Multicellular Primary Producers: Seaweeds and Plants Marine Biology Miss Plumley.
Marine Producers
description
Transcript of Marine Producers
Marine Producers
What do they look like?
• Look at the following slides and see if any of them pictures are familiar to you from your experiences at the beach…
Primary Productivity…production of organic matter by: 1. chemosynthesis- make sugars using H2S (hydrogen Sulfide) or CH4 (methane)2. photosynthesis- make sugars using light
What do Producers “Do for a Living”
Why is this so important?
• Sun’s energy is transformed and available to other organisms
• Other organisms need energy for:
– Reproduction
– Feeding
– Metabolism
Importance of Primary Productivity
• Oxygen
–More than ½ of the oxygen we breathe comes from marine producers
• Organic materialprimary productivity animation
Importance continued
•Primary Production•Shelter and nursery habitat
•Food•Filtration of Water
•Soil stability
Nurseries and filtration of water
Nurseries and filtration of water
mass.gov
Nurseries and filtration of water
Where does primary productivity happen?
http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi/image_archive.cgi?c=CHLOROPHYLL
Requirements for Photosynthesis
• Pigments (chlorophyll), light, nutrients, and trace metals– Light is found in upper
several hundred meters– Nutrients are found in
deeper waters– Trace metals are
limiting (not found in high amounts)
Types of Marine Producers
• Bacteria- Responsible for 30-50 % of marine primary productivity
www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect20/A12.html
http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/chess/education/Images/Riftia_Lutz.jpg
www.icm.csic.es/bio/images/mol3.jpg
Algae – (protists) groups of relatively simple living aquatic organisms that photosynthesize
•unicellular algae “phytoplankton”•Single celled
•macroalgae- “seaweed”•Multicellular
Dinoflagellates- Fire Algae
Eye spots for concentrating
light
staffwww.fullcoll.edu/.../coccolithophore.jpg
cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=74594&rendTypeId=4
White Cliffs of Dover
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/GeolSci/micropal/images/calc/calc038.gifhttp://www-ocean.tamu.edu/Quarterdeck/QD5.2/s.apsteinii.html
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Coccoliths/bering_sea.html
http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=35104
Harmful Algae Blooms
• When nutrients are available or some physical conditions of the water are good algae can bloom out of control!!!! (you can see the blooms from space)
• Eventually nutrients are used up and the algae die …decomposition uses up oxygen…can suffocate organisms in that habitat
Example: Red Tides • Rapid increases of dinoflagellates• Some produce deadly neurotoxins• Neurotoxins build up in food chain and
can cause illness/ death when animals eat contaminated flesh
In February 2002, the massive die-off and decay of algae from a nearshore harmful algal bloom (a "red tide") caused a rapid reduction in the water's dissolved oxygen concentration, driving tens of thousands of rock lobsters to "walk out of the sea" near the coastal town of Elands Bay in South Africa's Western Cape province. The lobsters in search of oxygen moved toward the breaking surf, but were stranded when the tide went out. Government and military staff attempted to save some of the lobsters, but others were collected for food. A similar stranding from a massive red-tide event occurred at Elands Bay in 1997.
Last type of marine producer
• Marine Plants-ex mangroves and sea grasses
Spartina (cordgrass)
Salicornia (glasswort)
Juncus (rush)
• http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/solidagosemp.html
• http://urbanext.illinois.edu/ShrubSelector/detail_plant.cfm?PlantID=351
• http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&sugexp=gsihc&pq=prickly+pear+cactus&xhr=t&q=prickly+pear+cactus+nj&cp=20&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&wrapid=tlif130012414002010&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1020&bih=578