1. Aquatic Zones & Ecosystems
Ocean Zones & Ecosystems
Freshwater Zones & Ecosystems
Related Ecology

2. Benthic Division

3. 6 Areas 1. Supralittoral zone (supra= upper, litus=shore)
Water splashes but does not stay submerged
Drying out and thermal stress are a challenge
2. Littoral zone (littoral= of shore)
The band of coast covered and uncovered by tidal action- the intertidal zone

4. Benthic Division cont. 3. Sublittoral zone (sub= below)
Inner sublittoral- near shore
Outer sublittoral- ocean floor out to edge of continental shelf
4. Bathyal zone
Seabed on the slopes and down to great depths

5. Benthic Division cont. 5. Abyssal zone
Deep waters of the ocean
6. Hadal zone (hades=underworld)
Deepest: trench walls and floors

7. Pelagic Division

8. Neritic Zone The Neritic Zone includes: Supratidal Zone
Intertidal Zone
Subtidal Zone
Supratidal Zone
Subtidal Zone
Continental Slope

9. Neritic Zone Supratidal zone: Harsh conditions
Dry, only stenohaline (organisms that need low salinity) organisms can live here
Air temperature determines zone temperature (not water)
Water splashes from waves or wind sprays
One organism adaptation is to burrow
Above the high tide line
Salt grass, snakes, mice, ghost crabs

10. Neritic Zone Intertidal Zone: Area of great change
Waves spill over/breakers
Area of great adaptations for living with or without water
Tidal patterns determine temperature
Euphotic (light can go through the water)
Sessile (attached) benthic (bottom) organisms
Burrowing organisms
Adaptations to prevent drying out-close up/burrow
Adaptations to cling to rocks
Between the low tide line and the high tide line
Green algae, barnacles, tube worms

11. Neritic Zone Subtidal Zone: Always covered with water Complete waves
High productivity (lots of biomass produced)
Lots of nutrients
Euphotic ( light goes through water)
Warm
Sessile (attached) and vagrant (move) benthic (bottom) organisms
Nektonic (free swimming) and planktonic (drifters) organisms
Lots of oil drilling here
Between the low tide line and the edge of the continental shelf
Sailfish, dolphins, sea turtles, kelp

12. Oceanic Zone Ocean Zone includes 4 smaller zones
These zones are determined by availability of light
Epipelagic Zone (The sunlight zone)
Mesopelagic Zone (The twilight zone)
Bathypelagic Zone (The midnight zone)
Abyssopelagic Zone (The abyss zone)
Hadopelagic Zone (The trench zone)

13. Oceanic Zone Epipelagic Zone (The sunlight zone) Euphotic Warm
Fewer nutrients
Nektonic (free swimming) and planktonic (drifters) organisms
Complete waves
Extends from the continental shelf
Detritus (organic material) falls below like snow
Lower productivity (production of biomass)
Sharks, whales, Sargassum seaweed

14. Oceanic Zone Mesopelagic Zone (The twilight zone)
Fading light/twilight/disphotic
Temperature drops rapidly/permanent thermocline
Pressure increases
Nektonic and zooplankton
Less photosynthesis/ respiration continues
Detritus (organic material)/marine snow
Low productivity (production of biomass)
Zooplankton, squid

15. Oceanic Zone Bathypelagic Zone (The midnight zone)
Completely dark/aphotic
Isothermal (same temperature throughout)/cold
Pressure great
Organisms adapted to pressure and no light
Nektonic
Detritus (organic material)/marine snow
Low productivity (production of biomass)
Angler fish

16. Oceanic Zone Abyssopelagic Zone (The abyss zone)
Completely dark/aphotic
Isothermal (same temperature throughout)/cold
Pressure greatest
Geothermal vents providing for chemosynthetic production of biomass
Higher productivity (production of biomass)
Marine debris (snow) accumulates
Special adaptations of organisms
Vagrant (move) benthic, nektonic bacteria
Giant tube worms, blind crabs, chemosynthetic bacteria

