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1.      Why is it difficult to assign biogeochemical functional roles based on the rRNA gene?

a.      Horizontal gene transfer of other genes

b.      The rRNA gene diverges too fast

c.       The rRNA gene is lost from some taxa

d.      All of the above

1.      Several Prochlorococcus ecotypes have been described, the underlying factor was:

a.      Differently photoacclimated

b.      Growing in different oceans

c.       Differently photoadapted

d.      Mutually exclusive

1.      What are orthologs?

a.      Genes that are found in different species and arose through duplication

b.      Genes that are found in two copies in the same genome

c.       All of the above

d.      Genes that are found in different species but evolved from the same common ancestral gene

1.      Name the correct and essential mutualistic interactions of the coral symbiosis (more than one answer possible)

a.      Provisions of sugar to the host

b.      Provisions of micronutrients to the symbiont

c.       Provision of ATP to the host

d.      Limitation of symbiont growth rates via nitrogen limitation

e.      Boosting the host calvin cycle

f.        Limitation of host metabolic rates by sulfur assimilation

1.      Which of the following constellations are described by the term “associational defense”

a.      An organism is defended against associated biological enemies

b.      An organism is associated with other organisms that have mutual biological enemies

c.       A first organism is associated with other organisms that can reduce pressure by biological enemies on the first organism

d.      A first organism is associated with a second organism that provides both organisms with protection against mutual biological enemies

e.      A first organism is associated with a second organism and provides it with protection against biological enemies

1.      Which statements on genomics are true?

a.      Next-generation sequencing now provides an equivalent of 2000 human genomes per analyses per day

b.      Most next-generation sequencing now produce DNA reads of 1000 base pairs or longer, facilitating the assembly of entire chromosomes

c.       Moore’s law cannot keep pace with the DNA sequencing throughput since about 2005

d.      During the assembly process, scaffolds are joined together using the contigs

1.      Which statements on genetic markers are true?

a.      Genetic markers allow reliable genotyping , often using PCR

b.      All genetic markers reliably reflect traits of the phenotype

c.       Genetic markers need to be monomorphic to be useful

d.      The heterozygosity displayed by genetic markers reflect the genetic diversity of the entire genome

e.      SNPs and microsatellites are widely used genetic markers

1.      What is heterozygosity?

a.      The absence of a clear banding pattern in the telophase of a cell division

b.      The fact that genomes can have both indels and single nucleotide polymorphisms

c.       In species with 2 chromosome sets, the presence of 2 different variants at a particular gene locus

d.      Heterozygosity is a synonymous for a species of being diploid

1.      Identify 2 abiotic environmental factors likely to … organisms in the course of ongoing global change

a.      Temperature

b.      Depth

c.       Sediment granulometry

d.      Day length

e.      Oxygen levels

1.      Which is the described ranking of increasing sensitivity to warming to in a Baltic Fucus community (a > b = sensitivity of a is larger than that of b)?

a.      Mesograzers > filamentous foulers > Fucus

b.      Fucus > mesograzers > filamentous foulers

c.       Filamentous foulers > mesograzers > Fucus

1.      Please name the mechanism/s that is/ are responsible for biodiversity effects.

a.      Selection

b.      Grazer resistance

c.       Niche partitioning

d.      Complementary resource use

e.      Sexual reproduction

1.      The terms propagule pressure consists of several components. What are the components of the propagule pressure?

a.      Number of introduction events (propagule number), number of propagules released per event (= propagule size) and condition of propagules upon release

b.      Propagule pressure and colonization pressure

c.       Propagule pressure, environmental tolerance of individuals to a new habitat, and their integration into a new biological community

d.      The number of unintentional and intentional introduced species

e.      Travel time, environmental tolerance of individuals to a new habitat, and their integration into a new biological community

1.      DOC accumulation in the surface ocean during the seasonal cycle is mainly..?

a.      Labile DOC

b.      Semi-labile DOC

c.       Refractory DOC

1.      Which statement for the Bacterial Growth Efficiency is correct?

a.      BGE in the ocean is typically >50%

b.      Higher BGE supports the sink function of the Microbial Loop

c.       BGE typically increases with primary production

d.      BGE decreases with increasing C:N substrate ratio

a.      Because of N-limitation

1.      Bacteria use extracellular enzymes to degrade high molecular weight compounds. Which enzymes are used in protein hydrolysis?

a.      Glucosidases

b.      Phosphatases

c.       Aminopeptidases

1.      Dissolved organic matter is the largest pool of organic matter. Depending on the age and biological degradability we distinguish refractory, semi-refractory, semi-labile and labile DOM. Which form of DOM is most abundant in the ocean?

