Pacing Guide

Marine Biology

2011-2012

Science Course of Study

Course Description

Students in this course will learn to describe interactions of matter and energy throughout the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. Students access knowledge to explain how energy entering the ecosystems, such as sunlight, supports the life of organisms through photosynthesis and the transfer of energy through the interactions of organisms and the environment. Students will explore plate tectonics and how waves (water) transfer energy. Students draw on their previous experience and connect Earth, life, and physical sciences into a coherent study of the environment. Emphasis is placed on the interactions between humans and Earth, ecosystems, populations, and diversity. Students also study the importance of the ocean and marine organisms. The human interactions with science and technology are discussed, as well as how man has modified current ecosystems and natural systems. Students have the opportunity to use basic science processes of inquiry, scientific investigation, and the nature of science to examine past events, current situations, and to develop and revise scientific predictions, ideas or theories.

Prerequisites: The student is either enrolled in biology achieving success in the course (C or higher) or has previously completed the course with success.

Credit: ½

* 3 hours of post secondary credit is possible for the completion of field experience at a tropical field station.

Pacing Guide

Marine Biology

2011-2012

Science Course of Study

TOPIC:

·  The Ocean Environment (2 weeks)

CONTENT STATEMENT:

·  Basic principles of ecology as they apply to marine systems and their importance to the organisms that live in the ocean.

CONCEPTS / VOCABULARY
§  Marine and terrestrial environments are interrelated, interactive, and interdependent.
§  The ocean is an important source of food and other resources for humans.
§  Marine biology is the study of the sea’s diverse inhabitants and their relationships to each other and their environment.
§  The history of marine biology is one of changing perspectives that have shaped the modern science and its applications.
§  Physical factors of the environment, such as sunlight, temperature, salinity, exposure, and pressure, along with biological factors, will influence where marine organisms can live.
§  Marine ecosystems consist of interacting communities and their physical environments. / §  Photosynthesis
§  Autotroph
§  Primary productivity
§  Light-dark-bottle method
§  Heterotrophs
§  Dissolved organic matter (DOM)
§  Detritus
§  Ecological efficiency
§  Pelagic
§  Water column
§  Benthic
§  Neritic
§  Oceanic
§  Photic
§  Aphotic
§  Nekton
§  Intertidal
§  Bathyal
§  Hadal
§  Epifauna
§  Infauna

PERFORMANCE SKILLS:

§  Describe how the focus of marine biology has changed from early times to the present.

§  Identify abiotic and biotic factors that affect the distribution of organisms in an ecosystem.

§  Describe symbiotic relationships found in nature.

§  Explain a detritus-based food chain.

§  Analyze why there are fewer marine organisms in the oceans depths.

Pacing Guide

Marine Biology

2011-2012

Science Course of Study

TOPIC:

·  Geology of the Ocean (2 weeks)

CONTENT STATEMENT:

·  Basic principles of geology as they apply to marine systems including the physical aspects of the marine environment and their importance to the organisms that live in the ocean.

Pacing Guide

Marine Biology

2011-2012

Science Course of Study

CONCEPTS / VOCABULARY
§  The world ocean has four main basins: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Artic.
§  The earth’s crust is composed of moving plates.
§  New seafloor is produced at ocean ridges and old seafloor is removed at ocean trenches.
§  The ocean floor has topographical features similar to those found on continents.
§  The polar nature of water accounts for many of its physical properties.
§  Salts are constantly being added to and removed from the oceans.
§  The exchange of energy between oceans and the atmosphere produces winds that drive ocean currents and weather patterns.
§  The density of seawater is mainly determined by temperature and salinity.
§  Vertical mixing of seawater carries oxygen to the deep and nutrients to the surface.
§  Waves are the result of forces acting on the surface of the water.
§  The gravitational pull of the moon and the sun on the oceans produces tides. / §  Continental drift
§  Ocean basin
§  Sea
§  Midocean ridge
§  Continental shelf
§  Continental slope
§  Continental rise
§  Abyssal plain
§  Seamount
§  Tropic of Cancer
§  Tropic of Capricorn
§  Sextant
§  Oxygen-minimum zone
§  Coriolis Effect
§  Westerlies
§  Easterlies
§  Doldrums
§  Gyre
§  Antarctic Circumpolar Current
§  Gulf Stream
§  Ekman spiral
§  Thermocline
§  Halocline/Pycnocline
§  Upwelling
§  Downwelling
§  Wave refraction
§  Tsunamis
§  Tides (spring, neap, ebb)

Pacing Guide

Marine Biology

2011-2012

Science Course of Study

PERFORMANCE SKILLS:

·  Compare oceans and seas.

·  Describe the evidence that supports the theory of continental drift.

