Marine Survival

I know that some animals like Manatees eat marine plants, and that larvae of some smaller marine animals use them for shelter and protection, but can anyone think of any other specific examples on how they help the survival of marine animals?

Food, oxygen production and nursery habitat are all good answers, but here's another couple.

Rooted marine plants (e.g. seagrass) can affect the erodability of substrate, which can be important in maintaining the stability of an environment which is subject to strong water movements (tidal flows, waves, etc.).

Also, some algae (i.e. single celled plants) are very important symbionts for corals and sponges, providing not only oxygen but also sugars and amino acids, and toxins for chemical defence against predation/grazing.

2007-01-06 08:29:22 by TeganMc

Students at the BCIT Marine Campus - j.mp - in North Vancouver learn how to deploy a marine escape craft. Safety first! BCIT Marine Campus (BMC ...

I'm not a very good swimmer but i hear that level 2 is required. Please correct me if i'm wrong. I have work to do.

You only have to pass the first one, level 4. Some MOS's do have higher requirements for swim qual, but 1371 is not one of them. You should, however, be pushing yourself to do better than that. Good luck

2009-05-05 21:38:56 by Smart One

Price: $14.95

fish (and i would imagine pretty much all other marine organisms) have special physiological mechanisms to help them maintain a non-toxic salinity balance since they are constantly emerged in salt water. how much do you know about osmosis? if you have an area of greater solutes (with less water) and an area across a membrane with less solutes (and more water), the water will "try" to equalize the balance by diffusing over the membrane into the area with more solutes and less water. eventually, enough water will move over the membrane to make the level of water and solutes equal. now imagine this happening to marine organisms... they are less salty (have more water) than the water around them, which means they would constantly be fighting dehydration as they lost water to the environment to equalize the osmotic balance between themselves and the surrounding water (does that make sense?). thus, they have special adaptations that help them to retain more solutes (things like urea and other salts) in their bodies in safe ways that don't pose toxicity hazards and thus keep them balanced. if i remember fight from an ichthyology class, some of these measures include constantly drinking salt water and then excreting the excess salt out in urine. other fishes have evolved other ways to cope, though, including having a body salt concentration that is the same as the ocean. hagfish employ this tactic. for more information, do a search on "osmoregulation," which will likely lead you to discussion of terms like hyperosmotic, hypoosmotic, osmoconformity, etc. it is fairly complicated, but with a bit of chemistry and biology, it makes sense.

lol. i just had to do it.

2007-03-22 13:11:26 by Blessed

Price: $0.99

What are the differences in capabilities necessary for survival of marine organisms (larger than plankton) in the pelagic zone versus the benthic zone.?

Question number one of four.

2006-12-15 18:12:58 by myyahoo!

Subject: Oceanography

isnt that part of biology, rather than a social science......?

2006-10-15 16:34:31 by ROSALYN W