Oceanography 11 Final Exam Review June, 2011
Exam Format:
50 Multiple Choice
20 Matching
8 Diagrams, 40 labels
13 Short Answer
Reading & 10 Questions
Total
Value: 25
Value: 20
Value: 20
Value: 25
Value: 10
Value: 100
Unit One: Structure and Motion
1. What percent of the earth is water? Is it mostly salt water or fresh? 71%; mostly salty; only 1%
is inland fresh water
2. Why does ice float on water? Because it is less dense; the molecules are farther apart when frozen so
there is more “air” in the ice than in the same amount of water
3. Why do the continents heat up before the ocean? Because water has a high heat capacity; that
means that they have the “capacity” to hold a lot more heat before the temperature actually changes.
4. What are the special characteristics of water? How does it affect freezing point? There is a
list of 5 you can look up on one of the power points but mainly what you need to know for the exam is 1.
high heat capacity and 2. high freezing point. Salt mixed with water lowers the freezing point. That’s one
reason why oceans don’t freeze easily and it is also why we add ‘road salt’ to the roads in winter
5. Draw the structure of water. Is it polar or non-polar? You don’t have to draw it on the exam; you
need to know that it is polar which means it has one negatively charges side and one positively charged side
6. What temperature is water the most dense? When does water boil? most dense at 4 ˚C (on the
exam) boils at 100 ˚C (not on the exam)
7. What sea has the highest salinity? ON THE EXAM PUT DEAD SEA AS THE ANSWER FOR THE
HIGHEST SALINITY – I SHOULD HAVE CHANGED THIS QUESTION TO SAY WHICH BODY OF
WATER BUT EVEN THOUGH IT STILL SAYS “WHICH SEA” I STILL WANT YOU TO SAY DEAD
SEA, EVEN THOUGH WE LEARNED THAT THE DEAD SEA IS NOT TECHNICALLY A SEA; I told
you that the Dead Sea has the highest salinity but in a webquest we did it said the Red Sea. I wrote to the
website and asked why they don’t list the Dead Sea. They said because technically the Dead Sea is a lake,
not a sea. So – as I said at the time – don’t be confused by what they say on the website. For our purposes,
the answer is THE DEAD SEA (but I may teach this differently next semester now that I know the
technically correct answer.
8. What terms means that plants are releasing water? transpiration
9. What are the three types of plate boundaries? What features/structures can be found at
each site? What you need to know is: convergent boundary – plates crash together; divergent boundary –
plates pull apart; transform boundary – plates slide past each other. Example of transform boundary is the
San Andreas Fault.
10. What are the two tide types? Which one is higher, and why? Spring and neap; spring are much
higher (think about going high when you ‘spring’ on a trampoline) spring tides have the gravitational pull of
both the moon and sun working together because they are in alignment during spring tides but at a 90 degree
angle to one another during neap tides (so during spring tides it’s like the moon and sun are both pulling on
the same end of a tug-of-war rope but during neap tides it’s like they are pulling in opposite directions so
they partially cancel out the force of the other)
11. How is the frequency of a wave measured? It is simply the same definition as for the word
‘frequency’ – simply how often something happens. In this case it’s how many times a wave passes by a
certain point in a given amount of time (in other words, how many waves pass by a certain spot in 10
seconds)
12. What is a tidal range? Range means difference between high and low, so you subtract the low tide from
the high tide (difference in math means the same as subtract) If the high tide is 4 metres and the low tide is 1
metre, the difference is 3 (4-1=3) so the range is 3 (the answer you get when you subtract low from high)
13. How does salt enter the ocean? How does it leave? Enters by rivers, undersea volcanoes and
biological decay. How it leaves is more complicated and not on the exam 
14. How does upwelling affect fishing? What is it? Upwelling is when deep ocean currents bring the
water from the bottom of the ocean to the top. It is very important because it brings tons of nutrients from
the ocean floor which feed organisms and create a very rich environment for plants and fish, which attracts
more fish so it is very, very good for commercial fishermen. It is also part of the reason most living
organisms are in the top layer of the ocean. The other reason most organisms are in the top layer is because
phytoplankton are able only able to get energy from the sun if they are in the photic layer where the sun is
able to penetrate.