·  Explain the processes responsible for the formation and of the continental shelves.

·  Summarize the role of photosynthesis and respiration play in the distribution of gases in seawater.

·  Describe the factors responsible for the prevailing wind patterns on earth.

·  Indicate the combination of factors that produces tides.

·  Explain how the polar nature of water molecules influences water’s physical characteristics.

·  Analyze how salt from the sea is returned to the land.

·  Contrast upwelling and down welling and explain their biological importance.

·  List different processes that circulate water in the oceans.

TOPIC:

·  Marine Organisms (8 weeks)

CONTENT STATEMENT:

·  Basic biological concepts such as energy transfer in biological systems and biological classification. The major groups of marine organisms and their interrelationships including the basis of feeding relationships, from organisms that produce their own food to those that rely on other organisms for food. Descriptions of animals beginning with invertebrates and working upward through the vertebrae classes to mammals including he role that each group of organisms plays in the overall web of marine life.

Pacing Guide

Marine Biology

2011-2012

Science Course of Study

CONCEPTS / VOCABULARY
§  Natural selection favors the survival and reproduction of those organisms changes over time.
§  A species is a group of physically similar, potentially interbreeding organisms that share a gene pool, and are able to produce viable offspring.
§  The binomial system of nomenclature uses two words, the genus and the species epithet, to identify an organism.
§  Phylogenetic trees and cladograms indicate evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms.
§  Microbial life in the sea is extremely diverse, including members of all three domains of life, as well as viruses.
§  Photosynthetic and chemosynthetic bacteria are important primary producers in marine ecosystems. Heterotrophic bacteria play essential roles in recycling nutrients in the marine environment. / §  Morphology
§  Sexual dimorphism
§  Bionomial nomenclature
§  Taxonomy
§  Alga
§  Chemosynthetic bacteria
§  Marine snow
§  Nitrogen fixation
§  Deep-sea vent
§  Photophores
§  Bioluminescence
§  Chitin
§  Lichens
§  Diatom
§  Diatomaceous sediment/earth
§  Dinoflagellate
§  Zooxanthellae
§  Foraminiferans
§  Radiolarians
§  Frond
§  Stipe
§  Holdfast
§  Turbidity

Pacing Guide

Marine Biology

2011-2012

Science Course of Study

CONCEPTS / VOCABULARY (cont’d)
§  Marine eukaryotic microbes are primary producers, decomposers, and consumers, and some contribute significantly to the accumulation of deep-sea sediments.
§  Populations of several kinds of photosynthetic marine microbes may form harmful blooms that affect other marine and maritime organisms directly and indirectly.
§  Multicellular marine macroalgae are divided into three major groups according to their photosynthetic pigments.
§  Seagrasses are important primary producers and sources of detritus, and they provide habitat for many animal species.
§  Salt marsh plants and mangroves stabilize bottom sediments, filter runoff from the land, provide detritus, and provide habitat for animals.
§  Sponges are asymmetric, sessile animals that filter food from the water and provide habitat for other animals.
§  Cnidarians and ctenophores exhibit radial symmetry and highly specialized stinging cells to capture prey and for protection.
§  Most marine animals exhibit bilateral symmetry.
§  Molluscs have soft bodies that are usually covered by a shell. / §  Salt marsh
§  Salt glands
§  Mangrove
§  Prop roots
§  Pneumatophores
§  Propagule
§  Invertebrate
§  Vertebrate
§  Sessile
§  Ostia
§  Osculum
§  Choanocytes
§  Spicules
§  Spongin
§  Filter feeder
§  Hermaphrodite
§  Cnidaria
§  Cnidocyte
§  Radial symmetry
§  Polyp
§  Medusa
§  Gastrovascular cavity
§  Mesoglea
§  Nematocyst
§  Hydrozoan
§  Scyphozoan
§  Anthozoan

