GE EO | Primary Producers & Marine Animals

Only until slide 57

Phytoplankton

Minute, drifting photosynthetic organisms

Responsible for producing between 90% and 96% of the surface ocean’s carbohydrates.

Seaweeds

Larger marine photosynthesizers

Contribute from 1% to 5% of the ocean’s primary productivity

Chemosynthetic organisms

Account for between 2%
and 5% of the total
productivity in the water
column.

30 - 50 Billion metric tons

the amount of carbons bound in
carbohydrates per year

1 - 2 Billion metric tons

-total producer biomass

10

The total mass of a primary producer is assumed to be about __ times the mass of the carbon it has bound into carbohydrates.

wandering

Plankton, derived from the Greek word planktos, which means “_______.” They drift or swim weakly, going where the ocean goes, unable to move consistently against waves or current flow.

plankters

Members of the plankton community, also referred to as ________, can and do interact with one another. Some can swim weakly.

grazing
predation
parasitism
competition

______, ______, ____________, and ________ occur among members of this dynamic group of planktons.

zooplankton

_________, known as heterotrophic plankton, combine with the phytoplankton to constitute the most important of all marine communities

Meteor
1925

The first large-scale systematic study of plankton was carried out by biologists aboard the research vessel _______ during the German Atlantic Oceanographic Expedition of _____.

Plankton Nets

________ are customarily made of nylon or Dacron cloth woven in a fine interlocking pattern to ensure consistent spacing between threads.

unglazed porcelain filters

The smallest of plankton are trapped by specially made by _____ ______ _______ through which water is forced under very high pressure.

phytoplankton
plant

Autotrophic plankton that generate glucose by photosynthesis; The primary producers in the ocean, referred to as _____________ (“phyton” means “_______”).

euphotic zone
2%

Phytoplankton drift within the _______ _____, a thin, sunlit surface layer of the ocean, which makes up less than __ of ocean volume but supports most pelagic life.

50 trillion kg

Phytoplankton are critical to global food webs and produce significant atmospheric oxygen, binding __ ________ __ of carbon annually—50% of Earth's photosynthetic food.

diatoms
dinoflagellates
cyanobacteria
archaea

Major types of phytoplankton include _______, ____________, and tiny producers like _______ and _______, which may contribute more to oceanic productivity than larger species.

1980s
Picoplankton

In the early _____, oceanographers began to recognize the significance of __________, the smallest photosynthetic organisms in the ocean.

0.2 to 2 micrometers

Picoplankton are typically ___ to __ _______ in size, too small for light microscopes to resolve and pass through most filters unnoticed.

100 million

Despite their tiny size, they are incredibly abundant, with ___ ________ per liter of seawater across all depths and regions of the ocean.

Prochlorococcus

blue

_________, a cyanobacterium, is typical of picoplankton. It can absorb ____ light at low intensities due to a unique chlorophyll variant, allowing it to thrive in the deep euphotic zone.

microbial loop

It facilitates the recycling of nutrients and energy at a microscopic scale. This loop enhances the productivity of the ocean and operates separately from the larger, more visible food chains.

________, besides cyanobacteria, are highly productive in plankton.

They evolved relatively recently and became dominant in phytoplankton productivity around ______ ________ years ago in the Cretaceous period.

5,600
round
elongated
branched
triangular

Over _______ species of diatoms are known to exist.
The larger diatom species are barely visible to the naked eye. They come in various shapes like _____, _____, ______, or ______.

period

Marine diatoms come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The largest of these is about the size of the _______ at the end of this sentence.

auxosporeAre small, single-celled autotrophs.

Diatom cells can divide asexually into smaller daughter cells until those cells reach a critical size. They must then reproduce sexually to form an ____________, which can eventually grow to the original cell’s size.

dinoflagellates
flagella

______ are small, single-celled autotrophs. The great majority of the organism lives free in the water. Most have two whiplike projections called _________, in channels grooved in their protective outer cell wall of cellulose. One flagellum drives the organism forward, while the other causes it to rotate in the water.

surface bioluminescence
bioluminescence

Dinoflagellates are the most common source of ________ ________. __________ is the process by which energy from a chemical reaction is transformed into light energy.

harmful algal blooms

During a red tide, the presence of millions of dinoflagellates turns seawater brownish ­red. The term red tide is misleading—they are not caused by the tide and they are not always red. _____ ____ _____ (HAB) is the preferred term. some red tides may contain high abun­dances of different planktonic organisms like the diatom Pseudo- nitzschia.