1.      Which deep ocean basin has the highest concentration of DOM?

a.      South Atlantic

b.      South Pacific

c.       Indian Ocean

d.      North Atlantik

1.       Name all dominant terminal electron acceptors for chemosynthesis in deep sea sediments.

1.       Mixotrophy predatory algae eat to get:

a. Nutrients

b. Carbon

c. In many cases scientists are unsure because most are uncultured.

d. They use endosymbionts to generate a motive force.

1.       The core functions of the microbiome:

a. Internal regulatory processes

b. Resource exchange with the other members of the holobiont

c. Persistence in the host habitat

d. All of the above

1.       Which statement is correct?

a. Higher BGE supports the „sink“ function of the microbial loop.

b. BGE does not vary in the ocean.

c. Higher BGE supports the „link“ function of the microbial loop.

d. BGE decreases with decreasing C:N substrate ratio.

1.       Which changes in the seawater carbonate chemistry is caused by ocean acidification?

a. OA decreases the hydrogen ion concentration.

b. OA decreases seawater alkalinity.

c. OA and respiration have the same effect on seawater carbonate chemistry.

d. OA increases the CO2 partial pressure in seawater.

e. OA decreases the carbonate ion concentration.

1.       The vector that is most responsible for the introduction of non-indigenous species to aquatic system is:

1.       What is the expected turn-over time of semi-labile DOM?

a. Days-months

b. Seconds-minutes

c. Minutes-days

1.       DOM (dissolved organic matter) – What is true?

a. The largest pool of DOM in the deep ocean is labile.

b. The concentration of refractory DOM increases with depth in the ocean.

c. The mean age of refractory DOM is days to weeks.

d. DOM is mainly produced in the surface ocean.

e. The deep North Atlantic has the highest DOM concentrations of all ocean basins.

1.       Rank assisted evolution approaches from 1 to 4 according their intensity of interventions.

a. Selective breeding

b. Symbiodinium evolution

c. Induced acclimatization

d. Microbial community modification

1.       Difference between the definitions „symbiosis“ and „holobiont“. What is true?

a. Symbiosis is defined as the close association between organisms of different species.

b. The term holobiont implies that functions of host and microbes are known.

c. The term symbiosis sensu strictu excludes pathogenic/parasitic interactions.

d. The term „symbiosis“ was originally coined by Anton de Bary.

e. The term holobiont includes also uncultivated host-associated microorganisms.

1.       What type of information do metagenomics and metatranscriptomics provide?

a. Metatranscriptomics relies on the cloning of rRNA to assess gene functions.

b. Binning is a bioinformatic process that allows the reconstruction of bacterial genomes from metagenomic sequence data.

c. Metagenomics is a technology that reports on gene inventories of microbial consortia.

d. Functional metagenomics requires the cloning of DNA into heterologous expression hosts.

1.       Species extinction rates are high. Please name the four most important drivers for marine species extinctions according to the IPBES Assessment report 2019.

a. Land/sea use change and direct exploitation

b. Desalinsation

c. Aquaculture

d. Invasive species

e. Ocean plastification

f. Climate change

g. Acoustic noise

h. Pollution/eutrophication

1.       Which of the following statements are true? – Choose three.

a. Marine organisms are richer in halogenated secondary metabolites than terrestrial organisms. (fluor not but chlor and brom yes)

b. Marine organisms are phylogenetically less diverse than terrestrial organisms.

c. Only vertebrates have an innate immune system.

d. Marine organisms are richer in nitrogen-containing secondary metabolites than terrestrial organisms.

e. Some biological enemies of marine organisms are attracted by phenolic compounds.

f. Marine organisms are less exposed to microbial pathogens than terrestrial organisms.

g. Marine organisms are richer in fluorinated secondary metabolites than terrestrial organisms.

h. Marine organisms are richer in brominated secondary metabolites than terrestrial organisms.

i. Marine organisms are more exposed to microbial pathogens than aquatic organisms.

1.       Which statements on genomics are true?

a. Moore’s law cannot keep pace with the DNA sequencing throughput since about 2005.

b. Next-generation sequencing now provides the equivalent of 2000 human genomes per genetic analyser per 2-days.

c. During the assembly-process, contigs are the result of merging overlapping scaffolds.

d. Most next-generation sequencing now produce DNA reads of 1000 base pairs or longer, facilitating the assembly of entire chromosomes.

