1. “Life in Puget Sound, or What you (almost) can’t see…”

2. Earth data from SEAWifs; Puget Sound data from PRISM project Puget Sound -- a fjord, an estuary, an ecosystem

3. South tip of Camano Island, September 2, 2002 Somewhere here is the secret to life in Puget Sound... and here...

4. Why is Puget Sound such a great place for marine life? Primary Productivity! Primary productivity is a bio-chemical process (mostly photosynthesis) that converts the sun’s energy into food for the entire ecosystem. Primary producers need nutrients, water, carbon- dioxide, and energy (light) to create the organic carbon all other life depends on.

5. Ocean productivity is measured in grams of carbon produced per square meter per year. A typical ocean rate is ~ 120 gC/m 2 /yr, but in the main basin of Puget Sound the rate is ~ 460 gC/m 2 /yr. Primary production measurement

6. Hint: find the four things phytoplankton need in this diagram. Why is Puget Sound so productive? (let’s look at nutrient cycling in the open ocean)

7. September - NovemberDecember - FebruaryMarch - MayJune - September Land and ocean productivity by season

8. © 2002 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Global Distribution of Plankton Productivity The distribution of phytoplankton corresponds to the distribution of macronutrients. The productivity of plankton varies between the seasons.

9. Washington coast productivity over time

10. The coast has upwelling... …and the Sound has mixing! Productivity is typically nutrient limited; how do we get nutrients to the surface?

11. Computer models can help us to predict circulation (and thus upwelling) in Puget Sound......this movie shows surface temperature in Puget Sound over 1 tidal cycle. Model provided by Mitsuhiro Kawase, UW Oceanography

12. …but feeding efficiency is only about 10% per trophic level. Plankton serves as the base of the food chain (and as the source of oceanic organic carbon)...

13. © 2002 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. In a food web, phytoplankton and cyanobacteria are at the lowest level, zooplankton at the next, and so on. Detritus (and bacteria that break it down) reconnect all levels to the primary producers.

14. A local food web - Padilla Bay, WA

15. © 2002 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Plankton are drifting plants, bacteria, and animals of many different species and sizes. We collect plankton with nets and study it in many ways, from simple observation under a microscope to genetic analysis with sophisticated DNA techniques. Plankton and how to catch it