Directions: For this assignment, you are required to answer the following questions. The answers are short and essay-based with each answer having a minimum of 200 words.

1. 1. What were the initial reasons to study marine biology and oceanography, and what lead to the evolution of the field of study and the advancement in modern day?
2. 2. Differentiate between marine biology and biological oceanography.
3. 3. Explain the processes of photosynthesis and respiration, and how they apply to the marine environment.
4. 4. List and describe the abiotic factors (i.e. salinity, temperature, density, and pressure) associated with the marine environment and the adaptations needed to survive in varying degrees of abiotic factors.
5. 5. Explain fundamentals of ecology and the factors that affect the distribution of marine organisms.
6. 6. Why was the voyage of the HMS Challenger so significant?
7. 7. How did sonar and scuba help advance the field of marine biology?
8. 8. Differentiate between carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids.
9. 9. Differentiate between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.
10. 10. Describe the following levels of organization in biological systems and place them in order of increasing complexity: Ecosystem, Community, Population, Individual, Organ System, Organ, Tissue, Cell, Organelle, Molecule, Atom.
11. 11. Contrast sexual and asexual reproduction.
12. 12. Give two examples of reproductive strategies.
13. 13. What is natural selection? What is an adaptation?
14. 14. Explain the biological species concept.
1. 1. List and describe the characteristics of marine bacteria.
2. 2. Explain the important ecological roles of micro-organisms and primary producers and how they affect the food chain, decomposition, and recycling of nutrients.
3. 3. Examine multi-cellular primary production’s (i.e. seaweed and flowering plants) unique characteristics in structure and habitat.
4. 4. Explain the adaptations of multi-cellular primary producers in the marine environment.
5. 5. Examine the ecological role/importance of multi-cellular primary producers, focusing on detritus food chain, habitat, and nurseries.
6. 6. Explain three methods of prokaryotic metabolism.
7. 7. List and describe the characteristics of unicellular algae.
8. 8. List and describe the characteristics of marine protozoans.
9. 9. List and describe the characteristics of marine fungi.
10. 10. Describe the basic structure of seaweed. If possible, include a drawing.
11. 11. Differentiate between Chlorophyta, Phaeophyta, and Rhodophyta.
12. 12. Explain the economic importance of seaweed, and list at least five products that contain algal derivatives.
Describe the key characteristics of seagrasses, salt-marsh plants, and mangroves.
1. 1. Describe the evolutionary significance of segmentation, and give an in-depth analysis comparing and contrasting the complexity of new organisms (i.e. flatworms vs. annelids).
2. 2. Explain the physical adaptation of Cnidarians (jellyfish vs. sea anemones vs. corals) to the marine environment and how it allows them to survive. Think about if they are sessile, food resources, organismal relationships, etc.
3. 3. Compare and contrast the structural elements of porifera, mollusca, arthropods, and echinoderms (think about what gives structure to the organisms). How does this structure suit the different class of organisms in the marine environment and in their specific environments?
4. 4. Compare and contrast the body cavity and circulatory systems of nemerta, mollusca, ectoprocta, and echiura (think about their food mechanism and habitat). How do the body cavity and the circulatory system become adaptive features for these organisms to the marine environment?
5. 5. Contrast bilateral and radial symmetry.
6. 6. Differentiate between an open and closed circulatory system.
7. 7. Differentiate between an endoskeleton and an exoskeleton.
8. 8. What are the four chordate characteristics?
9. 9. Explain how fish swim.
10. 10. Describe at least two fish behaviors (for example, territoriality, schooling, and migration).
11. 11. Differentiate between viviparous, oviparous, and ovoviviparous.
12. 12. Contrast poikilotherms, ectotherms, homeeotherms, and endotherms.
13. 13. Summarize the biology of marine reptiles.
14. 14. Summarize the biology of seabirds and shorebirds.
15. 15. Explain echolocation.
1. 1. List as many abiotic and biotic factors you can for an environment of your choice.
2. 2. Differentiate between a population and a community.
3. 3. Summarize how populations grow and how that growth is limited.
4. 4. Summarize the theory of natural selection and evolution.
5. 5. Discuss at least two ways that species interact.
6. 6. What is the difference between a food web and a food chain?
7. 7. Explain how essential nutrients cycle through the ocean.
8. 8. Characterize the ecological zones of the ocean.
9. 9. Explain and differentiate between jawless, cartilaginous, and bony fish, highlighting the distinguishing unique physical characteristics, such as body shape or coloration. Compare and contract evolutionary differences.
10. 10. Describe the different internal systems (digestive, respiratory, circulatory, nervous) and regulation of the internal environment of bony fish.
11. 11. Identify and describe different behaviors such as territoriality, social behavior, and migration seen in both bony fish and marine mammals.
12. 12. Compare and contrast the various orders within each class (mammalis, reptilian, and aves) noting different characteristics, habitats, and adaptations to the marine environment.
13. 13. Compare and contrast the swimming locomotion in both fish and marine mammals.
14. 14. Describe the adaptive features of marine mammals that allow them to live in the marine environment.

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.
1. 1. Describe and explain the structure of a coral polyp and the growth of a typical coral reef. Then, compare to other reef builders.
2. 2. Compare and contrast hermatyoic and ahermatyic corals. Highlight any symbiotic relationship they might have. Also, note the different types of living environments which may attribute to the symbiotic relationships.
3. 3. Analyze the abiotic factors that allow for maximum coral growth. Talk about the effects that varying these abiotic factors have on coral communities. Give specific examples.
4. 4. Compare and contrast fringing reefs, barrier reefs, and atolls in origin, structure, and ecological importance.
5. 5. Describe and analyze the trophic structure of coral reefs. Note the different modes of nutrient recycling and how it contributes to the reef community.
6. 6. Describe and analyze the different modes of competition that might occur in a coral reef community or with coral growth itself.
7. 7. Discuss and analyze the various modes of predation on coral reefs.
1. 1. Describe the different adaptations needed to live in the epipelagic zone, focusing on swimming, buoyancy, coloration, and migration.
2. 2. Describe the food web dynamics of the epipelagic, focusing on trophic energy flow and movement of nutrients in the water column.
3. 3. Describe the various adaptations of organisms that live in the mesopelagic zone based on biotic and abiotic factors, such as temperature, light, oxygen, and pressure.
4. 4. Describe the restraints of the mesopelagic zone on feeding, reproduction, and pressure.
5. 5. Describe and analyze the benthic communities of the deep ocean floor, focusing on feeding adaptations, competition, and reproduction.
6. 6. Describe hot spot communities, including hot springs, cold springs, and dead bodies, and how they perpetuate life in the benthic zone.