacteria, protozoans, and certain species of fish. The neuston ecosystem covers up about 

Final Assignment Essay

During this semester, it has been a pleasure to take oceanography to have a better understanding of the physical and biological properties of the sea. Because of this class and its various assignments, I have learned a lot and know what I need to do to improve my understanding. For example, I have a better understanding of continental drift. I now know that there are six major plates on Earth that have broken up over the years. Very slowly over time, there was one large continent that broke into six and they slowly drift over time  (continental drift). I also have a better understanding of winds on the Earth's atmosphere. The Coriolis effect is when a  whereby a mass moving in a rotating system experiences a force acting perpendicular to the direction of motion and to the axis of rotation. What actually happens is that global winds blow diagonally. The Coriolis effect influences wind direction around the world in this way: in the Northern Hemisphere it curves winds to the right; in the Southern Hemisphere it curves them left. Doldrums are areas with no winds because winds because heat rises. With global warming, there will be a lot more heat, which will rise, and eventually cause their to be less wind.

Thanks to the assignment "which way the winds blow," I now understand what causes winds and the directions in which they move. I was also very informed when I learned about how to study the ocean. There are many traditional ways of studying the ocean, but it seems as though none can study each of its aspects. For example, going out to sea with a ship is good for some research, but not all aspects. As well as using ships, satellites and other equipment can only work for some areas and not all. Maybe a new system is needed for ocean studies to effectively work in the 21st century. It looks like this is a job for the Regional Cabled Observatory initiative, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. This system will gather and stream data and real-time video from 12 sensors under the ocean, which will inform scientists and the general public. These sensors will be used for monitoring pressure, oxygen levels, deep sea currents, seismic activity, underwater audio, etc. At three sites, Hydrate Ridge, Axial Seamount, and Endurance Array Newport Line, there will be fiber optic cables that form. This system may give everybody better data and become the worlds largest underwater observatory. Honestly,I never thought about how the ocean was studied which is why these are really interesting methods to me.

Build a Hydrometer Questions

1. Define the term salinity.

 Salinity is the total quantity of concentration of all dissolved inorganic solids.

2. If you add salt to a water solution, will a hydrometer float higher or lower in the water? Explain your choice.It will float higher because the salt makes the hydrometer more buoyant because the water is denser.

3. What effect does the addition of salt have on the properties of water?

The addition of salt makes the water more dense.

4. Is it easier to float in the ocean than in a swimming pool? Explain why or why not.

It is easier to float on the ocean because the water is dense and it depends where you are.

5. Define the term density.

Density is a measure of a quantity such as mass

6. The salinity of seawater is also affected by the temperature of a body of water. Explain how temperature causes differences in the salinity of water.

Cold water is more dense where as the opposite is true about warm water. This means cool ocean water is denser than warm ocean water. It is denser because the molecules of the liquid are moving slower.