Exam 23: Major Microbial Habitats and Diversity

Anaerobic microbes can thrive just millimeters below the air- soil interface.

Due to nutrient limitation in open ocean waters, certain regions are essentially devoid of microbial life.

Sudden nutrient perturbations in an environment generally________ the overall prokaryotic diversity.

Assuming exposure to the same climate, which of the following aquatic systems would be MOST stratified?

Due to microbial heterotrophic activity, even well mixed aquatic systems can have depleted oxygen content when high organic inputs occur.

Which metric describes the total number of species present in a community?

The most abundant prokaryotic organism in the ocean is of the________ genus.

The activity of primary producers in open marine environments is limited by inorganic nutrient levels, particularly the levels of ________,________ , and ________.

Which are the MOST dominant chemolithotrophs in pelagic waters?

Describe four environmental conditions that would likely change the relative abundances of the members within a microbial community.

The primary metal sulfides emitted from the black smokers are________ sulfides.

Due to such an array of nutrients, microorganisms are often capable of sustaining exponential growth in the environment.

Describe two roles viruses have in the open ocean.

Limiting nutrients in soils are generally organic compounds.

The chemical oxygen demand (COD) of a body of water is determined using a(n)

Sedimentation in bogs and marshes develop _ ________soils.

Archaea and Bacteria dominate the upper 100 m of the open ocean while viruses dominate depths greater than 100 m.

The microbial oxygen- consuming capacity of a water sample is called its________ .

Microenvironments of soil exist where________ concentrations greatly vary.

Ecological theory states that for every organism there is at least one _________, and the microenvironment where the organism is most successful is called the________ .