Southern California
2011

Visitors are drawn to the beach during a red tide in ______ ______ in ____. The number of bioluminescent dinoflagellates in the water causes the waves to glow as they break.

coccolithophores
coccoliths

_________ are small, single-celled autotrophs covered with disks of calcium carbonate (__________) fixed to the outside of their cell walls

calcareous ooze
White Cliffs of Dover in south-eastern England

Coccoliths can also build seabed deposits of _______ _____. The famous ______ ______ of ______ in ____-______ _____consist largely of fossil coccolith deposits up- lifted by geological forces.

nutrients
light

Primary productivity in the ocean depends on the availability of ______ and ______. While water and carbon dioxide are abundant, the aforementioned are often limiting factors for photosynthetic autotrophs (organisms that produce carbohydrates through photosynthesis).Nonconservative nutrients like nitrate, phosphate, and iron become depleted after plankton blooms, sinking below the sunlit zone with dead organisms.

nitrate
phosphate
iron

Nonconservative nutrients like _______, ______, and ____ become depleted after plankton blooms, sinking below the sunlit zone with dead organisms.

Upwelling

_______, the rising of nutrient-rich deep water, is crucial for replenishing surface nutrients, especially in areas with little or no thermocline (e.g., Antarctic waters).

low nutrient availability

Tropical oceans often have _____ _____ ________, except in regions with upwelling or shallow areas like coral reefs, which experience high productivity.

100 meters
surface

Light is necessary for photosynthesis but can be too weak below ____ _____ or too strong at the _____, overwhelming some organisms.

upper euphotic zone

Light quality matters—chlorophyll absorbs red and violet light, but red light is quickly absorbed near the surface. Therefore, primary productivity is highest in the _____ ______ ____ where light is adequate.

Compensation depth
1%
below

______ ____ is the break-even depth wherein the production of carbohydrates and oxygen by photosynthesis in a day will exactly equal the consumption of carbohydrates and oxygen.

It marks the bottom of the euphotic zone, ___ of the surface that light penetrates
It is always ________ the depth of greatest productivity,

sun angle
turbidity
surface turbulence

The factors affecting compensation depth (3 factors)

coastal upwelling
land runoff

The distribution of phytoplankton corresponds to the distribution of nutrients. Plankton are most abundant near continents due to _______ and _____ which creates the highest levels of nutrients.

1 gC/m²/day.
30 gC/m²/year

The water above some continental shelves sustains productivity in excess of _ __/__/__.
Open tropical oceans are generally low in surface nutrients due to the strong thermocline which prevents from deep-water nutrients to reach the surface and making productivity low throughout the year

Productivity rarely exceeds __ /___/__ in most tropics.

tropical coral reefs
high latitude areas
temperature and southern subpolar zones

______ ____ ____ are an exception because autotrophic dinoflagellates live and thrive within the tissues of coral animals, and therefore are productive.
______ ____ ____ have severely limited productivity due to long winters and reduced light penetration
Consistent high productivity is left to the _______ and ______ _____ ____

WATER RUNOFF FROM LAND (WHICH PROVIDE NEARSHORE NUTRIENTS)

INCREASING OR DECREASING LEVELS OF SUNLIGHT DUE TO VARIATIONS IN CLOUD COVER

CHANGES IN STRENGTH OF ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION AT HIGH LATITUDES DUE TO OZONE MOLECULES HIGH IN THE ATMOSPHERE

Zones of high and low productivity change as climate changes based on the following factors (3 factors):

1% and 5%
seaweeds
protistans

Although most of ocean's primary productivity is generated by single-celled phytoplankton, between __ and __ is carried out by large marine multicellular algae we informally call _____.

Technically not plants, they are structurally and biochemically different from vascular plants to be classified as _______.

62 meters (205 feet)
7,000

the largest seaweeds can reach _________
amount of species of multicellular marine algae that have been identified is _______.

euphotic zone

Seaweeds cannot grow below the ______ _____ because all depend on photosynthesis to produce the energy-rich compounds necessary for life.

