Deck 14: Plankton, Algae, and Plants

Question 1

What is a microecosystem?

A) A community engaging in a microbial loop
B) A community producing more than its consuming
C) A community used for planktonic breeding
D) A community operating on the smallest scale

Answer 1

D
There is the manufacturing and consumption of particles and dissolved oxygen occurring on a large scale. They often involve bacteria and plankton in a microbial loop. Information can be found in the section Phytoplankton are Autotrophs.

Question 2

What is usually responsible for a harmful algal bloom?

A) Diatoms
B) Viruses
C) Cyanobactiera
D) Dinoflagellates

Answer 2

D
A harmful algal bloom happens when high concentrations of phytoplankton begin to affect nearby organisms in a negative way. Dinoflagellates are usually the culprits. Some make toxins within their cells as a by-product of metabolism. This affects marine life through the natural consumption in food webs. Information can be found in the section Most Phytoplankton are Photosynthetic Autotrophs.

Question 3

What is the smallest form of plankton?

A) Microplankton
B) Nanoplankton
C) Femtoplankton
D) Picoplankton

Answer 3

C
Femoplankton is the smallest plankton at 0.02 to 0.2 micrometers. It includes most viruses. Information can be found in the section Phytoplankton are Autotrophs.

Question 4

What is the most productive photosynthetic plankton apart from Cyanobacteria?

A) Dinoflagellates
B) Coccolithophores
C) Diatoms
D) Ciliates

Question 5

A highly biological productive ocean surface appears chalky; what plankton is likely successful here?

A) Diatoms
B) Dinoflagellates
C) Coccolithophores
D) Isopods

Question 6

Why are phytoplankton critical for marine life?

A) They are large contribution to marine food webs
B) They generate massive amounts of atmospheric oxygen
C) They are able to bind billions of tons of carbon into carbohydrates
D) All of these choices

Question 7

What is plankton?

A) Any photosynthetic organism
B) An internal organism
C) A drifting organism
D) Microscopic organism

Question 8

What allows diatoms to expand in size during reproduction?

A) Frustule
B) Flagellate
C) Pennate
D) Auxospore

Question 9

What is included in a quantitative analysis of plankton?

A) An estimation of plankton in a volume of water
B) An estimation of salt concentration in the water
C) The behavior of plankton
D) The amount of sunlight used by plankton

Question 10

What photosynthetic organism is found in the tissues of coral?

A) Dinoflagellates
B) Diatoms
C) Coccolithophores
D) Cyanobacteria

Question 11

Which plankton are considered microplankton?

A) Silicoflagellates
B) Dinoflagellates
C) Coccolithophores
D) Cyanobacteria

Question 12

What do researchers use to directly measure the rate of productivity?

A) Carbon-12
B) Biomass
C) Carbon-14
D) Chloroplasts

Question 13

What is essential in the restoration and continuation of photosynthetic productivity in the ocean?

A) Upwelling
B) Blooming
C) Light
D) Carbon dioxide

Question 14

What new method is being used to calculate productivity by estimating the chlorophyll?

A) Biomass
B) Orbiting satellites
C) Radioactive tagging
D) Light-dark reactions

Question 15

What research vessel carried out the first large-scale plankton study?

A) Meteor
B) HMS Challenger
C) HMS Beagle
D) HMS Discovery

Question 16

What planktonic group accounts for 80% of all photosynthesis in the tropics?

A) Picoplankton
B) Nanoplankton
C) Microplankton
D) Mesoplankton

Question 17

What is required to study very small plankton?

A) Plankton net
B) Specialized light intensity
C) Filtration
D) Cyanobacteria

Question 18

What makes light absorption in diatoms more effective than just using chlorophyll?

A) Surface-to-volume
B) Microbial loop
C) Frustule perforations
D) Accessory pigments

Question 19

What connects plankton in categories?

A) Evolutionary history
B) Ecology
C) Morphology
D) Consumption methods

Question 20

What is a frustule?

A) The by-product of photosynthesis in diatoms
B) The rigid cell wall of a diatom
C) A microscopic phage that attacks diatoms
D) A small appendage on a cyanobacteria

Question 21

Approximately 55% of the sunlight energy absorbed by diatoms is converted into energy for carbohydrate chemical bonds.

Question 22

Most phytoplankton stay near the surface to absorb red light.

Question 23

Plankton are categorized by their visibility or the means in which they are collected.

Question 24

There are plankton in every major group of animals.

Question 25

What changes the compensation depth?

A) Salinity
B) Temperature
C) Density
D) turbidity

Question 26

After a plankton bloom, nonconservative nutrients are produced in high levels.

Question 27

What is true of compensation depth?

A) It is the depth at which carbohydrate and oxygen production equals the amount of consumption
B) It marks the bottom of the euphotic zone
C) It receives only 1% of surface light penetration
D) All of these choices

Question 28

What season does phytoplankton peak in the northern temperate zone?

A) Spring
B) Summer
C) Autumn
D) Winter

Question 29

What is the most abundant larger zooplankton?

A) Ctenophores
B) Molluscs
C) Copepods
D) Rhodophytes

Question 30

Measuring biomass is not efficient in calculating primary productivity because dense areas can have lower productivity.

Question 31

Picoplankton number 100 million individuals in a liter of seawater at all depths in the ocean.

Question 32

Coccolithophores are able to utilize more frequencies of light so they can be deeper in the euphotic zone and need less light.

Question 33

What is created due to the decomposition of falling biological debris and zooplankton activity?

A) Bioluminescence
B) Oxygen minimum zone
C) Compensation depth
D) Disphotic zone

Question 34

Where is phytoplankton the most productive?

A) Tropical latitudes
B) Temperate latitudes
C) North polar latitudes
D) Equator

Question 35

What can hinder photosynthetic productivity in the open ocean?

A) Light
B) Carbon dioxide
C) Iron
D) Conservative nutrients

Question 36

Why is photosynthesis inhibited at the very top layer of the ocean surface?

A) The salinity is too low
B) There is too much light
C) There are pollutants in the water
D) There are too many plankton in the water

Question 37

What Zooplankton is considered a keystone species?

A) Ctenophores
B) Meroplankton
C) Pteropods
D) Krill

Question 38

What kind of plankton remains planktonic for its entire life?

A) Holoplankton
B) Meroplankton
C) Mesoplankton
D) Zooplankton

Question 39

Consumption in phytoplankton usually exceeds carbohydrate production which is why we end up with oxygen.

Question 40

The addition of iron into ocean waters could drastically change the climate by allowing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to be bound into carbohydrates via photosynthesis.

Question 41

A vertical migration of plankton is responsible for mixing nutrient-rich deep water with the nutrient-poor surface water.

Question 42

Dinoflagellates have a deeper compensation depth than diatoms.

Question 43

Why are phytoplankton vital for life on Earth to thrive? How many categories of phytoplankton are there?

Question 44

Seaweed derived materials are found in a large variety of commercial materials including adhesives, salad dressing, and ice cream.

Question 45

What are the disadvantages of using biomass as a means to calculate primary productivity? What are some other means used to measure this productivity?

Question 46

Seaweeds are not a type of plant.

Question 47

Compare and contrast two of the three phytoplankton discussed at length in this chapter (Diatoms, Dinoflagellates, and Coccolithophores).

Question 48

What are seaweeds? What are the classifications of seaweeds?

Question 49

Describe a microecosystem. How do plankton species interact in these microecosystems?

Question 50

Nearshore productivity is almost always more productive than open ocean productivity.