Coastal Ocean

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Coastal Ocean
Coastal wetlands are coastal watersheds that
drain to the ocean or to an estuary or bay.
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Coastal Ocean

• Intertidal Zone
• Estuaries
• Muddy bottom and sandy bottom communities
• Salt marshes and seagrass beds
• Mangroves
• Coral reefs

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Intertidal Zonation
Zonation is a vertical banding of the organisms
living on the rocky coastline. These distinct
bands occur in part from many complex physical
and biological factors that effect marine
organisms.
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Which tidal cycle has the greatest effect on
marine organisms living in the intertidal zone?
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Tidal Zones on a Rocky Ocean Shore
Splash Fringe Level

High Tide Level
Mid Tide Level
Low Tide Level
Low Fringe Level
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Mostly shelled orgs
Spray or Splash Zone
High Tide Zone
Middle Tide Zone
Many soft bodied orgs and algae
Low Tide Zone
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Big Island
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periwinkles
ulva
opihi
Mussels starfish
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What are some stresses that affect the organisms
residing in the intertidal zone?
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• Biotic factors affecting organisms living in the
  intertidal zone
• Competition for space and food
• Predation
• Reproduction
• Substrate settlement preference
• Osmoregulation

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• Abiotic factors affecting organisms living in the
  intertidal zone
• Salinity
• Temperature
• Air and light exposure
• Tidal flow
• Waves and current action
• Substrate
• Wind direction and strength
• Dissolved O2
• Storms
• Natural Disasters

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What are some adaptations to living in the
intertidal zone?
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Estuaries are among the most productive marine
ecosystems with high biomass of benthic algae,
seagrass and phytoplankton
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• Wetlands in Hawaii
• At one time contained an estimated 59,000 acres
  of wetlands
• Over the last 200 years Hawaii has lost
  approximately 12 of its original wetland acres.
  
• The exact effect of the loss or degradation of
  Hawaii's wetlands on local fisheries is unclear.
• It is estimated that only 1 of the Pacific
  island recreational and commercial species are
  estuarine-dependent.
• Economically important estuarine fish mullet,
  milkfish, shrimp, and the nehu, a tropical
  anchovy used as live bait in the pole-and-line
  skipjack tuna fishery.

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Oahu Watershed
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Traditional Hawaiian Uses of Wetlands
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Seaweedslimu
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Hooks andLures
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Octopus Lure
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Fishing Shrineskoa
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Hawaiian Fish Pondsloko ia
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Ahupuaa
Ranges from the tip of the mtn to the reef area

• Upland
• Plains
• Ocean

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TheAhupuaa
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Estuaries

• Estuaries are partially enclosed coastal bodies
  of water
• Examples of estuaries include
• River mouths
• Bays
• Inlets
• Gulfs
• Sounds
• Formed by a rise in sea level after the last Ice
  Age

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Classifying estuaries by origin

• Coastal plain
• Fjord
• Bar-built
• Tectonic

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Examples of estuaries
Puuloa
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Examples of estuaries
Fjord estuary (Norway)
Tectonic estuary (San Francisco, CA)
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Classifying estuaries by water mixing

• Vertically mixed
• Slightly stratified
• Highly stratified
• Salt wedge

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Coastal wetlands

• Coastal wetlands are saturated areas that border
  coastal environments
• Brackish water conditions
• Two most important types of coastal wetlands
• Salt marshes (mid-latitudes)
• Mangrove swamps (low latitudes)

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Coastal wetlands Salt marshes and mangrove swamps
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Muddy bottom and sandy bottom communities

• Infauna 
• live within the sediment, mostly soft bottom 
• mostly clams and worms (polychaetes) 
• burrow tubes for food scavenging and oxygen
  supply
• Primary producers algae, mostly benthic diatoms
  and dinoflagellates
• cyanobacteria mats on mudflats
• mud more productive than sand
• macro- and meiobenthos, often detrivores, living
  of deposits from seagrasses and marshes
• birds important grazers

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Muddy bottom and sandy bottom communities
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Muddy bottom and sandy bottom communities

• 32,000 polychaetes in sand/m2
• vs
• 50-500 earth worms in soil/m2
• Ecological Role
• clean sediments
• aerate soil

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Salt marshes

• Found from the Arctic to Southern Australia
• Salt marshes grow in muds and sands that are
  sheltered by barrier islands.
• Flood and ebb currents transport saltwater,
  nutrients, plankton and sediments in and out of
  the marsh.

