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Final Exam Study Guide—Spring 2004

Important Notice: If you can't come to the final exam due to illness or another unavoidable reason, you must call John Kelley to make arrangements for make-up within 2 days of the final exam date. (Jennifer Reynolds will be out of town May 6-10.)  Students who have not taken the final or arranged for an incomplete will receive a grade based on the points they have earned without the final. Note that the Final Exam is worth 100 points and will be longer than the midterms.

ABOUT 1/2 OF THE EXAM WILL COVER MATERIAL PRESENTED IN LECTURE SINCE THE LAST EXAM. SOME OF THOSE QUESTIONS WILL COME FROM THIS STUDY GUIDE.

THE OTHER 1/2 OF THE QUESTIONS ON THE FINAL EXAM WILL BE MULTI-PART QUESTIONS RELATED TO MATERIAL PRESENTED DURING THE COURSE AS A WHOLE.  AN EXAMPLE IS SHOWN AT THE END OF THIS STUDY GUIDE.  THE SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS IN THIS STUDY GUIDE SHOULD HELP YOU TO PREPARE.  WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU ALSO REVIEW THE EARLIER STUDY GUIDES.

PART I—Short Answer (Approximately 3 sentences or a diagram. Remember, diagrams must have explanatory labels.)

  1. Describe echolocation. What kinds of things do animals echolocate? (At least two examples.)

  2. Ocean fishes are divided into two groups.  What are they?  Give examples of fish in each.

  3. What are two special characteristics of bathypelagic (deep ocean) fishes, and how do these help the fishes survive?

  4. What are four characteristics or abilities of sharks that help them to obtain food?

  5. Briefly state one of the hypotheses that has been proposed to explain the rapidly declining population of Steller sea lions in the northern Gulf of Alaska and Aleutians.

  6. How and where do gray whales feed? What do they eat?

  7. Draw a diagram illustrating ocean's nutrient cycle. Be sure to indicate the important groups of organisms involved in the nutrient cycle.

  8. Under what oceanic conditions is a phytoplankton bloom likely to occur?

  9. What is the most important difference between macroalgae (seaweeds) and flowering plants (land plants like grasses or trees)? (Do not simply answer that one is on land and the other is in the oceans.)

  10. In general, the biomass of benthos/square meter of sea floor decreases with (a) the primary productivity of the water column above, and (b) the depth of the water. Briefly discuss why.

  11. Why can brown and, especially, red algae live in deeper water than can green algae?

  12. How do animals that live on "hard" (rocky) bottoms usually obtain their food? How is this different from how animals living in "soft" (muddy) bottoms obtain their food?

  13. One of the factors that controls the numbers and types of plants or animals found on the sea bottom is competition. What are these organisms competing for? (Give at least two examples.)

  14. What are 5 physical factors that can cause the intertidal zonation of plants and animals?

  15. Draw a diagram arranging the following organisms in a food web:

    16. • euphausiids or krill (herbivores)
    • diatoms
    • squid (eat krill)
    • small fishes (eat krill)
    • small penguins, such as the Adelie (eat krill and small fish)
    • emperor penguins (eat fish and squid)
    • crabeater seals (eat krill)
    • minke whales (eat krill)
    • sei whales (eat krill)
    (This food web is found the ocean surrounding Antarctica.)

  16. What does the phrase trophic efficiency mean?

  17. What is an important role of bacteria in marine food webs?

  18. Why are biogenic oozes (siliceous oozes) found beneath the equatorial Pacific and most coastal upwelling regions?

  19. Why are predominantly lithogenous sediments found near continents and in the deepest parts of the oceans?

  20. Why is the composition of sea salts (the relative amounts of the cations and anions) nearly constant everywhere in the oceans?

  21. What is a hydrogen bond in water? Explain how hydrogen bonds affect an important water property. (You may choose any water property affected by hydrogen bonds, for example, the boiling point, heat capacity, or latent heat of vaporization.)