17. Oceanic Zone Hadalpelagic Zone (The hadal zone)
Completely dark/aphotic
Isothermal (same temperature throughout)/cold
Pressure even greater due to being in trenches
Geothermal vents providing for chemosynthetic production of biomass
Marine debris (snow) accumulates
Special adaptations of organisms

18. Ecosystems in the Open Sea
Neuston ecosystem (plankton that live afloat on the sea surface)
Very thin layer (few mm)
Receives maximum amount of sunlight
Largest floating ecosystem- Sargasso Sea
Sargassum- brown algae accumulates in the middle of the North Atlantic as floating mats.

19. Ecosystems in the Open Sea cont.
Continental Shelf
Rarely exceeds 656’; s nutrients are kept in the photic zone.
Highly productive ecosystem

20. Ecosystems in the Open Sea cont.
Upwelling
Significant to open sea ecosystems because they bring nutrients from deep water to shallow more productive depths

21. Coastal Ecosystems Estuaries Exists where the tides meet rivers
Trap and accumulate runoff sediments, so they are rich with nutrients and biologically productive
Provide shallow sheltered water with a steady stream or nutrients
Serve as nurseries for 75% of commercial fish species

22. Costal Ecosystems cont.
Salt Marshes
Exist in estuaries and along the coast
Halophytes- plants with adaptations that allow them to survive in salt water.
Have stomata on leaves that allow it to draw in oxygen into its submerged parts.
Sacrificial leaves that serve as a storage area for excess salt and fall of when the slat load reaches a certain point
Salt glands on leaves and stem excrete excess salt.

23. Costal Ecosystems cont.
Mangrove Swamps
Various adaptations allow them to live in salt water
Grow above waterline on stilt-like roots, which allows oxygen to reach the roots
Provide habitats for juvenile fish and invertebrates because of strong, tangled roots.
Protect habitat and coasts from erosion

24. Costal Ecosystems cont.
Sea grasses
Provide shelter
Internal salinity is the same as the sea water
Reproduce by releasing pollen into currents

25. Costal Ecosystems cont.
Intertidal zones
May be above waterline a times
Adaptations help retain moisture

26. Costal Ecosystems cont.
Beaches
Rich and productive ecosystem
Acts a filter that processes compounds entering the sea
Sand protects coastline
Reduce sedimentation caused by costal erosion
Complex organisms live in submerged beach sand
Meiofauna
Benthic organisms that live in spaces between sand grains

27. Costal Ecosystems cont.
Kelp and Seaweed
Seaweed-red, green, and brown algae
Kelp forest- very productive

28. Costal Ecosystems cont.
Coral Reefs
Most productive ecosystem
Threats to coral reefs
Nutrients
Increased temperature is causing coral bleaching (Global Warming)
Competitive algae
Sedimentation
Coral Disease

29. Polar Ecosystems The Arctic
Species found here have special adaptations
Anti-freezing compounds in blood
Low metabolism
Upwellings: Increased productivity because of nutrients being brought to the top
Challenges to marine organisms:
Reduced sunlight
Near freezing water

30. Polar Ecosystems cont. The Antarctic
Largest nutrient-rich area on Earth
Supports massive phytoplankton blooms

31. Deep-sea Ecosystems The Abyssal Zone Average temperature 2C
No primary productivity (nutrients come from marine snow)
Greatest diversity found in the meiofauna

32. Deep-sea Ecosystems cont.
Whale Falls
Place where dead whales come to rest on the deep ocean floor

33. Deep-sea Ecosystems cont.
Hydrothermal Vents and Cold Seeps
Home to chemosyntheitc organisms

34. Deep-sea Ecosystems cont.
Hadal Depths- Ocean Trenches
Makes up the deepest ocean depths
Scientists know little because of limits of technology
Few submersibles have been built that can descend safely into the zone
1 manned trip has been made to the deepest known spot in the ocean.

