Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
Course Description
Students in this course will learn to describe interactions of matter and energy throughout the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. Students access knowledge to explain how energy entering the ecosystems, such as sunlight, supports the life of organisms through photosynthesis and the transfer of energy through the interactions of organisms and the environment. Students will explore plate tectonics and how waves (water) transfer energy. Students draw on their previous experience and connect Earth, life, and physical sciences into a coherent study of the environment. Emphasis is placed on the interactions between humans and Earth, ecosystems, populations, and diversity. Students also study the importance of the ocean and marine organisms. The human interactions with science and technology are discussed, as well as how man has modified current ecosystems and natural systems. Students have the opportunity to use basic science processes of inquiry, scientific investigation, and the nature of science to examine past events, current situations, and to develop and revise scientific predictions, ideas or theories.
Prerequisites : The student is either enrolled in biology achieving success in the course (C or higher) or has previously completed the course with success.
Credit: ½
* 3 hours of post secondary credit is possible for the completion of field experience at a tropical field station.

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
TOPIC:

The Ocean Environment
CONTENT STATEMENT:

Basic principles of ecology as they apply to marine systems and their importance to the organisms that live in the ocean.
CONCEPTS

Marine and terrestrial environments are interrelated, interactive, and interdependent.

The ocean is an important source of food and other resources for humans.
 Marine biology is the study of the sea’s diverse inhabitants and their relationships to each other and their environment.

The history of marine biology is one of changing perspectives that have shaped the modern science and its applications.

Physical factors of the environment, such as sunlight, temperature, salinity, exposure, and pressure, along with biological factors, will influence where marine organisms can live.

Marine ecosystems consist of interacting communities and their physical environments.
VOCABULARY

Photosynthesis

Autotroph
 Primary productivity

Light-dark-bottle method

Heterotrophs

Dissolved organic matter (DOM)

Detritus

Ecological efficiency

Pelagic

Water column

Benthic

Neritic
 Oceanic

Photic

Aphotic

Nekton

Intertidal

Bathyal

Hadal

Epifauna

Infauna
PERFORMANCE SKILLS:
 Describe how the focus of marine biology has changed from early times to the present.

Identify abiotic and biotic factors that affect the distribution of organisms in an ecosystem.

Describe symbiotic relationships found in nature.
 Explain a detritus-based food chain.

Analyze why there are fewer marine organisms in the oceans depths.

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
TOPIC:

Geology of the Ocean
CONTENT STATEMENT:

Basic principles of geology as they apply to marine systems including the physical aspects of the marine environment and their importance to the organisms that live in the ocean.
CONCEPTS

The world ocean has four main basins: Atlantic,
Pacific, Indian, and Arctic.
 The earth’s crust is composed of moving plates.

New seafloor is produced at ocean ridges and old seafloor is removed at ocean trenches.

The ocean floor has topographical features similar to those found on continents.
 The polar nature of water accounts for many of its physical properties.
 Salts are constantly being added to and removed from the oceans.
 The exchange of energy between oceans and the atmosphere produces winds that drive ocean currents and weather patterns.
 The density of seawater is mainly determined by temperature and salinity.
 Vertical mixing of seawater carries oxygen to the deep and nutrients to the surface.
 Waves are the result of forces acting on the surface of the water.

The gravitational pull of the moon and the sun on the oceans produces tides.
VOCABULARY

Continental drift

Ocean basin

Sea

Midocean ridge

Continental shelf

Continental slope

Continental rise

Abyssal plain

Seamount
 Tropic of Cancer

Tropic of Capricorn
 Sextant

Oxygen-minimum zone
 Coriolis Effect
 Westerlies
 Easterlies
 Doldrums
 Gyre
 Antarctic Circumpolar Current
 Gulf Stream
 Ekman spiral
 Thermocline
 Halocline/Pycnocline
 Upwelling
 Downwelling
 Wave refraction

Tsunamis
 Tides (spring, neap, ebb)

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
PERFORMANCE SKILLS:

Compare oceans and seas.

Describe the evidence that supports the theory of continental drift.

Explain the processes responsible for the formation and of the continental shelves.

Summarize the role of photosynthesis and respiration play in the distribution of gases in seawater.

Describe the factors responsible for the prevailing wind patterns on earth.

Indicate the combination of factors that produces tides.

Explain how the polar nature of water molecules influences water’s physical characteristics.

Analyze how salt from the sea is returned to the land.

Contrast upwelling and down welling and explain their biological importance.