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He'eia Wetlands
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Wetland Birds
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Wetland Fish
Mullet
Tilapia
Milkfish
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Wetland Inverts
Anchialine ponds
Opae ula
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Wetland Plants
aki'aki
akulikuli
mangrove
bullrush
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Waikiki Diamond Head
1934
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The value of coastal wetlands

• Highly productive food factory
• Serves as fish nurseries
• Acts as a giant sponge
• The salt marsh absorbs large volumes of water,
  thus minimizing the impacts of flooding and
  erosion and recharging groundwater.
• Filters polluted runoff from land
• absorbing toxins and in some cases metabolizing
  them into harmless substances
• Problem
• wetlands viewed as worthless land

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Of the original 215 million acres of wetlands in
the U.S. (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) , about
106 million acres remain.
distribution of wetlands in the U.S. in the 1780s
distribution of wetlands in the U.S. in the 1900s
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Current distribution of wetlands and deepwater
habitats
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Major Causes of Wetlands Loss and
Degradation Human Actions

• Drainage
• Dredging and stream channelization
• Deposition of fill material
• Diking and damming
• Tilling for crop production
• Levees
• Logging
• Mining
• Construction
• Runoff
• Air and water pollutants
• Changing nutrient levels
• Releasing toxic chemicals
• Introducing non-native species to the ecosystem
• Grazing by domestic animals

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• Natural Threats
• Erosion
• Subsidence
• Sea level rise
• Droughts
• Hurricanes and other storms

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Mangrove Habitat
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Mangrove Distribution

• There are approximately 40 species of mangroves
  distributed worldwide

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• Prop roots
• help support the tree

• Pneumatophores
• respiratory function take in O2
• push nutrients to the upper soil layer

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Ecological Role of Mangroves

• Stabilize sediment
• Accumulate detrital or other foreign material
• Habitat for epiphytes
• Fish and invertebrate nursery
• Nesting/roosting sites for birds
• Limited role as a direct food source
• Major contributor to detrital food chain
• Protect shoreline from erosion during tropical
  storms

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Mangrove Use

• fish and shrimp cultivation
• food for people
• firewood and boat building material
• tanning material
• finest honey

Shrimp farm surrounded by degraded mangroves,
Vietnam
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Seagrass beds
57 species worldwide
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Seagrass- true vascular plants
Classification
Angiosperms
Gymnosperms
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Seagrasses

• True marine angiosperm
• Evolved from shoreline Lillie-like plants100 mya
• Vascular plants reinvaded the seas 3 different
  times (algae is nonvascular i.e., no need for
  roots to transport water and nutrients)
• Can grow and reproduce while completely submerged
  under water

Distribution 12 genera of seagrasses (5 in the
high latitude and 7 in the low latitude)
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Halophila hawaiiana- only form of seagrass in
Hawaii
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Development of Seagrass Beds

• Develop in
• intertidal and shallow subtidal areas on sands
  and muds
• marine inlets and bays
• lagoons and channels, which are sheltered from
  significant wave action

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Ecological roles

• Help stabilize the sediment
• Prevents resuspension of sediments in water
  (water is clearer)
• Binds substratum, reduces turbidity, and reduces
  erosion
• Sediment accumulation slows velocity of incoming
  water
• Food for many organisms
• Refuge for many organisms

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Threats to Seagrass Beds

• Seagrass productivity is highly dependent on a
  number of factors
• salinity
• water temperature
• turbidity
• This ecosystem is particularly sensitive to
  degradation due to
• agricultural pollution-run-off of herbicides
• industrial pollution
• domestic pollution

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Coral Reef Communities
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• Hermatypic corals
• possess zooxanthellae
• are reef builders

Light Clear water Warm temperature 18-32oC Low
nutrients Low productivity in water

• Ahermatypic corals
• no zooxanthellae
• rely on tentacular feeding
• can live in aphotic zone

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Hawaiian Coral Zonation
0 m
High light levels Moderate wave energy
6 m
Cauliflower coral (Pocillopora meandrina)
Moderate light levels Occasional storm wave energy
Lobe coral (Porites lobata)
13 m
Low light levels Low wave energy
Finger coral (Porites compressa)
25 m
Very low light, Primarily downwelling No wave
energy
Plate coral (Porites rus)