15. **What are three factors that affect the direction of currents? Explain. People found this
question very confusing on the test so I did not include it on the exam. Mainly people got it confused with
the 3 things that determine the size of a wave (ques #16).
16. What are the types of currents? (Think of both names) in most basic terms, they are vertical and
horizontal. Vertical currents are also called deep ocean currents or thermohaline currents. All vertical/deep
ocean/thermohaline currents are driven by one thing: density, (Density is determined by temperature,
pressure and salinity.) Horizontal currents are the second type and they are also called surface currents.
These are the ones we usually think of when we think of currents. They are driven by wind, not density.
17. What are three things that affect the height of waves? Wind direction, speed and fetch. Fetch
means the distance the wind blows across the water.
18. How do you calculate the tidal range? Already covered I #12 – subtract low from high tide
19. What influences the range of tides? The gravitational pull of the sun and moon and the centrifugal
force of the Earth spinning
20. What was the name of the supercontinent that once existed? Pangea (also spelled Pangaea)
Coastal Zones:
21. Know the names of the following coastal habitats and the characteristics of each. Also know one major issue
faced by organisms living in each of the following ecosystem:
a) salt marsh
b) estuary
c) mud flat
d) sandy beach
e) rocky shore
For the rocky shore you need to understand that it is a harsh environment for organisms because it constantly
changes. For part of the day the tide is in and some areas are under water, then later the same area can be
exposed to heat and drying when the tide is out. Plants find it hard to grow because of the salinity and
temperature. Animals find it hard to survive unless they have adapted special characteristics that help them
avoid desiccation (drying out). An example would be mussels have an adaptation because when they tide
goes out they can bury themselves in the sand so they don’t desiccate (dry out).
22. What adaptations must organisms make in order to survive the rocky shore? Give at least
two examples. See above for one example. Another example would be any kind of snail that can crawl
inside a shell to keep from drying out.
Marine Biome:
23. What is the difference between abiotic and biotic factors? Give an example of each. In
science the prefix ‘a’ means ‘without’ so biotic is ‘life’ and abiotic is “without life’; just like photic is ‘light’
and aphotic is ‘without light’ biotic factors = living factors such as the plants and animals found in a habitat.
Abiotic refers to all the non-living factors in an environment, such at the amount of light, the temperature,
the salinity (saltiness), the air quality, amount of oxygen, etc.
24. What is the difference between an autotroph and a heterotroph? Give an example of each.
Autotroph can make it’s own food whereas a heterotroph must eat other organisms to get energy.
Phytoplankton (plants) are autotrophic. People or any animal that eats plants and/or other animals are
heterotrophic.
25. How are plankton, nekton, and benthos different? Where do each of them live? Plankton can
be zoo (animal) or phyto (plant). Nekton are all aquatic organisms that can swim under their own power and
benthos are all organisms the are confined to the bottom of the ocean. Plankton – mainly top layer but can
be all layers; nekton – mainly middle but can go to other layers to feed; benthos – bottom but some may go
to middle to feed.
26. What are the two types of plankton? How are they different? see above zooplankton (animal)
phytoplankton (plant)
27. What is the largest biome? Marine, by far
28. What is the difference between a food chain and a food web? Chain is oversimplified diagram
that only shows a one organism at each level feeding on a single kind of organism at the next level. It is not
realistic because organisms feed on more than one kind of organism and not all of them are on the same
trophic level.
29. What is the difference between a producer and a consumer? Producers synthesize their own food
30. Why is a food web a better illustration of food relationships than a food chain? Web is more
realistic because it’s represents more of the complex relationships and shows that one organism may get
food from multiple sources and not all sources even have to be on the same trophic level.
31. What is the difference between a herbivore and a carnivore? Herbivore= plant eater;
carnivore=meat eater
32. What layer of the ocean do most organisms live? Why? Top layer; 1. phytoplankton are able to
photosynthesize and 2. nutrients brought to the surface by upwelling make it a an all-you-can-eat buffet
Tidal Zone diagram
Intertidal zone
Ocean Zones by depth