Exam 14: The Benthos: Living on the Sea Floor

Marine algae are found in which sequence from sea surface to deeper water?

Epifauna live on the surface of the marine sediments.

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

Brown algae include

Water must be warmer than ______ to support a reef of corals with zooxanthellae.

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

Blades are the photosynthetic organ of seaweed.

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

There are more kinds of benthic animals than there are pelagic animals.

Which organisms burrow into the deep-ocean muds in a process called bioturbation?

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

Mangrove trees grow in swampy salt water along

The stable conditions of deep benthic environments seem to favor ________________ infaunal organisms.

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

The first trophic level in a hydrothermal vent community is

Macroalgae take advantage of surface/volume ratios by exposing wide, flattened blades to sunlight and nutrient-rich water.

Symbiosis is defined as

A typical kelp forest shows strong vertical zonation from the well-lit surface to the bottom, including (from surface to bottom) the following zones:

Species of epifauna are less abundant than species of infauna.