Marine Ecology

1
Marine Ecology
2
Introduction

• We will spend the next several lectures looking
  at connections between environments.
• Youll hear words like habitat and ecology often.
  
• Marine ecology puts all the stuff weve discussed
  until now into larger perspective.

3
Organization

• Communities are often looked at as being biotic
  (living) or abiotic (not-living). Notice I
  didnt say dead. Why is this significant?
• Organisms interact with each component in unique
  ways.
• Adaptation, is one of the most significant
  interactions an organism can undertake to
  ultimately succeed in its environment.

4
Adaptation to differing light regimes.
Turbinaria spp. change growth patterns according
to available light. The animals on the left
live in a higher photic zone than the ones on the
right. Which one likely contains more
chlorophyll??
5
What happens when adaptive ability is good?
6
Or lack of predation??
With sufficient resources (nutrients, shelter)
sea urchins can take over! Over time they may
exceed the carrying capacity of their habitat.
7
Carrying Capacity max population.
8
Sometimes limiting resources cause intense
competition between (inter), or within (intra)
species groups.
These Hermit Crabs are engaged in
intraspecific competition. If one bests the
other and establishes a territory then
competitive exclusion has taken place. What
happens in an extreme case of comp. exclusion?
9
Resource partitioning may play a role.
At one time, whale sharks may have contained huge
teeth! To avoid competition for food, they became
specialists on plankton? Has this solved their
dilemma entirely??
10
Other animals take the opposite extreme.
Purple cone snails (Conus purpurascens) may have
been effective algae eaters.
11
Sometimes behavior is modified in different ways
to avoid competition.
12
Predator vs. Prey

• If you eat someone else, youre a predator.
• If you are eaten, prey.
• Most predators or prey fall into simple
  categories of carnivores (meat) or herbivores
  (plant).
• Omnivors are out there too, but given the choice
  they will usually choose to be either a carn. or
  herb.
• Detritivores arent considered predatory.
  (Imagine having a piece of decaying material
  suddenly defend itself!!)

13
What if you just take up space??
Barnacles, just sit around. As long as they
dont harm the host, they arent a nuisance, but
how do we classify them??
14
Living together in a chaotic world.

• Symbiosis living together for a common benefit.
  (Symbiont smaller, host larger).
• Commensalism one animal lives on another, but
  doesnt harm it.
• Parasitism one does benefit (host doesnt).

15
Ecosystem Organization
16
(No Transcript)
17
Marine environment is divided by distance from
land, depth and the type of organisms living
there.
18
(No Transcript)
19
Figure 10.14
20
(No Transcript)
21
Trophic Pyramids
22
Figure 10.17
23
Figure 10.18
24
Figure 10.19
25
Figure 10.20
26
Figure 10.21
27
Figure 10.22
28
Text Art 10.01
29
Text Art 10.02
30
Table 10.01