List different processes that circulate water in the oceans.
TOPIC:
 Marine Organisms
CONTENT STATEMENT:

Basic biological concepts such as energy transfer in biological systems and biological classification. The major groups of marine organisms and their interrelationships including the basis of feeding relationships, from organisms that produce their own food to those that rely on other organisms for food. Descriptions of animals beginning with invertebrates and working upward through the vertebrae classes to mammals including he role that each group of organisms plays in the overall web of marine life.

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
CONCEPTS
 Natural selection favors the survival and reproduction of those organisms changes over time.

A species is a group of physically similar, potentially interbreeding organisms that share a gene pool, and are able to produce viable offspring.

The binomial system of nomenclature uses two words, the genus and the species epithet, to identify an organism.
 Phylogenetic trees and cladograms indicate evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms.

Microbial life in the sea is extremely diverse, including members of all three domains of life, as well as viruses.

Photosynthetic and chemosynthetic bacteria are important primary producers in marine
VOCABULARY
 Morphology

Sexual dimorphism

Bionomial nomenclature

Taxonomy

Alga

Chemosynthetic bacteria

Marine snow
 Nitrogen fixation

Deep-sea vent

Photophores

Bioluminescence

Chitin

Lichens
 Diatom

Diatomaceous sediment/earth

Dinoflagellate

Zooxanthellae

Foraminiferans

Radiolarians

Frond
 Stipe

Holdfast

Turbidity ecosystems. Heterotrophic bacteria play essential roles in recycling nutrients in the marine environment.

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
CONCEPTS

Marine eukaryotic microbes are primary producers, decomposers, and consumers, and some contribute significantly to the accumulation of deep-sea sediments.

Populations of several kinds of photosynthetic marine microbes may form harmful blooms that affect other marine and maritime organisms directly and indirectly.

Multicellular marine macroalgae are divided into three major groups according to their photosynthetic pigments.

Seagrasses are important primary producers and sources of detritus, and they provide habitat for many animal species.
 Salt marsh plants and mangroves stabilize bottom sediments, filter runoff from the land, provide detritus, and provide habitat for animals.

Sponges are asymmetric, sessile animals that filter food from the water and provide habitat for other animals.
VOCABULARY (cont’d)

Salt marsh

Salt glands

Mangrove

Prop roots

Pneumatophores
 Propagule

Invertebrate

Vertebrate

Sessile

Ostia

Osculum

Choanocytes

Spicules

Spongin

Filter feeder
 Hermaphrodite

Cnidaria

Cnidocyte

Radial symmetry

Polyp

Medusa

Gastrovascular cavity

Mesoglea

Nematocyst

Hydrozoan
 Scyphozoan

Anthozoan

Cnidarians and ctenophores exhibit radial symmetry and highly specialized stinging cells to capture prey and for protection.

Most marine animals exhibit bilateral symmetry.

Molluscs have soft bodies that are usually covered by a shell.

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
CONCEPTS

Polychaete diversity stems from the evolution of a segmented body that increased motility.
 Arthropods have external skeletons, jointed appendages, and sophisticated sense organs.

Echinoderms exhibit radial symmetry and have a unique water vascular system that function in locomotion, food gathering, and circulation.

Fish consist of jawless, cartilaginous, and ray-finned fish composed primarily of bone.
 Shape of a fish’s body is primarily determined by the characteristics of its environment.
 Color in fishes function in camouflage, species recognition, and communication.
 Sharks maintain neutral buoyancy by storing oily material in their liver, rayfinned fish use a swim bladder.

Fish have a lateral line system to detect water movement.

Sea turtles have streamlined bodies and appendages modified into flippers.

Sea turtles mate at sea and lay eggs on the same beaches where the females hatched.
VOCABULARY (cont’d)

Ctenophore

Bilateral symmetry

Mollusca

Annelid

Setae

Polychaete Incurrent/Excurrent Siphon
 Cephalopod

Chromatophore

Gastropod

Operculum

Adductor muscle Mantle

Radula
 Prismatic layer

Chiton

Arthropod

Exoskeleton

Molting

Cephalothorax

Carapace
 Abdomen

Telson

Mandible
 Crustacea

Swimmerets

Chelipeds

Cirripeds

Ectoparasite

Endoskeleton

Ossicles
 Pedicellariae

Water vascular system

Madreportie

Ampulla

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
CONCEPTS

The marine iguana of the Galapagos Islands is the only marine lizard.

A variety of bird species, including gulls, pelicans, and tubenoses are adapted to feeding on marine organisms.

Penguins are the birds most adapted to life in the sea.

Many marine reptiles and birds are endangered by human activities.

