Marine Science Unit 3 Reef, Habitats and Connectivity

A habitat former is

• Any organism that forms a habitat

• Can be primary, secondary or focal

• Any organism that destroys a habitat

• An organism that must migrate

An ecosystem engineer is best described as....

• Species that can only create a habitat

• Species that can only maintain a habitat

• Species that modify their environment in a significant manner, creating new habitats, maintaining or modifying existing ones to suit their needs.

• None of these

A mathematical way to calculate the health of an ecosystem. When the fraction/decimal is closer to 1 = likely means a healthier ecosystem.

• BIODIVERSITY INDEX

• ABIOTIC FACTOR

• biodiversity

• BIOTIC FACTOR

Corals are referred to as ecosystem

• makers

• niche builders

• bulkers

• engineers

Surface run-off, salinity fluctuations, climate change, cyclic crown-of-thorns outbreaks, overfishing, spills and improper ballast

• All pressures affecting coral reefs

• Have no impact on coral reefs

If water from ship ballasts are released close to shore they

• do no harm

• can release grown non endemic organisms

• can release plankton of non endemic organisms

• can release high nutrient water causing pollution

________________ practices can reduce and improve the quality of run off water

• riparian management practices

• only farm management practices

• climate management practices

• land management practices

Crown of thorns starfish COTS increase due to

• natural cycles

• farm run off

• climate change

• increased nutrient and removal of predators

The roughness of a reefs surface is called

• diversity

• roughness

• rugosity

• niche diversity

Ecosystems with high interconnectivity have

• high resilience

• low diversity

• low resilience

• high biodiversity