  22. Why does a "sea breeze" (wind blowing from the sea toward the land) often occur during the afternoon in coastal areas?

  23. Why have the epicenters of many large earthquakes been located near the Aleutian Islands?

  24. Why are upwelling regions more productive, in terms of both primary production and fisheries yield, than the central parts of ocean basins? Give at least two reasons.

  25. Where are the deep and bottom water masses of the ocean formed? Why?

  26. Given that the middle of the ocean has a greater height (relative to mean sea level) than the edges, explain why ocean surface water in mid-ocean gyres tends to flow in a circular path.

  27. What is the generating force and the restoring force for each of the following types of waves: capillary waves, sea swell, tsunamis.

  28. What are three processes that shape coastlines? Name a specific example of a coastline shaped by each process.

  29. How would a high-energy beach, with frequent large waves, differ from a low-energy beach, with generally small waves? (Describe at least two differences.)

  30. Why is the photic zone deeper in tropical, open ocean areas of low productivity than in coastal, highly productive temperate regions?

  31. Describe one way in which life has, over geologic time, changed the composition of the Earth's atmosphere or ocean.

  32. How are the ages of ancient rocks, sediments, and organisms measured? (Briefly describe the most common method.) In this question, “ancient” refers to materials millions or billions of years old.

  33. Why is carbon dioxide called a "greenhouse gas"? Why is its concentration in the atmosphere increasing?

  34. What are two likely consequences of the doubling of carbon dioxide concentration in the Earth's atmosphere that are likely to occur over the next century?

  35. Why does the Coriolis Effect influence the motion of winds and ocean currents? That is, why is there a Coriolis Effect?

  36. Draw a diagram illustrating the relationships among coastal winds, Ekman Transport, and coastal upwelling.

 

PART II—ESSAY QUESTIONS (about 10 sentences each)

  1. Discuss the two major factors that control primary production in the ocean and how these factors contribute to the global geographic variations in primary productivity. Your answer should cover upwelling areas, coastal areas, the open ocean far from land at low (or tropical) latitudes, the open ocean far from land at middle (or temperate) latitudes, and the oceans near the poles.
  2. List the three major types of plate boundaries and the sea floor features that are associated with them.  Then describe 3 different kinds of evidence (i.e., observations, measurements) that crustal plates move, or that sea floor spreading creates ocean basins. You should briefly explain each kind of evidence (approximately 3 sentences), not just name it.
  3. List 4 important properties of water. Describe in 2-3 sentences how each is important, for example, to the earth's weather or climate, or to plants or animals living in the ocean.
  4. Summarinze the history of whaling, and the regulation of whaling, over the past 150 years. Exact dates are not required, but important events should be in the correct order.
  5. Describe the factors which can influence the productivity of commercial fish and how these factors affect the yield of a fishery. Your answer must include at least 4 different controlling factors.
  6. Describe (don't just name) the human activity that you think is the most serious threat to the oceans and marine life. What are humans doing, what aspect of the oceans or marine life is threatened, how will the harm occur, and what will it be? Why do you think this threat is more serious than all the others discussed in class? What do you think should be done to reduce or eliminate this threat?

PART III—QUICK QUESTIONS

    Several 1-point questions will ask about the scales at which things happen in the oceans (how long, how fast, how deep...). 

PART IV—SEMESTER MULTI-PART QUESTIONS

    EXAMPLE: 
    Sound in the oceans:  One of the important properties of water is that it transmits sound waves very well. 
    A.  Describe the two factors that control the transmission of sound in water, and what effect each factor has on sound transmission.
    B.  Describe how the transmission of sound varies with depth in the oceans, and why.
    C.  Describe how sound is used to measure the depth of the oceans.  Include a short description of the equipment that is used, what exactly is measured, and how these measurements are used to find the depth.
    D.  Describe two different ways in which marine organisms use sound.  Be specific -- which organisms, what kind of sound, for what purpose.

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Last Updated 27 April 2004