Mammals have a body covering of hair, maintain a constant warm body temperature, and nourish their young with milk produced by the mammary glands of the mother.
 Pinnipeds have limbs modified to form flippers and are better adapted to life at sea than to life on land.
 Cetaceans have a fishlike body shape and are the mammals most suited to life in the sea.
 Special physiological adaptations allow some marine mammals to dive to great depths and to remain submerged for long periods.

Some cetaceans use echolocation to navigate, find prey, and avoid predators.
 Baleen whales have plates of baleen instead of teeth and feed primarily on plankton, such as krill.
VOCABULARY (cont’d)

Echinoderm

Regeneration

Echinoidea

Agnatha

Catilaginous

Placoid scales

Spiracles
 Mermaid’s purse

Pectoral, dorsal, caudal, pelvic and anal fin

Test
 Aristotle’s Lantern

Chordate
 Notochord

Fusiform
 Laterally compressed

Disruptive coloration
 Cryptic coloration

Gill filaments
 Osmoregulation
 Swim Bladder
 Lateral line
 Ampullae of Lorenzini
 Reptile
 Carapace
 Plastron
 Pinniped
 Cetacean
 Blubber
 Spy hopping

Breaching
 Head lunge

Tail lobbing
 Peduncle
 Fluke

Pec slap

Baleen

Spermaceti

Echolocation

Melon

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
PERFORMANCE SKILLS:

Explain how the cells of diatoms and dinoflagellates differ.

Identify what factors affect the distribution of alga in the marine environment.

Describe the adaptations that have evolved in salt marsh plants or mangroves to help them survive in areas where the salt content is high.

Indicate what characteristics of salt marshes make them such ideal nurseries.
 Predict the effects of coastal zone development on seagrass and mangrove communities.
 Evaluate how a sponge’s body structure affect its size.

Describe the advantages of bilateral symmetry and why radial symmetry is advantageous to sessile organisms.

Explain how the cnidarian stinging cell functions.

Construct a food web that includes meiofauna, marine worms, and larger predators such as fish.
 Explain how symbiotic relationships can allow marine animals to live in habitats where they normally could not survive.

Identify commercially important crustaceans.

Explain how the radula is modified in gastropods for different types of feeding.

Describe how a sea star uses its water vascular system to move.

Determine the important ecological contribution burrowing organisms make to the environment.

Compare two adaptations that help prevent fish from sinking because of their relatively high density.

Explain what is meant by disruptive coloration.
 Distinguish how the characteristics of the environment influence the shape of a fish’s body.

Show how marine turtles are adapted to life in the sea.

Hypothesize what human activites are contributing to the decline in sea turtle populations.

Explain how the arrangement of blood vessels in the flippers and tail flukes of cetaceans helps them to retain body heat.

Describe how toothed whales use echolocation to navigate.

Summarize the effects of whaling over the past several centuries on cetacean populations.
TOPIC:

Marine Ecosystems
CONTENT STATEMENT:

How the interactions of the physical and biological environment influence the number and kinds of marine organisms that inhabit a given area.

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
CONCEPTS
 The intertidal zone is that part of the marine environment alternately exposed and submerged by tides

Organisms that inhabit the intertidal zone must be able to tolerate wave shock, desiccation, and radical changes in temperature and salinity.

Organisms on rocky shores tend to be found in definite bands, or zones, on the rocks.

Rocky shores in contrast to sandy shores provide a relatively stable surface for attachment.

Estuaries form where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with seawater.

Estuarine communities include oyster reefs, mud flats, and seagrass meadows.

Wetlands such as salt marshes and mangrove forests are frequently found bordering estuaries.

The salinity of water in estuaries varies both vertically and horizontally.
VOCABULARY
 Intertidal

Rocky Shore Zonation

Spralittoral

Infralittoral

Tide pool

Ecological Succession

Sandy shores
 Meiofauna

Estuary

Tidal flats

Wetlands

Brackish water

Coral
 Fringing reef

Barrier reef

Atoll

Patch reef

Forereef

Spur-and-groove

Reef crest
 Back reef

Coral Bleaching

Epibenthic
 Kelp

Holoplankton

Meroplankton

Particulate organic matter (POM)

Coral reefs are primarily found in tropical clear water, usually at depths of 60 meters or less.

Both physical and biological factors determine the distribution of organisms on a reef.

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
CONCEPTS

Corals obtain up to 90% of their energy from zooxanthellae that use coral wastes, produce carbohydrates, and aid in calcium carbonate deposition.

Coral reefs are oases of high productivity in nutrient-poor tropical seas. Nutrients are stored in reef biomass and efficiently recycled.

The number and kinds of benthic organisms on continental shelves are influenced by waves, currents, light penetration, and sediment characteristics.
VOCABULARY (cont’d)

Barbel

Black smoker
 Hard-bottom communities are dominated by epibenthic organisms.