35. Freshwater ecosystems
“We will never be able to feed the hungry or meet the needs of the billion people that lack access to clean water unless we can sustain the benefits and services that freshwater ecosystems are providing to society free of charge.”
Brian Richter, co-lead for the Conservancy’s Global Freshwater Team

36. Freshwater Ecosystems
3% of world’s water is fresh.
99% of this either frozen in glaciers and pack ice or is buried in aquifers.
The remainder is found in:
Lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams

37. Lakes and Ponds Three Distinct Zones:
Littoral Zone – close to shore, light reaches bottom
Producers include: plants and algae
Consumers include: tiny crustaceans, flatworms, insect larvae, snails, frogs, fish and turtles
Limnetic Zone – layer of open water, photosynthesis occurs, more prominent in lakes
Producers include: planktonic algae
Consumers include: swimming insects and fish and microscopic crustaceans

38. Lakes and Ponds Draw this in your Notes!
Profundal Zone – many lakes (but few ponds), not enough light to support productivity
Primary consumers are either attached to or crawl along the sediments (Benthos)
Sediments support bacteria and fungi
Draw this
in your Notes!

39. Freshwater ecosystem
Draw this
in your Notes!
Draw this
in your Notes!

40. Fall Overturn Change of seasons:
Warming of surface water prevents water from mixing with deeper water. (Warm water is less dense than cold.)
Surface water is oxygen rich.
Air above it
Photosynthesis
Water in profundal zone is stagnant.
In the fall,
Surface water cools, becomes denser and sinks to bottom, carrying oxygen with it

41. Fall Overturn

42. Rivers and streams Current makes the water more oxygenated
Photosynthesizers play a minor role in the food chains
Large fraction of the energy for consumers is from land (ex. Falling leaves)

43. Additional Ecological INFO
Types of producers
Limiting Factors
Plankton
Lifestyles

44. Primary Production This is the base of an ecosystem.
In the ocean there are several producers, including:
Plants
Algae
Plankton

45. The land is only slightly more productive than the ocean.
Marine plants and algae are responsible for producing a fair amount of dissolved oxygen in the ocean.
However, a very important group of primary producers are the plankton.

46. Plankton
A wide variety of organisms that share a habitat and lifestyle
Not one species, but include many species from virtually every major group of organisms found in the sea.
They can be autotrophic or heterotrophic.

47. Types of Plankton

48. Phytoplankton Account for 92-96% of oceans primary productivity
These are the only plankton that are producers (they can undergo photosynthesis).
Examples: Diatoms and Dinoflagellates

49. Zooplankton
Primary and Secondary consumers that feed on phytoplankton and other heterotrophic plankton.

50. Largest Plankton in the sea is the Mola Mola or Ocean Sunfish (it is also the largest bony fish).

51. Limiting Factors
Physical or Biological necessities that restrict survival of primary producers.
Too much or too little will reduce population of an organism.

52. 1. Eutrophication
Pollution that results from excess nutrients in the ocean.
Algae and plants overgrow due to presence of fertilizers and reduce the amount of nutrients available to plankton.

53. 2. Plankton bloom
Can deplete nutrients available for plants, algae and other plankton.

54. 3. Sunlight
All primary producers require sunlight to undergo photosynthesis.
The amount of sunlight in the ocean varies due to depth, season and/or water clarity.

55. IV. Marine Lifestyles Plankton
Group of plants (phytoplankton) and animal (zooplankton) that exist adrift in ocean currents
Neuston
Plankton that float at the surface (i.e.: Portuguese man-of-war)

56. Nekton What you visualize when you think of marine organisms
Swim- small invertebrates to large whales

57. Benthos
Live on or in the bottom
Motile or sessile

58. 3 groups Epifauna Epiflora Infauna
Animals that live on the sea floor (crabs)
Epiflora
Plants that live on the sea floor (sea grasses)
Infauna
Partially or completely buried in the sea floor (clams, sand dollars, tubeworms)

59. Deposit or Suspension Feeders
Deposit- Feed off detritus (loose organic and inorganic matter) drifting down from above
Suspension- Filter particles (mostly plankton) suspended in water for food.