Marine Producers

What do they look like?

• Look at the following slides and see if any of them pictures are familiar to you from your experiences at the beach…

                                                                                                    

                                                                

                                    

                                                                                                    

Primary Productivity…production of organic matter by: 1. chemosynthesis- make sugars using H2S (hydrogen Sulfide) or CH4 (methane)2. photosynthesis- make sugars using light

What do Producers “Do for a Living”

Why is this so important?

• Sun’s energy is transformed and available to other organisms

• Other organisms need energy for:

– Reproduction

– Feeding

– Metabolism

Importance of Primary Productivity

• Oxygen

–More than ½ of the oxygen we breathe comes from marine producers

• Organic materialprimary productivity animation

Importance continued

•Primary Production•Shelter and nursery habitat

•Food•Filtration of Water

•Soil stability

                        

      

Nurseries and filtration of water

Nurseries and filtration of water

mass.gov

Nurseries and filtration of water

Where does primary productivity happen?

http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi/image_archive.cgi?c=CHLOROPHYLL

Requirements for Photosynthesis

• Pigments (chlorophyll), light, nutrients, and trace metals– Light is found in upper

several hundred meters– Nutrients are found in

deeper waters– Trace metals are

limiting (not found in high amounts)

Types of Marine Producers

• Bacteria- Responsible for 30-50 % of marine primary productivity

www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect20/A12.html

http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/chess/education/Images/Riftia_Lutz.jpg

www.icm.csic.es/bio/images/mol3.jpg

Algae – (protists) groups of relatively simple living aquatic organisms that photosynthesize

•unicellular algae “phytoplankton”•Single celled

•macroalgae- “seaweed”•Multicellular

Dinoflagellates- Fire Algae

Eye spots for concentrating

light

staffwww.fullcoll.edu/.../coccolithophore.jpg

cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=74594&rendTypeId=4

White Cliffs of Dover

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/GeolSci/micropal/images/calc/calc038.gifhttp://www-ocean.tamu.edu/Quarterdeck/QD5.2/s.apsteinii.html

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Coccoliths/bering_sea.html

http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=35104

Harmful Algae Blooms

• When nutrients are available or some physical conditions of the water are good algae can bloom out of control!!!! (you can see the blooms from space)

• Eventually nutrients are used up and the algae die …decomposition uses up oxygen…can suffocate organisms in that habitat

                                                                                                    

Example: Red Tides • Rapid increases of dinoflagellates• Some produce deadly neurotoxins• Neurotoxins build up in food chain and

can cause illness/ death when animals eat contaminated flesh

In February 2002, the massive die-off and decay of algae from a nearshore harmful algal bloom (a "red tide") caused a rapid reduction in the water's dissolved oxygen concentration, driving tens of thousands of rock lobsters to "walk out of the sea" near the coastal town of Elands Bay in South Africa's Western Cape province. The lobsters in search of oxygen moved toward the breaking surf, but were stranded when the tide went out. Government and military staff attempted to save some of the lobsters, but others were collected for food. A similar stranding from a massive red-tide event occurred at Elands Bay in 1997.

Last type of marine producer

• Marine Plants-ex mangroves and sea grasses

Spartina (cordgrass)

Salicornia (glasswort)

Juncus (rush)

• http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/solidagosemp.html

• http://urbanext.illinois.edu/ShrubSelector/detail_plant.cfm?PlantID=351

• http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&sugexp=gsihc&pq=prickly+pear+cactus&xhr=t&q=prickly+pear+cactus+nj&cp=20&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&wrapid=tlif130012414002010&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1020&bih=578