waterlife annotated
DESCRIPTION
Timed presentation on Great Lakes Waterlife. I have permission to use all the images on the Waterlife PhotoGallery and in educational materials associated with the gallery (which this is). I've let loop in the background as an eye-catcher or used as a presentation for 5th graders.TRANSCRIPT
Great Lakes Water Life
Dr. Rochelle Sturtevant
NOAA
Great Lakes Sea Grant Network
Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
October 20, 2008
Ecosystem:
The community of living organisms and their non-living environment
Meet some of the players…
…the non-living parts
•Water
•Minerals/nutrients
•Sunlight
•Water
•Minerals/nutrients
•Sunlight
Macrophytes (water plants)
A quick look at some macrophytes
Algae
Diatoms
Green Algae
Blue-Green Algae
Higher levels of the food web all get their energy by eating plants (herbivores) or each other (carnivores) or dead stuff (detritivores)
Let’s start with the largest and work our
way down
Lake Sturgeon(to 6 foot)
Paddlefish(to 4 and a half foot)
EXTIRPATED FROM GREAT LAKES!!
Muskellunge(Record >5 foot)
Northern Pike(to 4 foot)
Exotic Salmon
Chinook salmon(to 3 and a half foot)
Steelhead trout (to 3 foot)
Sockeye salmon(to 18 inches)
Pink salmon (to 4 foot)
Coho salmon(to 3 and 1/2 foot)
Lake trout(to 2 and a half foot)
Flathead catfish (to 3 foot)
Sea lamprey (to 3 foot)
INVASIVE!!
Native lamprey(to 12 inches)
American Brook
ChestnutNorthern brook
Silver
Lake Whitefish(to 2 foot)
Burbot (to 2 and a half foot)
Bowfin (to 3 foot)
American eel(females to 5 foot)
(males to 1 and a half foot)
Walleye(to 2 foot … record 33 inches)
Black crappie(to 16 inches)
Largemouth bass(to 2 foot)
Smallmouth bass(to 2 foot)
White crappie(to 16 inches)
Suckers(most to 2 foot)
Bigmouth buffalo
Greater redhorse
Northern hogsucker
Quillback
Mudpuppy
Let’s Magnify! (x5)
5 foot => 1 foot
Alewive(~ 10 inches)
EXOTIC!
(10 inches)
Extinct!
Yellow perch(to 1 foot)
Round goby
Exotic!
Brook stickleback(to 3 inches)
Threespine stickleback(to 4 inches)
Deepwater sculpin(to 6 inches)
Slimy sculpin(to 4 inches)
Troutperch(to 5 inches)
Darters(most to 3 inches)
Greenside darter
Rainbow darter
Iowa darter
Channel darter
Logperch
Orange-throat darter
Brassy minnow
Common shiner
Minnows
Spottail shiner
Emerald shiner
Northern redbelly dace
Bullhead minnow
Pirate perch
Redside dace
Northern crayfish
Rusty crayfish
Exotic!
Bryozoans
Pectinella magnifica can exceed 2 feet in diameter, though most bryozoans are under 1 foot
Typically a few inches in size,
freshwater sponge colonies
can reach more than 1 foot
Native Unionid Clams
Mapleleaf
Fawnsfoot
Rainbow shell
Round pigtoe
Black sandshell
Let’s Magnify! (x5)
1 foot => 2 inches
Zebra mussel(1 and a half inches)
Exotic!!
Quagga mussel(1 and a half inches)
Exotic!!
Asian Clam(to 2 inches)
Exotic!!
Fingernail clamsto 1 inch
Chinese Mystery
Snail(Exotic)
Sharphorn snail
Native Snails
Brown mystery snail
Big-eared radix
Physids
3-ridge valve snail
Storm hydrolabe
Creeping freshwater limpet
Buffalo pebblesnail
Malacostrans (shrimp and scuds)
Diporeia
Hyalella
Echinogammarus
Gammarus
Bloody-red shrimp
Exotic!
Bryozoans
Lophodella carteri
closeup
Mayflies
Adult
Nymph
Dragonflies and
DamselfliesAdult
More than 230
species in the Great
Lakes region
Nymphs
Stoneflies
Adult
Nymph
Caddisflies
Adult
Larvae
Alderflies and spongilliflies
Adult
Larvae
Flies, midges and mosquitos
Adult
Larvae
Beetles
Adult
Larvae
Waterbugs
Adult water boatman
Water strider nymphs
Dagger and snout moths
Larvae in a reed stem
Adult
Braconid wasps
Adult
Larvae feeding on a caterpillar
LeechPolychaete
Oligochaete
Roundworm
Ribbon wormFlatwormHorsehair worm
Let’s magnify! (x5)
2 inches =>0.4 inches (1 centimeter)
Leptodora
Spiny waterflea
Exotic!
Fishhook waterflea
Exotic!
Daphnia galeata
Daphnia lumholtzi
Exotic!
Daphnia pulex
Large Waterfleas
Simocephalus serrulatus
Let’s magnify! (x5)
1 centimeter => 2 mm
Copepods (Oarsmen)
CalanoidGrazersCyclopoid
Predators HarpacticoidBenthic
NaupliiJuvenile
Resting Egg and Juvenile Waterflea
Resting eggs can survive decades, even centuries until conditions are right for hatching!
Small waterfleas
Tardigrades (waterbears)
Tardigrades can spread a 18 month lifespan (not counting ‘hibernation’) over 60 years!
Let’s magnify! (x5)
2 mm=>0.4mm (400 microns)
Rotifers
Soft-bodied rotifers
Gastrotrichs
Let’s magnify! (x5)
400 microns => 80 microns
Ciliates
Codonella
Vorticella
Stylonichia
StrombilidiumThe fastest animal on earth?
Heliozoa (sun animals)
Amoeba
Can you see the diatoms it has eaten?
Difflugia
Testate amoeba (peeking out of its shell)
Flagellates
Salpingoeca sp. attached to a diatom
ProtozoaPhotosynthetic Flagellates
Lepocinclis
Algae, Nanoplankton, Picoplankton, Bacteria and Viruses
Spring viremia of carp virus
Bacteria – 1 microns
Aphanizomenon, a blue-green
algae
Aphanocapsa
Great Lakes Waterlife
The Great Lakes are home to:
• More than 190 species of fish
• More than 100 species of clams & snails
• More than 200 genera of insects
• More than 60 genera of ‘worms’
• About 100 species of macrozooplankton
• About 275 species of rotifers
• More than 350 genera of algae
Learn More:
http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/seagrant/GLWL/GLWLife.html