1. Saltwater Aquatic Ecosystems

2. Where are the Oceans?

3. PREDICT: What percent of the earth is covered in water
PREDICT: What percent of the earth is covered in water? What percent is land? Explain your prediction.

4. PREDICT:What percent of the earth’s water is salt
PREDICT:What percent of the earth’s water is salt? What percent is fresh? Explain your prediction.

5. Shoreline and Continental Shelf
Where do you think more organisms would live?
From the shoreline to the continental shelf. Why?
because sunlight can reach deep and the water is warm making food abundant.

6. Oceans have many types of ecosystems depending on the conditions (sunlight, temperature, depth, salinity) of that part of the ocean.
shoreline is the piece of land at the edge of a large body of water
continental shelf is the extended edge of each continent and is submerged under water

7. What kind of organisms live in the ocean?
Producers – phytoplankton, algae, seaweed, coral
Consumers – fish, whales, sharks, zooplankton
Decomposers – bacteria, fungus, marine worms, sea slugs, brittle stars
Do you think a crab would be a consumer or decomposer?
While they eat fish, mollusks etc they also scavenge the ocean floor and shorelines for dead organisims.
Another way to classify the ocean’s organisms is by how they live:
drifters (jellyfish or seaweed), swimmers (fish), crawlers (crabs), and those anchored to the ocean floor (coral).

8. Where do the oceans organisms live?
Some organisms live in the open ocean, near the surface or down to the deep ocean bottom.
Plankton float in the upper regions of the water.
Some organisms swim to the surface to find food or for air (whales, turtles, sharks) while others live closer to the bottom (lantern fish, octopus, tubeworms).

10. What do the arrows show?

11. Click here for the interactive food web

13. North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve www
North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve Powerpoint modified by Leah Burnette A cooperative program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the NC Division of Coastal Management
The North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve is a cooperative program between the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management.
Pictured here are white ibises which are commonly found in NC’s estuaries. This wading bird has a long decurved red bill and red legs.

14. What is an Estuary?
Where land, rivers, the ocean and the atmosphere intersect
Brackish water
80% - 95% of commercial seafood species spend some part of its life cycle here
There are 2 million acres of estuaries in North Carolina
Estuaries are where salt water from the ocean and fresh water from rivers and the atmosphere (i.e. rainwater) meet. This creates what is know as brackish water, which can range in salinity from 35 parts per thousand (ocean water) to 0 part per thousand (fresh water).
Estuaries are very important to NC. Not only does it serve as a nursery for commercial seafood, it also serves as a buffer against storms and hurricanes.
There are approximately 2 million acres of estuaries along in NC.

15. What habitats are found in the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve?

16. Can you find producers, consumers, and decomposers?
Producers – Spartina – these are the tall grasses mostly found in estuaries and salt marshes
Consumers – oysters, clams, blue crab, shrimp, mussels, copepod, coccolihophore (feeds on producers)
Decomposers – bacteria and fugus – mostly feed on dead spartina
Can you find producers, consumers, and decomposers?

19. Salt Marshes -biotic perspectives
Maia McGuire, PhD
Modified by Leah Burnette
Florida Sea Grant Extension Agent

20. What is a salt marsh?
A community of vegetation in areas near estuaries and sounds.

21. Where are salt marshes found?
Along intertidal shore of estuaries
Flat, protected waters
From Maine-Florida, along Gulf coast from Florida-Texas
In FL, most abundant north of the freeze line (70% of state’s salt marsh)

22. The salt marsh community
Plants
Marsh grasses: Smooth cord grass, Black needle rush, Swamp sawgrass, Salt meadow cord grass
Plants must be salt-tolerant plants

23. Associated plants Many are succulent
Exceptions include saltgrass
Many are edible (saltwort, glasswort, sea purslane)

24. Resident animals Crabs Fiddler crabs Marsh crabs Ribbed mussel
Marsh periwinkle (snail)

25. Tidal Marsh Visitors Birds Crabs Shrimp Fish Diamondback terrapin
Why would animals be described as a visitor to the Salt marsh?

27. 1 Lesser Yellowlegs
2 Rush
3 Sea-Milkwort
4 Sharp-tailed Sparrow
5 Black Duck
6 Salt-meadow Grass
7 Great Blue Heron
8 Arrow-grass
9 Common Snipe
10 Sea-Lavender
11 Glasswort
12 Raccoon
13 Salt-water Cord-grass
14 Sedge
15 Mud Crab
16 Semipalmated Sandpiper
17 Worm
18 Amphipod
19 Isopod
20 Mosquito larve
21 Mud Dog Whelk
22 Soft-shelled Clam
23 Mummichogs
24 Atlantic Silverside
25 Sand shrimp
26 Threespine Stickleback
27 Black-bellied Plover
28 Ditch-grass

28. The importance of Salt Marshes
The majority of commercially-important marine species rely on estuaries/salt marsh at some stage of life
Examples include blue crab, oysters, hard clams, shrimp, red drum, seatrout, sheepshead, bluefish, mullet
Nursery Areas, Feeding Grounds

29. Salt marsh food web Dolphins Humans Fish Birds Oysters Insects Mussels
Shrimp
Crabs
Snails
Marsh grass
Zooplankton
Bacteria, fungi
Detritus
Phytoplankton