SCI 209 Oceanography

SCI 209 OceanographySCI 209 Week 1 Individual Assignment NOAA Activity Part One
Ocean ExplorationNavigate to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) site at http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/Select Explore from the menu, then
select Ocean Exploration listed below Oceans. Choose an explorative
mission that took place at a marine sanctuary or an ecological preserve. This
is the specific web site to use as a launching point for further research.
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/topics/oceans/oceanex/Review the chosen exploration and
create a 10- to 12-slide PowerPoint® presentation with following items.
Online Campus students must submit a 10- to 12-slide
PowerPoint® presentation with presenter notes. Be sure to include the
following in your presentation.List the basic categories of Earth’s
chemical composition and physical properties, with an emphasis on how these
factors relate to the ocean.Describe at least one of the early
research theories about the origins of life on Earth.List the modern tools of research
used in your chosen ocean exploration.List the goals and objectives of the
mission and how it relates to the National Ocean Service’s overarching mission.List the areas to be explored by the
mission.What challenges did the team
encounter?Explain how the data was collected
and what modern technologies were used.Explain whether the explorative
mission was it successful in its findings.How can the information gathered
from the mission benefit the field of oceanography?The oceans cover about 71% of the
Earth’s surface. They are the most important natural resource that we have. All
life on Earth depends on our oceans. The climate is driven partly by the
circulation of the ocean’s currents. The plants in the ocean produce a great
deal of the oxygen that we breathe. There are countless food sources and
products which come out of the ocean. The oceans also play a role in the
transportation of our goods. For all of these reasons, they should be protected
from pollution, overharvesting and human caused disasters.The layers of the Earth can be
classified in two different ways, by chemical composition and physical
properties. Name the three layers of Earth based on chemical composition and
the five layers of Earth based on physical properties. Why does the chemical
composition model have three layers and the physical property model have five
layers? Here is an excellent resource to use as a starting point for your
research. Use this in addition to your text. Click Next to go through the
presentation.Oregon State. (n.d.). The Earth’s
Layers. Retrieved May 20, 2012
fromhttp://volcano.oregonstate.edu/vwdocs/vwlessons/lessons/Earths_layers/Earths_layers1.htmlSCI 209 Week 2 Individual Assignment The Creation of the
Ocean Floor PaperPrepare a 700- to 1,050-word paper
describing the basic theories associated with the creation of the ocean floor. Include
the following in your paper:Identify three different plate
boundaries and list the outstanding features of each boundary.List one natural event that occurs
as a direct result of plate boundary interactions.Compare and contrast ideas behind
plate tectonics and the theory of continental drift. Does one idea seem more
plausible than the other? If so, why? Base your findings on the natural event
you identified earlier in the paper.The Earth’s magnetic field creates
invisible lines of force. Throughout time, the polarity of the Earth has
changed. We know this by the orientation of magnetic crystals in rocks. They
are a record of what happened because as they were formed from volcanoes, the
crystals oriented themselves according to the magnetic field on the Earth at
the time. Not only does magnetism tell us about the Earth’s history, it is also
used by animals presently as a way to navigate the oceans.· Briefly
describe the current theories regarding marine animals using the Earth’s
magnetic field for navigation and list at least one animal that theoretically
uses this method. Do you feel the theories regarding marine animals’ use of the
Earth’s magnetic field for navigation are accurate? Why do you feel this way?
How could this ability benefit humans?Define lithogeneous, biogenous,
hydrogenous, and cosmogenous sediments. Why do you think it is important to be
able to differentiate between these?SCI 209 Week 3 Individual Assignment Seawater PaperPrepare a 700- to 1,050-word paper
in which you describe the chemical properties of water, specifically seawater.Research and choose two different
methods that are currently being used to convert seawater to drinkable water.
Include the following in your paper:Describe the chemical and physical
properties of seawater.Describe two different methods used
to convert seawater into drinkable water.List a county or region in which
this method of conversion is currently in use.
Identify the benefits and potential hazards of converting seawater to drinkable
water.SCI 209 Week 3 Learning Team Assignment NOAA Activity
Part Two Marine PollutionCollaborate: As a team, review each
team member’s Week One NOAA Activity Part One: Ocean Exploration mission and
findings.Select one team member’s mission
that specifically relates to issues from marine pollution to use as the
foundation for this assignment.Select an environmental agency that
could directly benefit from the research conducted in the mission.Create a 10- to 12-slide
PowerPoint® presentation that includes the following items. Online Campus
students must submit a 10- to 12-slide PowerPoint® presentation with
presenter notes. Be sure to include the following in your presentation.A brief description of the chosen
environmental group and their mission statementA brief description of the type of
marine pollution addressed in the missionWhich region the pollution is
prevalentHow the pollution is affecting the
surrounding ecosystemWhat measures can be taken to avoid
this type of pollution in the futureHow the findings from the mission
can aid the environmental group in reducing reoccurring occurrences of this
form of pollutionInclude any references as neededWhat happens to the plastic that we
throw away? I know for sure that it does not all end up in landfills. Some of
it ends up in our oceans. I know that there is a great deal of trash floating
out there in our oceans because I saw it. When I was on Midway Atoll, an
isolated island on the northwest Hawaiian archipelago, I saw thousands of
pounds of plastic trash and netting washed up on the shores. I also saw that
the birds had eaten it as they were trying to fish.What are four natural processes of
decreasing seawater salinity and two natural processes of increasing seawater
salinity? Describe the process. More information on this topic can be found in
Chapter 4 of your text.SCI 209 Week 4 Individual Assignment Natural Ocean Disasters
PaperPrepare a 700- to 1,050-word paper
in which you explain the relationship between the ocean and the shoreline.
