ATOC 184 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Benthic Zone, Pelagic Zone, Photic Zone
9 Jul 2018
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Document Summary
Evolution: the maintenance of life under constantly changing conditions by continuous adaptation of successive generations of a specie to its environment. Natural selection: a mechanism of evolution that results in the continuation of only those forms of life best adapted to survive in the environment. Evolutionary theory contains important implications for marine science. The ocean has a much larger inhabitable volume than dry land, often easier to live there. Organisms are distributed through the environment in communities of interacting producers, consumers, and recyclers that share a common living space. Community: the population of all species that occupy a particular habitat. Habitat: the place where a population lives. Niche: description of an organism"s functional role. The location and composition of a community depends on the physical and biological characteristics of the living space. Open water is called the pelagic zone and is divided into: Neritic zone: near shore over the continental shelf.