Pacing Guide

Marine Biology

2011-2012

Science Course of Study

CONCEPTS / VOCABULARY (cont’d)
§  Polychaete diversity stems from the evolution of a segmented body that increased motility.
§  Arthropods have external skeletons, jointed appendages, and sophisticated sense organs.
§  Echinoderms exhibit radial symmetry and have a unique water vascular system that function in locomotion, food gathering, and circulation.
§  Fish consist of jawless, cartilaginous, and ray-finned fish composed primarily of bone.
§  Shape of a fish’s body is primarily determined by the characteristics of its environment.
§  Color in fishes function in camouflage, species recognition, and communication.
§  Sharks maintain neutral buoyancy by storing oily material in their liver, ray-finned fish use a swim bladder.
§  Fish have a lateral line system to detect water movement.
§  Sea turtles have streamlined bodies and appendages modified into flippers.
§  Sea turtles mate at sea and lay eggs on the same beaches where the females hatched. / §  Ctenophore
§  Bilateral symmetry
§  Mollusca
§  Annelid
§  Setae
§  Polychaete Incurrent/Excurrent Siphon
§  Cephalopod
§  Chromatophore
§  Gastropod
§  Operculum
§  Adductor muscle Mantle
§  Radula
§  Prismatic layer
§  Chiton
§  Arthropod
§  Exoskeleton
§  Molting
§  Cephalothorax
§  Carapace
§  Abdomen
§  Telson
§  Mandible
§  Crustacea
§  Swimmerets
§  Chelipeds
§  Cirripeds
§  Ectoparasite
§  Endoskeleton
§  Ossicles
§  Pedicellariae
§  Water vascular system
§  Madreportie
§  Ampulla

Pacing Guide

Marine Biology

2011-2012

Science Course of Study

CONCEPTS / VOCABULARY (cont’d)
§  The marine iguana of the Galapagos Islands is the only marine lizard.
§  A variety of bird species, including gulls, pelicans, and tubenoses are adapted to feeding on marine organisms.
§  Penguins are the birds most adapted to life in the sea.
§  Many marine reptiles and birds are endangered by human activities.
§  Mammals have a body covering of hair, maintain a constant warm body temperature, and nourish their young with milk produced by the mammary glands of the mother.
§  Pinnipeds have limbs modified to form flippers and are better adapted to life at sea than to life on land.
§  Cetaceans have a fishlike body shape and are the mammals most suited to life in the sea.
§  Special physiological adaptations allow some marine mammals to dive to great depths and to remain submerged for long periods.
§  Some cetaceans use echolocation to navigate, find prey, and avoid predators.
§  Baleen whales have plates of baleen instead of teeth and feed primarily on plankton, such as krill. / §  Echinoderm
§  Regeneration
§  Echinoidea
§  Agnatha
§  Catilaginous
§  Placoid scales
§  Spiracles
§  Mermaid’s purse
§  Pectoral, dorsal, caudal, pelvic and anal fin
§  Test
§  Aristotle’s Lantern
§  Chordate
§  Notochord
§  Fusiform
§  Laterally compressed
§  Disruptive coloration
§  Cryptic coloration
§  Gill filaments
§  Osmoregulation
§  Swim Bladder
§  Lateral line
§  Ampullae of Lorenzini
§  Reptile
§  Carapace
§  Plastron
§  Pinniped
§  Cetacean
§  Blubber
§  Spy hopping
§  Breaching
§  Head lunge
§  Tail lobbing
§  Peduncle
§  Fluke
§  Pec slap
§  Baleen
§  Spermaceti
§  Echolocation
§  Melon

Pacing Guide

Marine Biology

2011-2012

Science Course of Study

PERFORMANCE SKILLS:

§  Explain how the cells of diatoms and dinoflagellates differ.

§  Identify what factors affect the distribution of alga in the marine environment.

§  Describe the adaptations that have evolved in salt marsh plants or mangroves to help them survive in areas where the salt content is high.

§  Indicate what characteristics of salt marshes make them such ideal nurseries.

§  Predict the effects of coastal zone development on seagrass and mangrove communities.

§  Evaluate how a sponge’s body structure affect its size.

§  Describe the advantages of bilateral symmetry and why radial symmetry is advantageous to sessile organisms.

§  Explain how the cnidarian stinging cell functions.

§  Construct a food web that includes meiofauna, marine worms, and larger predators such as fish.

§  Explain how symbiotic relationships can allow marine animals to live in habitats where they normally could not survive.

§  Identify commercially important crustaceans.

§  Explain how the radula is modified in gastropods for different types of feeding.

§  Describe how a sea star uses its water vascular system to move.

§  Determine the important ecological contribution burrowing organisms make to the environment.

§  Compare two adaptations that help prevent fish from sinking because of their relatively high density.

§  Explain what is meant by disruptive coloration.

§  Distinguish how the characteristics of the environment influence the shape of a fish’s body.

§  Show how marine turtles are adapted to life in the sea.

§  Hypothesize what human activites are contributing to the decline in sea turtle populations.

§  Explain how the arrangement of blood vessels in the flippers and tail flukes of cetaceans helps them to retain body heat.

§  Describe how toothed whales use echolocation to navigate.

§  Summarize the effects of whaling over the past several centuries on cetacean populations.

TOPIC:

·  Marine Ecosystems (6 weeks)

CONTENT STATEMENT:

·  How the interactions of the physical and biological environment influence the number and kinds of marine organisms that inhabit a given area.

Pacing Guide

Marine Biology