In areas north and south of the tropics, kelps dominate the subtidal zone where the water is cold and the sediments are hard.

Soft-bottom communities are dominated by suspension feeders and deposit feeders.
 The distribution of organisms in benthic communities of the continental shelf is patchy.

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
CONCEPTS
 The high productivity of coastal seas supports large numbers of fish, birds, and marine mammals.

Plankton range widely in size, taxonomic diversity, and lifestyle.
 Phytoplankton are the primary producers in open-ocean food webs, and their productivity is limited by the scarcity of nutrients.

The lack of light has had the most impact in shaping the organisms of the deep sea

Many deep-sea animals exhibit bioluminescence, which helps them find mates and prey in their dark environment.

Several structural features and behaviors have evolved to keep afloat organisms that are not strong swimmers.

Deep-sea fish display a variety of adaptations such as sharp teeth, large mouths, and huge stomachs that help them survive in a habitat with limited food.

Thriving marine communities that depend on chemosynthetic bacteria for primary production exist on the ocean floor around hydrothermal vents.
VOCABULARY(cont’d)

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
PERFORMANCE SKILLS:

Describe the environmental challenges are encountered by organisms that live in a tide pool.

Explain some of the adaptations exhibited by organisms inhabiting rocky coasts that help them survive wave shock.

Generalize the vertical zonation of a sandy beach.

Identify the factors that contribute to the productivity of estuaries.
 Describe the process of succession in a salt marsh.

Compare a lagoon with an estuary.

Sketch a chart that traces energy flow in a mud flat.

Predict what effect agricultural runoff would have on a neighboring estuary.

Explain how the physical characteristics of the reef environment influence the species of corals that inhabit them.

Describe how a coral colony is formed. Identify the factors that affect the size of plankton populations.

Describe some of the ways that animals living in the open sea hide from predators.

Explain some of the strategies animals use to increase their survival in the open sea.

Evaluate the role bioluminescence play in life in the deep.

Identify food sources available for animals that live on the ocean floor.
TOPIC:

Humans and the Sea
CONTENT STATEMENT:

The impact that humans have had and continue to have on the marine environment including fisheries management and the consequences of overfishing as well as problems associated with the extraction of nonliving products from the seas. How the use of these natural resources has changed over the past century and the effects of this change on the marine environment including marine pollution, global warming, and habitat destruction.

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
CONCEPTS
 Fish and shellfish are renewable resources that must be properly managed to produce a sustainable yield.

The advent of mechanized fleets and better fishing techniques, coupled with natural phenomena, has caused a decrease in the size of commericial fish catches.

Overfishing has brought some fisheries to the
VOCABULARY
 Renewable resource

Tagging

Bycatch

Aquaculture

Fossil fuel

Sustainable yield

Biological magnification
 Eutrophication

Longshore currents brink of collapse.

Techniques such as aquaculture have helped relieve fishing pressure on natural populations, but not without new effects on natural environments.

Large numbers of noncommercial animals are killed as a result of current, mechanized fishing techniques.

The sea is an important source of minerals, including salf and manganese, and the sulfides of valuable metals such as gold and uranium.

Fresh water for drinking and irrigation can be produced from seawater by removing the salt.

The oceans contain energy reserves in the form of fossil fuels and methane hydrate.

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
CONCEPTS

Some pollutants accumulate and magnify in
VOCABULARY (cont’d) food chains, posing serious problems for higher-order consumers.

Plastic trash is deadly to many organisms, especially large marine animals. Dumping wastes into coastal seas decreases their economic and recreational value and creates health hazards.

Pollutants enter coastal seas by way of agricultural and urban runoff, as well as by direct dumping.

Oil spills damage significant amounts of habitat and injure and kill marine life.

Global warming affects marine ecosystems by changing species ranges, decreasing the oxygen carrying capacity of water, and altering rainfall and wind patterns.

Development of coastal areas leads to loss of habitat and diminished numbers of marine life.

Destruction of wetlands results in decreased ocean productivity.

Marine Biology
2011-2012
Science Course of Study
PERFORMANCE SKILLS:

Determine the goal of fisheries management.

Identify the problems associated with overfishing.

Compare potential yield with sustainable yield.

Provide some benefits of aquaculture.

Suggest some ways that commercial fishers could decrease the size of their catch without becoming unemployed or going bankrupt.

Identify activities most damaging to wetland.

List some of the major problems that are associated with the agricultural runoff that enters the ocean.

Describe how an oil spill causes injury to birds and mammals.

Describe how recreational and commercial use of beaches affects beach ecology.