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Marine Ecology Exam 3

Terms in this set (136)

What are some examples of marine disturbances/pollution?
- Ocean acidification
- Climate change
- Invasive species
- Marine debris
- Shipping/transportation
- Commercial fishing
- Noise pollution
- Oil/gas extraction
- Dredging
- Deep sea mining
- Eutrophication
- Chemicals
Are marine disturbances always negative?
No, example would creating a disturbance to plant seagrass beds
What is a "disturbance"?
Any discrete event in time that disrupts ecosystem, community, or population structure and changes resources, substratum availability, or the physical environment
Why can disturbances be ecologically important?
Can open up resources for opportunistic species
Are small-scale disturbances important?
Yes, Small-scale disturbances may seem insignificant but the additive effects may influence wider-scale community structure.
What is an example of a small scale disturbance?
Soldier crabs change the physical appearance of the beach, which results in decreased meiofauna
What is "recovery"?
The point at which the disturbed biological community is the same as the undisturbed community.
Do major events such as hurricanes happen on a small or large temporal scale?
Large, the larger the event the longer the temporal scale
What is the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis?
Communities that experience fairly frequent but moderate disturbances have the greatest species diversity
What is the reasoning behind the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis?
Moderate disturbances are large enough to create openings for colonizing species in disturbed areas, but mild and infrequent enough to allow the survival of some mature species in undisturbed areas
What is the biodiversity like in an area of low disturbance?
Less diversity, more biomass
What are some methods of quantifying appropriate measures of disturbance?
- Univariate responses
- Distributional techniques
- Multivariate responses
- Long term data sets
What are Univariate responses?
single factors (ex. change in abundance or species richness)
What are Distributional techniques?
Ways of measuring distribution of individuals or biomass
What are Multivariate responses?
community responses that measure responses of more than one species
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