Exam 14: The Benthos: Living on the Sea Floor

The holdfast that attaches seaweed to rocks or shells is a root.

An individual coral animal is known as a(n) ________.

Animals that live on bits and pieces of organic material washed in from the sea or off the land are called ________.

Bacteria are not a major source of protein for infaunal organisms.

Large benthic algae (seaweeds) have holdfasts that absorb nutrients in the same way roots absorb nutrients for land plants.

Epifauna live on the surface of the marine sediments.

Where benthic, burrowing detritus feeders are found in great numbers, the sediments are likely to have a high-organic content.

Species of epifauna are less abundant than species of infauna.

Large algae (seaweeds) growing attached to the bottom create a specialized environment for other marine organisms.

Benthos can be all of the following except ________.

Coral reefs are formed by ________.

Cold seeps and salt seeps have no associated animal communities.

The benthic zone is considered the seafloor while the pelagic zone is the seawater.

The disruption of sediment by feeding and burrowing organisms is called ________.

The key special chemical used by chemosynthetic communities at salt seeps is ________.

Chemosynthetic communities are found associated with ________.

Numbers of organisms and diversity of species decrease as depth increases.

The green seaweeds are the largest of the marine algae; they are also known as kelps.

Coral bleaching is produced by the invasion of crown of thorns starfish (Acanthaster).

In the Riftia-symbiont relationship, the benefit to the host during mutualism includes ________.