400 degrees C
750 degrees F
dark red light

The water streaming from hydrothermal vents can reach _____°C (____°F).

The vents radiate a ____ ___ ___ in the way hot electric-stove elements to glow.

chemosynthesis
hydrogen sulfide
carbon dioxide
oxygen

Most deep sea primary productivity results from _______. Specialized archaean and bacteria that live near hydrothermal vents are able to use _____ ______, _____ _____, and ______ to produce carbohydrates.

1970s
1,220 meters
4,000 feet
400 degrees C
750 degrees F

In the late _______, researchers discovered that microorganisms could live in deep sediments and water-yielding rock formations.

Microbial ecosystems exist in the pores between interlocking mineral grains of many rocks at drilling depths to ________ (____) and temperatures to ______ (______).

842 meters
2,800 feet

Bacterial and archaean communities as deep as ____ ______ (_______) below the seabed in sediments 14 million years old.

100
10 million
100 to 2,000 years

There may be as few as ____ or as many as ______ ______ bacteria in each gram of rock. Some of these organisms divide once every _____ to _____ _____.

one-third
SLIMES (subsurface lithoautotrophic microbial ecosystem)

Some researchers believe these well-hidden microbial ecosystem communities comprise about _____-______ of Earth's total biomass.

The aggregations of producers and consumers have been called _______ (for _______ _______ _____ ______).

Ultramicrobacteria
extremophiles

____________, dwarf bacteria apparently adapted to exceedingly small rock pores.
_____________ are specialized organisms capable of life under extreme conditions.

striated frogfish
pectoral and pelvic fins

The ______ _______ exhibits a unique combination of physical traits and adaptive strategies.

It can camouflage itself in sandy habitats near sponges, as well as on rocky or coral reefs.

One of the fastest strike speeds of any animal on
Earth.

If it needs to move into a different position, the frogfish
can use it's modified ______ and ____ ____ to "walk"
to an area better suited for ambushing its prey

cyanobacteria
single-celled organisms
oxygen revolution

Had photosynthesis not evolved, life would have died out when the supply of usable energy-rich molecules in the environment was exhausted.

The first primary producers - probably an early form of _________ - assembled their own food from inorganic molecules and then broke the food down to release energy.

The first animal-like creature were _____-_______ ________, which began to prosper during the ______ _______ - a time of radical change in the Earth's atmosphere.

2 billion and 400 million years ago
1%
20%
aerobic respiration
ozone

During the oxygen revolution, between _ ______ and ______ _____ ago, the activity of photosynthetic autotrophs changed the composition of the atmosphere from less than __ to it's present oxygen-rich mixture of more than ___.

This made ______ _______ practical, speeding the disassembly of food molecules.

______ derived from this oxygen blocked most of the sun's dangerous ultraviolet rays radiation from reaching Earth's surface.

Animal
Phylum
tribe

_______ is a multicellular organism unable to synthesize it's own food and often capable of movement.
________ (from the word phylon, "_____") - a group of animals that shares similar architecture, level of complexity, and evolutionary history.

Ediacara Hills of Australia
Burgess shales of British Columbia
Chengjiang beds of southwestern China.

Small but fascinating "shapshots" of early marine life are preserved in fossil fuels found in the ________ ______ __ _______, in the ______ ____ __ ____ _____, and in the _________ ___ __ ________ _____.

Invertebrates
90%
33

_______ are generally soft-bodied animals that lack a rigid internal skeleton for the attachment of muscles, but many invertebrates possess some sort of hard, protective outer covering, which can be continuous (like a snail shell) or segmented (like a lobster shell).

____ of all living and fossil animals are categorized as the aforementioned category.

Biologists currently recognize at least __ invertebrate phyla.

Phylum Porifera
suspension feeders
1,500 liters (400 gallons)
simple diffusion

There are 10,000 species of the _____ ______, simple attached animals, that are marine. They range from the size of a bean to the size of a
small automobile and come in a few basic shapes:
branching, vaselike, and encrusting.

They are _______ _______—they strain plankton and tiny
organic food particles from the surrounding water. A
large sponge may filter more than ________ liters (____ gallons) of water each day.

