marine life and ecology
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Marine Life and Ecology. 2.From phytoplanktons to invertebates. Virtually all primary productivity on land comes from large plants. … seaweeds such as these do exist, but they need shallow water where Sunlight is available and firm substrate for anchorage by their holdfasts. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Marine LifeMarine Lifeand Ecologyand Ecology
2.2. From phytoplanktons From phytoplanktons to invertebatesto invertebates
Virtually all primary productivity on land comes from large
plants
… seaweeds such as these do exist, but they need shallow water where
Sunlight is available and firm substrate for anchorage by their
holdfasts.
… whereas microscopic unicellular plants (diatoms, dinoflagellates) and
algae account for most of the ocean’s primary productivity.
Phylum Phaeophyta or Brown Algae
Phylum Rhodophyta or Red Algae
Seaweeds are large marine multicellular algae. These non-vascular plants are grouped as green, red and brown algae.
Phylum Chlorophyta or
Green Algae
BacteriaBacteria
Producers Producers (photosynthesizers)(photosynthesizers)
Blue-green algaeBlue-green algaeCoccolithophoresCoccolithophoresSilicoflagellatesSilicoflagellatesDiatomsDiatomsDinoflagellatesDinoflagellates
Consumers (Oxidizers)Consumers (Oxidizers)ProtozoansProtozoans
RadiolariansRadiolariansForaminiferaForaminifera
<5 <5 mm
5 5 mm3-10 3-10 mm5-40 5-40 mm
20-80 20-80 mm10-50 10-50 mm
50-500 50-500 mm100-1000 100-1000 mm
NoneNone
NoneNoneCaCOCaCO33
SiOSiO22
SiOSiO22
Cellulose Cellulose or noneor none
SiOSiO22
SiOSiO22
BenthicBenthic
Surface watersSurface waterswarm open oceanwarm open oceancool open oceancool open ocean
upwellingupwellingwarm quiet waterswarm quiet waters
Surface waters and Surface waters and sedimentssediments
Size Skeletalmaterial Habitat
Unicellular Unicellular Marine LifeMarine Life
Moss
Fern
Kelp bed
Marsh grass
0 24001600800
800
400
0
Distance from shore (km)Distance from shore (km)
Cel
l co
un
ts p
er 5
0 cm
Cel
l co
un
ts p
er 5
0 cm
33 o
f w
ater
of
wat
er
DiatomsDiatoms
DinoflagellatesDinoflagellates
CoccolithophoresCoccolithophores
SpermatophytaeSpermatophytae(seed bearing plants)
Thallophytae(algae and fungii)
SpermatophytaeSpermatophytae(seed bearing plants)
Pteridophytae(ferns)
Bryophytae(moss)
Thallophytae(algae and fungii)
Land plants Marine plants
Mangroves thrive in warm tropical waters, kelp prefers cooler waters.
Photomicrograph of tiny marine bacteria (~1 m) attached to the larger diatoms.
Cyanobacteria(x 3000 magnification)
Diatoms
CoccolithophoresCoccolithophoresCoccolithophoresCoccolithophores
DinoflagellatesDinoflagellates
Marine invertebrates Phylum Porifera (Sponges) Phylum Cnidaria
(Corals, Portugese Man-of-War, Jellyfish) Phylum Mollusca
(Clams, Snails, Octopi) Phylum Anthropoda
(Crabs, Shrimp, Lobsters, Copepods) Phylum Echinodermata
(Sea Stars, Brittle Stars) Marine worms (Polychaeta,
Vestimentifera)
Marine vertebrates
Marine animals
As Robert May (Scientific American, October 1992) has argued, most of the species display a predictable
relation between physical size and population size: the smaller they are, the more
abundant they tend to be.
Characteristic size (meters)
1 mm 1 cm 1 m
Implication: More species < 1 mm await discovery
than ones > 1 cm.
Jellyfish are cnidarians which lack the polyp stage of the life cycle. Therefore, they are always in the medusae stage. They are considered plankton because they cannot swim on their own--they are dependent upon the current to take them places. They are normally found in the epipelagic layer of the ocean.
The deep scattering layerThe deep scattering layer
Zooplankton concentration shows two peaks in the very productive summertime subarctic or cold temperate waters:
• some are feeding at the surface, while
• others are resting, or metabolizing what they have consumed, just below the photic zone.
In contrast, in the tropics, the zooplankton concentration is on the photic surface waters.
Yellow sponges on a
reef. Sponges are filter feeders
- they filter their food particles
from water that passes
through them.
An anemone is a cnidarian, a simple animal consisting of an open gut surrounded by tentacles - stinging cells in these tentacles help paralyze small prey that the tentacles then help bring into the gut.
Jellyfish, a cnidarian, consuming a fish that it has captured
Different species of jellyfish have different innate buoyancies, so when they are not swimming, some hang neutrally in the water, while others slowly sink when passive; a few float. Some of them are rather small, often less than an inch (or 2.5 cm) and also often found in freshwater as well are subject to the oceans currents, tides and waves for their large-scale movements.
But giants like the Lion’s Mane Jellyfish* are known to be excellent swimmers. This is the largest known species of jellyfish, and is mostly found in cold waters north of 42°N (Arctic, North Atlantic and theNorth Pacific) and off Australia and New Zealand. The largest recorded specimen, found washed up on the shore of Massa-chusetts Bay in 1870, had a bell (body) with a diameter of 2.3 m (7 feet 6 inches) and tentacles 36.5 m (120 feet) long. It was longer than a Blue Whale, the longest known animal in the world.
Is Jellyfish a plankton or a nekton?
* The Sherlock Holmes story, The Adventures of the Lion’s Mane, is centered around a professor who is mysteriously killed. At the end of the story, Holmes discovers the killer is a huge Lion's mane jellyfish.
A bizarre new species of jellyfish has been discovered in the deep waters off the Californian coast. The bell-shaped creature spans a meter in diameter and has been nicknamed "big red", because of its unusual deep red color. The US and Japanese teams that discovered it say the species deserves its own subfamily.
Tiburonia granrojo was discovered using video cameras on deep-diving remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Its color and shape set it apart from its other gelatinous relatives, but it has another unusual characteristic — a complete lack of tentacles.
Bizarre new jellyfish discovered 18:03 07 May 03 NewScientist.com news service
Orange Finger SpongePurple and Yellow Tube Sponge
Phylum Porifera
The animals of the class hydrozoa
have both a polyp and medusa
stage. Siphonophores
are a type of hydrozoan with a
float for buoyancy.
Probably the most famous of these is
the species physalia, the
Portugese-man-of-war, which is a type of colonial siphonophore.
Marine worms include
Octopus
Mussels
krill
crabs
barnacles
sea urchin
starfish
sea cucumber