1. The Primary Producers & Consumers
Unit 10: Marine Life
The Primary
Producers & Consumers

2. Seaweeds are larger marine plants more obvious
Phytoplankton, for the most part, are single celled plant-like organisms that drift near the ocean surface
They are NOT plants!!!!
Account for between % of ocean carbohydrate production.
Almost invisible to the naked eye, but they are much more important to marine productivity than the larger and more conspicuous seaweeds.
Seaweeds are larger marine plants more obvious
Contribute only 2-10% of the ocean’s primary productivity.
Chemosynthesis accounts for less than 1%.
Biomass is the mass of living tissue in the area.

3. Factors that limit Productivity
Limiting factor is a physical or biological necessity whose presence in inappropriate amounts limits the normal actions of an organism.
Photosynthetic autotrophs require 4 things:
1. water
2. inorganic nutrients
3. carbon dioxide
4. sunlight

4. Ocean ---- water is not a limiting factor
CO2 dissolves readily ---- not a limiting factor
Potential limiting factors of primary productivity are nutrients and light.
Inorganic nutrients are used to construct the larger organic molecules for primary productivity and to construct their skeleton and or shells.
Nonconservative nutrients - nutrients that change in concentration with biological activity.

5. After a period of rapid phytoplankton growth (a phenomenon known as plankton bloom), the ocean surface is often drained of nonconservative nutrients (phosphates, nitrates and silicates).
They become part of the producer or part of the animals that have eaten the producer.
Lack of nutrients is the most common factor limiting primary productivity.
If adequate nutrients are present, productivity depends on illumination.

6. Too little light limits productivity
Too much light can slow and eliminate photosynthesis.
Accessory pigments are light absorbing compounds closely associated with chlorophyll.
Colors: brown, tan, olive, green, and red
They will absorb light then transfer the energy to the chlorophyll when necessary.

7. Plankton Planktos = wandering
Phytoplankton – plant-like members of the plankton community.
Zooplankton – animal-like members of the plankton community.
Plankton drifts or swims weakly
Go where the ocean goes
Unable to move consistently against waves or currents.

8. Only thing in common between various species….
The only feature common to all plankton is their inability to make consistent lateral headway, although many will move vertically in the water column.

9. Plankton Facts Many are in the 1-2 centimeter range.
The largest drifters are the giant jellyfish, with a bell diameter of 3.5 meters.
All plankton larger than about 1 centimeter across is called macroplankton
The plankton that spends their lives within the plankton community are called holoplankton
Some of the planktonic animals are the juvenile stages of crabs, barnacles, clams, seastars
other organisms that will later adopt a benthic life style.
These temporary visitors are Meroplankton

10. Plankton The diversity of plankton organisms is astonishing.
It can contain:
a. giant drifting jellyfish (8meters)
b. arrowworms
c. single-celled creatures
d. mollusks with slowly beating flaps
e. crustaceans
f. algae

11. Plankton will contain many different plant-like species and almost every different type of animal category.
Members of the plankton community are referred to as plankters and do interact with each other (grazing, predators, parasites, and competition)

12. Algae Simple plantlike autotroph
First plants on earth (900 million years old)
Non-vascular
Cell wall
Lack roots, stems and leaves
Must live in or near water
Three Phyla
Chlorophyta
Green algae
Rhodophyta
Red algae
Phaeophyta
Brown algae

13. Chlorophyta Green algae Main pigment – chlorophyll
Symbiotic with lichens and fungi
Store food as starch
7,000 species
Most diverse group of algae

14. Rhodophyta Red algae Main pigment – phycoerythrin
Length reaches greatest depth out of all algae
6,500-10,000 species (only 200 freshwater)
Used in foods
Ice cream, frosting, chocolate milk, dressing

15. Phaeophyta Brown alage Main pigment – fucoxanthin Found in tropics
Eels lay eggs
Includes kelp

16. Phytoplankton Autotrophic plankton - phytoplankton (phyto = plant).
Autotrophic plankton is mostly single celled.
Live in marine and freshwater
It is critical to all life on earth because of
the great contribution to food webs
its generation of large amounts of atmospheric oxygen through photosynthesis.
80% of the oxygen on earth
There are 8 types of phytoplankton.
The most important are:
dinoflagellates
diatoms
coccolithophores

17. Dinoflagellates

18. Dinoflagellates Single cell autotrophs
Some live within the tissues of other organisms
Majority live free in the water – solitary
Most have 2 whip-like flagella (one for movement forward and one to make it spin)
Outside “shell” of cellulose
Reproduces by simple fission once a day
Grow into large numbers
Because of red accessory pigment, when they reproduce in large numbers, they cause a red tide (23 million/gal of water)

19. Bioluminescence - Dinoflagellates will take excess oxygen and combine it with enzymes and other proteins (Lucifer) to produce a glow.
Some species synthesize an effective poison.

20. Diatoms
Most dominant photosynthetic organisms in the plankton community
Most biochemically sophisticated
Their abundance and photosynthetic efficiency further increased the proportion of free oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere.
More than 5,000 species
Rigid cell wall called a frustule consisting of silica.
They are penetrated by perforations through the frustule (dia= through, tomos = to cut)
They are round, elongated, branched or triangular.

21. For the most effective light absorption, chlorophyll is accompanied in diatoms by accessory pigments called xanthophylls.
Xanthophylls are yellow or brown pigments and give most diatoms a yellow-green or tan appearance.
Diatoms store energy as fatty acids and lipids.
These are lighter than their equivalent volume of water which helps the diatoms to float.

23. Coccolithophores Single celled Covered with discs of calcium carbonate
Live near the ocean surface in brightly lighted areas
The calcium carbonate layer is translucent and acts as a sunshade
They can collect in such a number as to turn the water white or chalky
The white cliffs of Dover are deposits of Coccolithophores
They are referred to as nanoplankton due to their small size.

24. White Cliffs of Dover

25. The Primary Consumers
Zooplankton

26. Zooplankton Heterotrophic plankton
Most numerous of the primary consumers of the ocean
The most numerous of zooplankters are the Copepods
Crustaceans, a group that contains the crabs, lobsters and shrimp.
Not all zooplankters are small.