Sponges have no digestive system, only individual
digestive cells; they have no circulatory, respiratory,
or nervous systems. Excretion and the movement of
gases into and out of the animal occur by ______ ______.

Phylum Cnidaria
9,000
cnidoblasts
needle
to shoot upwards

________, with _____ marine species. This group of carnivorous animals takes its name from the large, stinging cells called __________ (knide, “_____”; blastikos, “__ ____ ____”), deployed on tentacles that bend or retract toward the mouth.

Cnidarians exhibit _______ ______; their body parts radiate from a central axis like the spokes of a wheel. Some, such as sea anemones and corals, attach to rocks or other objects; others, such as jellies, swim freely in the water.

medusae
polyp

Cnidarians occur in two forms:
________ are predatory animals that swim by the rhythmic contraction of their bell-shaped bodies. They catch their prey with trailing tentacles armed with cnidoblasts

_______ have no skeleton and attach firmly to the substrate or burrow into it with a sticky basal disc on which they can slide slowly, like a snail

corals
aragonite

_______ have calcareous skeleton covered by living tissue and are permanently cemented in place.
These animals themselves construct the reefs by secreting hard skeletons of _______ (a fibrous, crystalline form of calcium carbonate).

hermatypic
moundbuilder

There are two types of coral:
________ (hermatos, “______”) have bodies contain masses of single-celled symbiotic dinoflagellates, which carry on photosynthesis, absorb waste products, grow, and divide within their coral host.

They prefer clear water and waters with normal or slightly elevated salinity. Thus reefs growing in shallow water have a flat upper surface because rain is lethal

ahermatypic

There are two types of coral:
_________ (opposite of hermatypic) lack interior dinoflagellates, so they deposit calcium carbonate much more slowly, and the structures they build do not resemble those found in the tropics.

They build smooth banks on the cold, dark, outer edges of temperate continental shelves from Norway to the Cape Verde Islands, and off New Zealand and Japan. The rarest corals of all are large solitary organisms living on the abyssal floors and outer continental shelves of the Antarctic.

bilateral symmetry

The worm body plan exhibits ________ _______

Phylum platyhelminthes
flat
worm

______ (platys, “____”; helmins,”_____”) are the simplest worms.
Some are parasitic of vertebrates However, most are freeliving predators and scavengers

Phylum Nematoda
thread
12,000
Anasakis

_______ (nematos, “_____”) are also called roundworms. Most of the _______ known species are free-living and microscopic, thriving in garden soil and marine sediments.
_________ occasionally infect people due to it residing in sashimi or raw fish

Phylum annelida
Metamerism
many
bristles

________ (annelus, “ring”) are the most evolutionarily advanced worms
_________, as this segmentation is called, is a convenient strategy for increasing the size of an animal simply by adding nearly identical units.

The 5,400 species of class Polychaeta (poly, “_____”; chaetae, “____”), the largest and most diverse class of annelids, are also the most important marine annelids

Phylum Mollusca
soft bodied

______ (molluscus, “____ _____”) are bilaterally symmetrical and generally have obvious heads, flow through digestive tracts, and well-developed nervous systems. A few are segmented. Most are marine, and most have an external or internal shell

Class Gastropods
stomach
foot

_______ (gaster, “_______”; pod, “____”), the largest class of molluscs usually inhabit relatively large shells.

Class Bivalvia
two
door

______ (bi, “___”; valv, “door”)Animals enclosed in twin shells (clams, oysters, mussels, and scallops), bivalves surrender mobility for protection, and usually gather food by suspension feeding rather than pursuit.

Class Cephalopoda
head
foot
450

__________ (cephalon, “_____”; pod, “____”) can move by creeping across the bottom, by swimming with special fins, or by squirting jets of water from an interior cavity.

Most cephalopods catch prey with stiff adhesive discs on their tentacles that function as suction cups, and they tear or bite the flesh with horny beaks

Squid and octopuses are more advanced cephalopods.

Only about ____ species of cephalopods live today, a small percentage of the number of species known from fossils

Phylum Anthropoda

_____ (arthron, “_____"; pod “_____”) contains ____________ species.
The arthropod body plan is a variation on the basic annelid theme; bodies show clear segmentation with a pair (or pairs) of appendages per segment. All are bilaterally symmetrical.