Select and describe a naturally occurring ocean disaster that results from the
relationship between weather and climate. Include the following in your paper:A minimum of one reference is
required.
What caused the natural event?
Would the effects of this event be any different if it occurred at a high or
low tide? If so how?
How does this event change the wave action of the ocean?
Which ocean currents (deep and surface) pass near or through the disaster
impact area?
Is the disaster affected by surface or deep ocean currents? If so, how?SCI 209 Week 4 Learning Team Assignment OutlineBegin working on the final Week Five
assignment, NOAA Activity Final Section: Marine Adaptations.Create an outline of your
presentation topics. This may be completed in Microsoft Word or in the Outline
view inside of PowerPoint.Waves which are mainly caused by
wind travel in little circles or orbs. Waves decrease in velocity as they enter
the shore. The top of the wave is called a crest and the bottom is called a
trough. The wave crest which will break as it enters the shore. You will view
that in this week’s animation. Surface waves should not be confused with
Tsunamis or tidal waves. Those are caused by the energy of Earthquakes or other
natural disasters. They are massive amounts of water moving out in every direction.Watch the animation, Ocean
Circulation, located in your Week Four area of your Materials section. What is
the pattern of circulation in the four major ocean basins? What are the main
surface circulation patterns in one of the following oceans: Antarctic,
Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific? To which ocean are you closest? How do these
patterns affect your area? This web site is a good starting point for your
research into this topic.SCI 209 Week 5 Individual Assignment The Flow of EnergyCreate a diagram, chart, or
illustration in which you depict the flow of energy in marine ecosystems. You
may use either a web format in which food chains are included or a biomass
pyramid format. The assignment should include the following:Title Page
Diagram, chart, or illustration of a web format or biomass pyramid
Description of primary productivity
Description of a method used to measure the amount of primary productivity
Description of how primary productivity affects the color of the ocean
List of the factors that cause regional primary productivity to vary among
polar, tropical, and temperate oceansDescription of how the selected web
or biomass is affected by overfishingSCI 209 Week 5 Learning Team Assignment NOAA Activity
Final Section Marine AdaptationsReview the Week Three team
assignment, NOAA Activity Part Two: Marine Pollution. Please use the same ocean
explorative mission you used in the Week Three assignment.Prepare 20-25 slides (please add the
10-12 slides from the Week Three assignment to this
PowerPoint® presentation to reach the 20-25 slide requirement).Include the following information
and address the following questions in your final presentation:Include detailed presenter notes.What life exists in your chosen
region? List the top 10 prevalent marine organisms from your chosen region.Select a marine organism from the
region and discuss its adaptation to the environment due to natural
circumstances or pollution.Discuss its relationship to the
other organisms that live in the same food chain.Include future adaptationsSelect the same animal as you did
earlier in this assignment or another animal from the same region and
hypothesize how it may need to adapt in the future due to natural circumstances
or pollution.How do the currents and tides affect
your selected animal?What are the geological features of
the selected region where your organism dwells?There are several properties unique
to water. Viscosity is the internal resistance to flow. As discussed in Chapter
12 (Trujilo and Thurman, 2008), viscosity changes as temperature and salinity
change. Organisms must have extensions or other appendages in order to stay
afloat. This is even more important when viscosity is lower in warmer waters.
Another adaptation to overcome velocity is streamlining. This is when organisms
have a smaller front and tapered back section to move more freely through
water. An example of this is the dolphin. Another properly of water is
transparency. It’s what allows sunlight to penetrate very deep. This is especially
true in the tropics where the water is more nutrient poor. The fewer dissolved
nutrients in the water, the deeper light can penetrate. This presents a problem
for the organisms which live in sunlit waters. They have to avoid being eaten
by predators and want to be able to stalk their prey without being detected. In
this discussion, you will describe ways in which they do that. Be sure to
review Chapter 12 and Chapter 14 prior to discussing these adaptations.Option 1Water has a high transparency. What
are at least two methods organisms use to hide from predators in the
transparent ocean environment?Option 2In the benthic environment, there
are so many different kinds of habitats including rocks, sand, coral reefs, sea
grass beds, mud flats, etc. What are at least two methods organisms use to hide
from predators in the benthic environment? Provide one example of specific
organism’s hiding mechanism.
What is primary productivity? How is
it measured? What are some things that may affect primary productivity? The
interesting aspect of this discussion will be to look at thermal images of
productivity in the oceans. I am including a couple of links as starting points
for your research. When visiting the first web site, go to the Net Primary
Productivity section. There you can download and watch animations which will
show you how the productivity changes throughout the seasons.