Directions: For this assignment, you are required to answer the following questions. The answers are short and essay-based with each answer having a minimum of 200 words.
1. What are coral reefs made of?
2. Characterize cnidarians.
3. Differentiate between hermatypic and ahermatypic coral.
4. How do coral colonies form?
5. How do zooxanthellae benefit coral?
6. Characterize the two main components of the epipelagic.
7. Why are phytoplankton so important?
8. Discuss the importance of zooplankton.
9. Differentiate between holoplankton and meroplankton.
10. What is the general rule in the epipelagic food chain?
11. What is the main thermocline?
12. What are photophores?
13. How is having an extendible jaw an adaptation for feeding in the mesopelagic?
14. Summarize the differences between vertically migrating fishes and those that do not vertically migrate.
15. Describe and explain how two organisms living in an estuary cope with salinity fluctuations ranging from highly saline to freshwater.
16. Compare and contrast the morphological adaptations for three different organisms that live in mud flats, salt marshes, and mangrove forests. Focus on salinity, oxygen, sunlight, and detritus as contributing factors.
17. Compare and contrast the soft-bottom sub tidal and unvegetated soft-bottom communities and how primary production plays a role in each community and how it affects the inhabitants. Focus on how the organisms in each community feed, what their mechanisms of feeding are, and how it can be related to primary production, or lack thereof.
18. Compare and contrast the rocky bottom subtidal and soft-bottom subtital communities and how the substrate plays a role in the type of organism that inhabits the area.
19. Describe and explain kelp communities with highlighting the physical structure and how these organism play an important role in the community as well as globally.