marine science
Please answer only four (4) of the questions below as completely as possible. Answers to the questions can be found in Introduction to Ocean Science 4th Edition, by Douglas Segar as the questions come from the Critical Thinking Questions in the text. 25 points each.
I expect that to answer each question completely, your answer should be between 100 and 200 words in length, but the choice is yours. A few words is not likely to provide a sufficient explanation.
1. You are sailing across the water into an almost regular swell that comes from directly ahead of you. Suddenly you notice that the same swell now appears to be coming at you from two slightly different directions at a small angle from each side of the boat’s bow and the wave pattern ahead looks confused compared to the smooth swell you were sailing on a few minutes before. What are you seeing, and why? Should you be concerned? Chapter 9
2. In the Hawaiian Islands the youngest island, Hawaii, is the biggest, has sandy beaches along the smallest fraction of its coastline, and has more black sand beaches than the other islands. Oahu, which is older than Hawaii, is smaller, has a greater fraction of its coastline occupied by beaches, and does not have black sand beaches. Kauai, which is older than both Oahu and Hawaii, is smaller than either of these other islands, has the largest fraction of its coastline occupied by beaches, and also does not have black sand beaches. Explain why this progression of island characteristics with age occurs. (These processes are described individually in several differ¬ent chapters of this text.) Chapter 11
3. If you measured the dissolved oxygen concentration carefully in the photic zone during a spring bloom of phytoplankton, describe how you would expect it to change over 24 h and why. Would the changes in concentration during the 24 h be different at different depths within the photic zone? If so, describe how and why. Hint: First list and explain the important factors that control diurnal variations and then explain the result of these processes. Chapter 12
4. Is it likely that a global climate change in which the Earth’s atmosphere warms by several degrees will alter the frequency or intensity of dinoflagellate blooms? Why? Is it likely that the frequency and geographic extent of periodic anoxia in coastal waters will change? If so, how and why? Chapter 13
5. The temperature and salinity of the abyssopelagic environ¬ment vary little with latitude or from ocean to ocean. This environment is also uniformly dark and the pressure uniform¬ly high. Does this mean that, if we were able to sample every species in a cubic kilometer of deep-ocean water, we could be certain that we had sampled a large majority of all abyssope-lagic species that exist in the oceans? Why or why not? Chapter 15
6. Coral reefs and kelp forests both have high species diversity compared to some other ocean ecosystems. What are the pos¬sible reasons for this high diversity? Chapter 15
7. Describe the principal sources of petroleum contamination in the oceans. Discuss what would probably cause more pollu¬tion of the oceans: production of oil from drilling platforms in U.S. coastal waters and transport of the oil ashore in sea¬floor pipelines, or purchase of oil from foreign suppliers and transport to the United States in oil tankers. Chapter 16
