1. AQUATIC ECOLOGY AQUATIC LIFE ZONES: TYPES OF ORGANISMS:
SALTWATER (MARINE) Ecosystems: Estuaries, coastlines, coral reefs, coastal marshes, mangrove swamps, continental shelf, & deep ocean
AQUATIC Ecosystems: Lakes and Ponds, Streams and Rivers, and Inland wetlands
TYPES OF ORGANISMS:
Plankton – free floating (or weak swimmers)
(phytoplankton – primary producers & zooplankton – primary consumers)
Nekton – strong swimmers (fish, turtles, whales)
Benthos – bottom dwellers (oysters, barnacles, crustacean, worms)
Decomposers – mostly bacteria

2. SALINITY & TEMPERATURE DETERMINE THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OCEANIC REALMS

3. Adaptations for Floating
Physical & Chemical Characteristics
Water provides buoyancy = physical support, reduces the need for large supporting structures of trunks and legs, helps aquatic organisms move vertically
Water provides consistency = keeps organism from drying out or requiring water, constant temperature range
Water provides readily dissolved nutrients – b/c water is the universal solvent the nutrients are ready for uptake by primary producers
Water provides constant flux – like wind terrestrially, water gives constant circulation and disperses organisms and their larvae & dilutes toxins
Adaptations for Floating

5. Abyssal Primary Productivity
No primary producers – many organisms rise to the euphotic zone at night to feed
Abyssal
Very little nutrients (marine snow) ~250, 000 named organisms

6. Coastal zone makes up only <10% of the ocean and contains 90% of all marine organisms
Diversity of organisms in each layer is determined by: 1) temp 2) sunlight ) dissolved oxygen 4) nutrients (dissolved CO2 to from carbonate ions for shells), nitrates, phosphates

7. ESTUARIES/Salt Marsh Ecological and Economic Benefits
Partially enclosed area of coastal water where freshwater & silt from rivers meets the sea.
High productive area
Temperature & Salinity vary daily rhythms of the tides, seasonally with river input fluctuations, and with unpredictable storms
Serves as a breeding ground form any organisms (waterfowl, marine organisms)
Chesapeake Bay
Filtrates sediments, excess nutrients and pollutants
BAYS, SOUNDS, & INLETS
Acts as a buffer to inland areas during storms

8. Lie along the coast line in estuaries and intertidal communities of the tropics and subtropics.
Mangroves provide habitat form many organisms & reduce long term beach erosion
mangroves
Act as a filtering system – especially for heavy metals that settle into the anoxic soil below
Adaptations to live in anoxic / nutrient poor soil; marine water conditions; & limited supply of freshwater
Leaves secrete excess salts
Pneumatophores –”roots” for uptake of gases

9. DUNE SYSTEMS Vegetation is crucial for the success of the dune system
Construction & Development should ideally be behind the secondary dune system
Economically dunes are important in the reduction of storm surge damage to coastal development

10. Barrier Island Systems
Helps protect main land development.
Also protects coastal dunes & estuary systems.

11. CORAL REEF DYNAMICS
Most biologically diverse aquatic system (niche availability)
Three categories of organisms 1) sessile – attached organisms 2) borrowing organisms ) fishes
Live between 18°C to 30°C (even one degree above that can trigger bleaching)
Coral Reefs exist in low nutrient waters (oligotrophic) and therefore rely on an endosymbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) to provide nutrients
Photomicrograph of algae clusters in coral polyp

12. Hydrothermal Vent Communities - abyssal plains
Ecosystem that survives without sunlight!
Primary producers = chemosynthetic bacteria
Bacteria use sulfur compound to synthesize energy
Clams & Tubeworms either eat bacteria or harbor them in their body to supply themselves with “food”
Click on the NOAA bar at a the bottom of slide during slideshow to hyperlink to NOAA video clips of vent submersible exploration