Transcript Marine Producers

Marine Producers
Look at the following slides. Do you see any
primary producers?
What is Primary Production
Primary Productivity…production of
organic matter by:
1. chemosynthesis- make sugars using H2S
(hydrogen Sulfide) or CH4 (methane)
2. photosynthesis- make sugars using light
Importance to Food Web
• Sun’s energy (or chemical energy) is transformed
and available to other organisms through the
food web
• Primary production is base of food chain
– Other organisms need energy for:
•Heat
•Reproduction
•Feeding
•Metabolism
Other Benefits of Primary Production
• Oxygen
– More than ½ of the oxygen we breathe comes from
photosynthetic marine producers
• Shelter and nursery habitat
– Baby fish and inverts can hide among roots of marine
plants in estuaries and bays
• Filtration of water
– Marine plant roots trap particles and pollution
preventing it from entering oceans
• Soil stability
– Roots hold soil and sand in place and prevent erosion
n
Nurseries and filtration of water
Nurseries and filtration of water
Nurseries and filtration of water
mass.gov
Where does primary productivity
happen? List 2 general locations…
http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi/image_archive.cgi?c=CHLOROPHYLL
Requirements for Photosynthesis
• Light
– Pigments harness light energy in photosynthetic
reactions to convert CO2 into glucose.
– Light is found in upper several hundred meters
• Nutrients and trace metals
– Nutrients and trace metals like iron are limiting
– Needed to make new plant tissue and do
photosynthesis
– Nutrients are replaced by upwelling. Iron is
replenished by upwelling and atmospheric deposits
A major Saharan dust plume event, November 1988
wyrdscience.wordpress.com
Types of Marine Producers
1. Marine Bacteria
2. Protists
Phytoplankton
Macroalgae
3. Marine Plants
Marine Bacteria
- Responsible for 30-50 % of marine
primary productivity
- First life on the planet with fossils
as old as 3.8 my old
Chemosynthetic Bacteria
• Release energy stored in compounds like
H2S , CH4 or NH3
• Base of the food web in places like
hydrothermal vent communities and
methane seep communities found in the
deep ocean
http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/chess/education/Images/Riftia_Lutz.jpg
http://www.scienceinschool.org/2010/issue16/coldseeps
Photosynthetic Bacteria
• Contain chlorophyll like green plants and
use light energy to make organic
compounds
• Cyanobacteria- blue green photosynthetic
algae
– First ps orgs on our planet
– Played a role in accumulation of O in the
atmosphere
www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect20/A12.html
Other Bacterial Roles
• Bacteria carry out important roles as
heterotrophs and decomposers
– Ensure recycling of essential nutrients
– Found everywhere in ocean from ocean surface
to deep ocean sediments
– Bacterial decomposition of dying plankton
blooms linked to cloud formation and climate
www.icm.csic.es/bio/images/mol3.jpg
Marine Protists
• Algae – (protists) groups of relatively simple
living aquatic organisms that
photosynthesize
• Lack specialized tissue found in plants
•unicellular algae “phytoplankton”
•Single celled
•macroalgae- “seaweed”
•Multicellular
Phytoplankton
• Oil droplets and spines help keep
phytoplankton afloat in sunlit areas of ocean
– Oil is possible energy source for us!
• Some have primitive eyespots for
concentrating light
• Many have cell walls
Eye spots for
concentrating
light
Dinoflagellates- Fire Algae
• Some are bioluminescent
• Two flagella for mobility
• Zooxanthellae- specific symbiotic dinos that
live with other animals like anemones, coral
and giant clams
– In coral they fix CO2 and help in forming coral
skeleton
Coccolithophores
• Covered in plates of calcium carbonate
– Shells cover large portion of ocean floor (1000’s
of meters thick in some places)
– Important in trapping carbon in the deep ocean
• Do well in nutrient poor and low sunlight
conditions
• Produce DMS- a chemical linked to cloud
formation
staffwww.fullcoll.edu/.../coccolithophore.jpg
http://www-ocean.tamu.edu/Quarterdeck/QD5.2/s.apsteinii.html
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/GeolSci/micropal/images/calc/calc038.gif
White Cliffs of Dover
cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=74594&rendTypeId=4
Diatoms
• Cell walls made of silica
• Glassy frustules deposit on ocean floor and
cause thick deposits of diotomaceous ooze
– Mined for human use
• Important in open water primary
productivity
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
http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=35104
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
Seaweed
• More complex than phytoplankton but still
less complex than plants
• Entire body of a seaweed is called the
thallus
• Three types of seaweeds based somewhat on
pigment color
– Chlorophyta- green
– Rhodophyta-red
– Phaeophyta-brown
• Blade: absorbs
sunlight
• Stipe: carries
sugars from the
blades to the rest of
the plant
• Holdfast: anchors
the plant to rocks
Types of Seaweeds
Chlorophyta
• Mostly freshwater
• Simplest
• Similar to land plants
Phaeophyta
• Almost all marine
• Dominant on rocky
coastlines
• Can take exposure to air
• Largest in size and most
complex
• Forests of kelp seaweed are
productive environments
• Gas filled floats
NJ examples…
Types of Seaweed
• Rhodophyta
– More species than other two groups
combined
– More simplified than brown group
but variety of shapes and sizes
– Wide tolerance of environmental
conditions- shape varies in response
Economic Importance
• Food
• Chemicals used in food processing and
thickening, emulsifying and stabilizing
• Chemicals added to cosmetics and
pharmaceuticals
• Fertilizers
• Possible biofuel
•
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
Marine Plants
•Mangroves, salt marsh plants
and sea grasses
•True leaves, stems and roots
•Specialized tissues
•Evolved from land plants
Seagrasses
• Most are tropical
• Live completely submerged for entire lives
Salt Marsh Grasses
• Inhabit shores and estuaries protected from
wave action
• Usually only submerged by high tide
• Many have salt glands to excrete excess salt
• Important in stabilizing sand dunes which
buffer and reduce impact of storm waves
and wind
Spartina (cordgrass)
Juncus (rush)
Salicornia (glasswort)
Mangroves
• Shrubs and trees adapted to live on muddy
or sandy shores
• Can tolerate salt, low oxygen sediment, and
submergence
• Grow in thick forests in tropical and
subtropical latitudes
Mangroves