Life in the Ocean

1
Life in the Ocean

• Major groups of organisms in ocean
• Plankton
• Nekton
• Benthos

2
Organisms (in general)

• Plankton floaters
• Nekton swimmers
• Wont deal with these much in this course
• Comments on fisheries
• Benthos bottom dwellers

3
Plants vs. animals

• Phytoplankton
• Carry on photosynthesis
• Diatoms, coccolithophores, dinoflagellates
• Zooplankton
• Consumers
• Radiolarians, forams, others

4
PHYTOPLANKTON
5
ZOOPLANKTON
6
Time as a planktonic organism

• Meroplankton vs. holoplankton
• Part of life as a plankton
• Part of life as nekton or benthos
• Examples (oysters, barnacles, crabs, fish egg)

7
Nekton

• Many varieties
• Consider commercial fisheries

8
Commercial fisheries

• Changes in last 50 years
• Overfishing
• Causes human population, changes in fishing
  practices, environmental degradation, poor
  management. by-catch
• Solutions close fishing areas, marine
  sanctuaries, tighter regulations, consumer
  choices (http//www.mbayaq.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web
  /sfw_regional.aspx)

9
Aquaculture

• A solution to overfishing?
• Pros and cons

10
Benthos

• Rocky shores
• Tide pools
• Sand and mud
• Deep sea
• Coral reefs
• Just a few examples

11
Where benthic organisms live

• Epifuana
• Live on top of sediments
• Examples (barnacles, starfish, crabs)
• Infauna
• Live within sediments
• Examples (clams, worms)

12
Epifauna
13
Infauna (a, b, c, e)
14
Why these patterns?
Land 86 Sea 14
Benthic 98 Pelagic 2
DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE