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…

IOC training Funding opportunity for training course Go to the link » Go to the link FirstFirst Previou s PauseNextLastSet Speed Delay: undefined seconds Image 1 of 9 Move This cyanobacterial bloom has the typical appearance of a thick layer of green paint. The bloom was found to consist of toxic species in the genus Microcystis. (Photo by W. Carmichael) IOC training Funding opportunity for training course Go to the link » Go to the link FirstFirst Previou s PauseNextLastSet Speed Delay: undefined seconds Image 1 of 9 Move This cyanobacterial bloom has the typical appearance of a thick layer of green paint. The bloom was found to consist of toxic species in the genus Microcystis. (Photo by W. Carmichael) IOC training Funding opportunity for training course Go to the link » Go to the link FirstFirst Previou s PauseNextLastSet Speed Delay: undefined seconds Image 1 of 9 Move This cyanobacterial bloom has the typical appearance of a thick layer of green paint. The bloom was found to consist of toxic species in the genus Microcystis. (Photo by W. Carmichael)

Primary Productivity…production of organic matter by: 1. chemosynthesis- make sugars using H 2 S (hydrogen Sulfide) or CH 4 (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 material primary productivity animation

Importance continued Primary Production Shelter and nursery habitat Food Filtration of Water Soil stability

Nurseries and filtration of water

mass.gov Nurseries and filtration of water

Where does primary productivity happen?

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 % of marine primary productivity

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

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)

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