1answer.
Ask question
Login Signup
Ask question
All categories
  • English
  • Mathematics
  • Social Studies
  • Business
  • History
  • Health
  • Geography
  • Biology
  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Computers and Technology
  • Arts
  • World Languages
  • Spanish
  • French
  • German
  • Advanced Placement (AP)
  • SAT
  • Medicine
  • Law
  • Engineering
adoni [48]
3 years ago
11

How do ocean currents affect climate and aquatic life?

Biology
1 answer:
storchak [24]3 years ago
8 0

Currents and Marine Life

Currents are powerful physical forces in the seas. They move water and heat around the globe, and help determine the chemical make-up of the water column. Currents also are a major factor in ocean ecosystems. Two types of current motion, upwelling and downwelling, strongly influence the distribution and abundance of marine life.

Upwelling
Currents play a huge role in marine productivity, through a process called upwelling. Sea life is concentrated in the sunlit waters near the surface, but most organic matter is far below, in deep waters and on the sea floor. When currents upwell, or flow up to the surface from beneath, they sweep vital nutrients back to where they're needed most.

Nowhere is the link between ocean circulation and productivity more evident than around Antarctica. There, strong currents pump nitrogen and phosphate up from the deep sea to fuel vast blooms of algae and other plants. These plankton are eaten by swarms of shrimp-like crustaceans called krill. Because of upwelling nutrients, krill are abundant enough to feed the largest animals on earth, baleen whales, as well as myriad penguins, seals, and seabirds. In fact, despite the harsh conditions, the biomass of Antarctic krill is thought to be greater than that of any other animal on Earth.

Downwelling
The importance of upwelling to surface organisms is matched by the need of sea bottom life for downwelling, or the sinking of surface water. Surface water can be forced downward by the pressure of the “pile” of water that forms where currents converge or wind drives the sea against a coastline. But for bottom dwellers, the sinking of water caused by density changes is especially noteworthy. The global conveyer belt takes oxygen-rich surface water and flushes it through the deep sea. Without this renewal, the dissolved oxygen in bottom sediments and waters would quickly be used up by the decay of organic matter. Anaerobic bacteria would take over decomposition, leading to a build up of hydrogen sulfide. Few benthic animals would survive such toxic conditions.

In the most extreme cases, a lack of downwelling may lead to mass extinctions. Paleontologists have suggested that 250 million years ago, deep circulation slowed nearly to a stop, and the ocean began to stagnate. Low oxygen, sulfide and methane-rich waters filled the ocean deeps and then spread onto the continental shelves, wiping out 95% of all marine species in the greatest extinction event in Earth history.

Instructions: In this activity, you will explore the differences between upwelling and downwelling. Study the graphics and photographs illustrating upwelling and downwelling, then answer the questions about each process. Maps of the world’s major surface and deep currents are included as resources to help you understand where and how upwelling and downwelling occur.

You might be interested in
Mr. Helms was admitted to the hospital with chest pains and shortness of breath. His wife was panicked since her 72-year-old hus
Lynna [10]

Answer:

Explanation:

1- the purpose of blood flow-circulatory system- is to convey  Oxygenated blood, oxygen bonded with haemoglobin in the RBC with Nutrients - and distributed these through the arteries  and capillaries  away from the heart,  to reach the cells and tissues, and transported the wastes of theses cells and tissues , with C02 through the veins back to the heart and the kidney.

2. During diastole,deoxygented blood from the inferior and superior vena cavae entering the R.atrium, passes through the tricuspid valve into the Right Ventricle. Simultaneously, oxygenated blood returning through the pulmonary veins enters the left Atrium,emptied  through the bicuspid valve into the Left.Ventricle.

During systole, the two ventricles contracts. The Right ventricle contracts, the pressure of the blood forces  the tricuspid valve to close,and therefore de -oxygenated blood pushes the pulmonary  valves to open and blood passes through the pulmonary artery to reach the lungs where exchanges of oxygen with carbon dioxide occurs.The blood is now oxygenated and returns to the left atrium via pulmonary veins.

Simultaneously, the left ventricle contracts,the oxygenated blood it contains forced the bicuspid valve to close so that blood is  forced through the aortic valve  to empty into the aorta into  the systemic circulation,branches of the carotid artery supplies the heart from the aorta.

The Whole cycle continues.

8 0
3 years ago
Bony Fish (bass etc.) and marine mammals (like dolphins) evolved some similar adaptations for survival in aquatic environments.
xeze [42]

Answer:

Convergent evolution

Explanation:

Convergent evolution is a type of evolution of similar features and/or structures between organisms that are not phylogenetically related. This type of evolution is known to create analogous structures/organs that exhibit similar or the same functions but were not present in the last common ancestor of these taxa. An example of analogous structures (and therefore also of convergent evolution) are the wings of bats and of insects (e.g., butterflies). Conversely, divergent evolution is a type of evolution where species phylogenetically related, i.e., species that share a common ancestor, evolve and accumulate differences over time.

6 0
3 years ago
Is this coffee white or black ?
levacccp [35]
Black the creamer makes it look white along with the side of the cup that it is in and the lighting and your phones picture could also make it different than it looks
4 0
3 years ago
Read 2 more answers
Which of the following is not a goal of successful environmental partnerships between government, industry, and activists?
snow_tiger [21]
The answer is, (d)<span>d maximizing resource harvesting.</span><span>
</span><span>Maximize resource harvest can create implications in the environment.</span><span> </span><span>It depends on the manner and the number of raw materials which can be extracted during the process. This can disturb the partnership and agreements between the government, industry and the environment. </span><span>
</span>
6 0
3 years ago
Read 2 more answers
Why is gwas used for complex disease studies?
kramer
A GWAS can be performed by actually genotyping as few as 300000 to 1million
4 0
3 years ago
Other questions:
  • Most of a cell’s functions cannot use energy directly from the food we eat. Describe how the energy from food can be transferred
    11·1 answer
  • An alligator looks similar to what other creature?
    15·1 answer
  • What type of relationship do fungi have with plants?
    11·2 answers
  • Whats all the zodiac signs in the world ?
    8·2 answers
  • PLEASE HURRY 80 POINTS Circulatory System
    14·1 answer
  • The most famous fossil called Archaeopteryx is which of the following? a dinosaur a fern a fish a bird
    5·2 answers
  • What is the smallest classification group after order​
    11·2 answers
  • Like a key in a lock, the shape of the _____ must bind with the _____ of the receiving neuron.
    9·1 answer
  • What should i post on insta?
    7·2 answers
  • Is the following statement true or false? the most frequent sign and symptom of a developing pulmonary embolus is tachypnea and
    7·1 answer
Add answer
Login
Not registered? Fast signup
Signup
Login Signup
Ask question!