Unit 10: Marine Life

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Unit 10Marine Life

• The Primary
• Producers Consumers

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• Phytoplankton, for the most part, are single
  celled plant-like organisms that drift near the
  ocean surface
• They are NOT plants!!!!
• Account for between 90 - 98 of ocean
  carbohydrate production.
• Almost invisible to the naked eye, but they are
  much more important to marine productivity than
  the larger and more conspicuous seaweeds.
• Seaweeds are larger marine plants more obvious
• Contribute only 2-10 of the oceans primary
  productivity.
• Chemosynthesis accounts for less than 1.
• Biomass is the mass of living tissue in the area.

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Factors that limit Productivity

• Limiting factor is a physical or biological
  necessity whose presence in inappropriate amounts
  limits the normal actions of an organism.
• Photosynthetic autotrophs require 4 things
• 1. water
• 2. inorganic nutrients
• 3. carbon dioxide
• 4. sunlight

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• Ocean ---- water is not a limiting factor
• CO2 dissolves readily ---- not a limiting factor
• Potential limiting factors of primary
  productivity are nutrients and light.
• Inorganic nutrients are used to construct the
  larger organic molecules for primary productivity
  and to construct their skeleton and or shells.
• Nonconservative nutrients - nutrients that change
  in concentration with biological activity.

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• After a period of rapid phytoplankton growth (a
  phenomenon known as plankton bloom), the ocean
  surface is often drained of nonconservative
  nutrients (phosphates, nitrates and silicates).
• They become part of the producer or part of the
  animals that have eaten the producer.
• Lack of nutrients is the most common factor
  limiting primary productivity.
• If adequate nutrients are present, productivity
  depends on illumination.

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• Too little light limits productivity
• Too much light can slow and eliminate
  photosynthesis.
• Accessory pigments are light absorbing compounds
  closely associated with chlorophyll.
• Colors brown, tan, olive, green, and red
• They will absorb light then transfer the energy
  to the chlorophyll when necessary.

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Plankton

• Planktos wandering
• Phytoplankton plant-like members of the
  plankton community.
• Zooplankton animal-like members of the plankton
  community.
• Plankton drifts or swims weakly
• Go where the ocean goes
• Unable to move consistently against waves or
  currents.

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Only thing in common between various species.

• The only feature common to all plankton is their
  inability to make consistent lateral headway,
  although many will move vertically in the water
  column.

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Plankton Facts

• Many are in the 1-2 centimeter range.
• The largest drifters are the giant jellyfish,
  with a bell diameter of 3.5 meters.
• All plankton larger than about 1 centimeter
  across is called macroplankton
• The plankton that spends their lives within the
  plankton community are called holoplankton
• Some of the planktonic animals are the juvenile
  stages of crabs, barnacles, clams, seastars
• other organisms that will later adopt a benthic
  life style.
• These temporary visitors are Meroplankton

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Plankton

• The diversity of plankton organisms is
  astonishing.
• It can contain
• a. giant drifting jellyfish (8meters)
• b. arrowworms
• c. single-celled creatures
• d. mollusks with slowly beating flaps
• e. crustaceans
• f. algae

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• Plankton will contain many different plant-like
  species and almost every different type of animal
  category.
• Members of the plankton community are referred to
  as plankters and do interact with each other
  (grazing, predators, parasites, and competition)

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Algae

• Simple plantlike autotroph
• First plants on earth (900 million years old)
• Non-vascular
• Cell wall
• Lack roots, stems and leaves
• Must live in or near water
• Three Phyla
• Chlorophyta
• Green algae
• Rhodophyta
• Red algae
• Phaeophyta
• Brown algae

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Chlorophyta

• Green algae
• Main pigment chlorophyll
• Symbiotic with lichens and fungi
• Store food as starch
• 7,000 species
• Most diverse group of algae

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Rhodophyta

• Red algae
• Main pigment phycoerythrin
• Length reaches greatest depth out of all algae
• 6,500-10,000 species (only 200 freshwater)
• Used in foods
• Ice cream, frosting, chocolate milk, dressing

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Phaeophyta

• Brown alage
• Main pigment  fucoxanthin
• Found in tropics
• Eels lay eggs
• Includes kelp

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Phytoplankton

• Autotrophic plankton - phytoplankton
• (phyto plant).
• Autotrophic plankton is mostly single celled.
• Live in marine and freshwater
• It is critical to all life on earth because of
• the great contribution to food webs
• its generation of large amounts of atmospheric
  oxygen through photosynthesis.
• 80 of the oxygen on earth
• There are 8 types of phytoplankton.
• The most important are
• dinoflagellates
• diatoms
• coccolithophores

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Dinoflagellates
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Dinoflagellates

• Single cell autotrophs
• Some live within the tissues of other organisms
• Majority live free in the water solitary
• Most have 2 whip-like flagella (one for movement
  forward and one to make it spin)
• Outside shell of cellulose
• Reproduces by simple fission once a day
• Grow into large numbers
• Because of red accessory pigment, when they
  reproduce in large numbers, they cause a red tide
  (23 million/gal of water)

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• Bioluminescence - Dinoflagellates will take
  excess oxygen and combine it with enzymes and
  other proteins (Lucifer) to produce a glow.
• Some species synthesize an effective poison.

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Diatoms

• Most dominant photosynthetic organisms in the
  plankton community
• Most biochemically sophisticated
• Their abundance and photosynthetic efficiency
  further increased the proportion of free oxygen
  in the earths atmosphere.
• More than 5,000 species
• Rigid cell wall called a frustule consisting of
  silica.
• They are penetrated by perforations through the
  frustule (dia through, tomos to cut)
• They are round, elongated, branched or triangular.

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• For the most effective light absorption,
  chlorophyll is accompanied in diatoms by
  accessory pigments called xanthophylls.
• Xanthophylls are yellow or brown pigments and
  give most diatoms a yellow-green or tan
  appearance.
• Diatoms store energy as fatty acids and lipids.
• These are lighter than their equivalent volume of
  water which helps the diatoms to float.

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Coccolithophores

• Single celled
• Covered with discs of calcium carbonate
• Live near the ocean surface in brightly lighted
  areas
• The calcium carbonate layer is translucent and
  acts as a sunshade
• They can collect in such a number as to turn the
  water white or chalky
• The white cliffs of Dover are deposits of
  Coccolithophores
• They are referred to as nanoplankton due to their
  small size.

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White Cliffs of Dover
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The Primary Consumers

• Zooplankton

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Zooplankton

• Heterotrophic plankton
• Most numerous of the primary consumers of the
  ocean
• The most numerous of zooplankters are the
  Copepods
• Crustaceans, a group that contains the crabs,
  lobsters and shrimp.
• Not all zooplankters are small.

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