1.       Which statements on genetic markers are true?

a. The heterozygosity displayed by genetic markers sample the genetic diversity of the entire genome.

b. Genetic markers need to be monomorphic to be useful.

c. SNPs and microsatellites are widely used genetic markers.

d. Genetic markers reliably reflect traits of the organism’s phenotype.

e. Genetic markers allow reliable genotyping, often using PCR as technology.

1.       What is the upper critical temperature in a thermal performance curve?

a. The upper limit of the comfort zone.

b. The temperature an organism can survive for 24h.

c. The temperature where performance reaches zero.

d. The temperature where an organism dies.

1.       Tick environmental factors which commonly exert stress on organisms in the SW Baltic:

a. Salinity

b. Storms

c. Nutrients

d. Temperature

e. Irradiation

f. Desiccation

g. Ice

h. pH

1.      Which effects of barnacles colonizing a Fucus thallus surface would you expect? (Wahl)

1.      What does the growth-differentiation-balance hypothesis predict? More than one answer could be possible! (Wahl)

a.      Old parts of an organism should be less defended than young parts of an organism

b.      Stressed tissue should be less defended than unstressed tissues.

c.       Meristematic tissue should be more defended than differentiated tissues.

d.      Organisms adapted to environments that are low in resources should be relative strongly defended

e.      Defence should be strong when the risk of attack is high

f.        In photosynthetic organisms’ defence compounds with a low C/N ratio should be preferentially employed under eutrophic conditions.

g.       Old tissue should be more defended than young tissues

h.      Defence should be relative strong in plants that are easily detected by their enemies

i.        Meristematic tissue should be less defended than differentiated tissue

a.      Which of the following components fall under DOC?

                                                              i.      Colloidal material

                                                             ii.      Bacteria (only empty cell wall)

                                                           iii.      Phytoplankton

                                                           iv.      Macromolecules

                                                             v.      viruses

If fish predation decreases the abundance of copepods, how will the following functional groups respond (increase, decrease, no response)?

a.      Microphytoplankton

b.      Nanophytoplankton

c.       Ciliates

d.      Heterotrophic nanoflagellates

1.      Response of the phytoplankton spring bloom to warming, if other factors (light, nutrients, …) remain unchanged, see AQUASHIFT mesocosm experiments with Baltic Sea plankton. How do the following properties of the spring bloom change? (Sommer)

a.      Phytoplankton peak biomass: more – less – unchanged

b.      Primary production: more – less – unchanged

c.       Phytoplankton mean cell size: bigger – smaller – unchanged

d.      Ratio bacterial production: primary production: more – less – unchanged

e.      Ratio bacterial respiration: total respiration: more – less – unchanged

f.        Contribution of large diatoms to phytoplankton biomass: more – less – unchanged

g.       Contributions of small flagellates to phytoplankton biomass: more – less – unchanged

h.      Biological carbon pump: stronger – weaker – unchanged

a.      Fill in the blank spaces with the best qualifier for the two ecotypes of Prochlorococcus

1.      Calcification and silicification are the 2 dominant processes of biomineralisation

 in the ocean. Which organisms are mainly responsible for which process?

a.       Radiolaria for silicification

b.      Diatoms for silicification

c.       Sponges for silicification

d.      Silicoflagellates for silicification

e.       Corals for calcification

f.        Coccolithophores for calcification

g.       Pteropods for calcification

h.      Foraminifera for calcification

1.      BGE and range of its values (Engel)

how much DOM/POM can be explained?

1.      DOM/POM (Engel/Riebesell)

a.      Filter (size range)?:

b.      Concentrations?:

c.       Where does it have which concentrations (surface/deep water)?:

d.      Where does DOM/POM has a bigger importance?

e.      Which ocean has the highest concentration of DOM/POM?

1.      Which planktonic organisms do calcification and mineralisation? (Riebesell)

a.      What is the cut-off size between POC and DOC?

1.      Please name 2 different CO2 fixation pathways and give names of important microbial groups that use these pathways. (Imhoff)

1.      Ecological mechanisms for positive relation of biodiversity and ecosystem function (Matthiesen)

1.      Ecological mechanisms for positive relation of biodiversity and ecosystem function (Matthiesen)

1.      High number of coexisting species – which trade-offs? (Matthiesen)

1.      Please describe which factors can potentially increase and/or decrease diversity, and which factors have no effect. (Matthiessen)

1.      Which population level heterozygosity? (18x AB, 3xAA, 3xBB) (Reusch) -> HWE?

optimal defence hypothesis

a.      How are propagule pressure and colonization pressure defined?