FW353 - MSU Marine Biology

Rocky Intertidal

Site alternatively exposed to water/air due to the tides; organisms present create a banding pattern

Tidal Pool

Crater left filled with water after high tide recedes into low tide; very great for studying organisms of intertidal

Intertidal Banding

Formed by the organisms living there; white-barnacles, black-mussels, brown-seaweed; species differ from place to place (same structure) but not all places have all the same bands

Barnacles

Organism that uses glue to stick other stuff and dies if gets unstuck; have internal fertilization, largest penises in the animal kingdom (proportionally, why proximity where they settle is so important)

Barnacle Larvae

Nauplius larval form, have an indirect life cycle; swim out 1/2-3 miles out to sea before coming back to settle near another barnacle

Barnacle Feeding

Turn legs into current to collect food, use a swim movement into their mouth; pull everything into their shell when threatened

Kelp Forests

Where barnacle larvae tend to hangout; preyed on by rockfish, how many make it back to intertidal determines state of the specific zone

Intertidal State 1

What happens when the amount of barnacle larvae that make it back are in abundance; thick distinct bands with no open space

Intertidal State 2

barnacle larvae are heavily preyed upon resulting in a lot of open space in the zone; allows lesser competitor to settle in the band it normally would not be able to

Keystone Predator

Organism that preys on a normally competitively dominant prey species enabling an increased level of biodiversity

Teleosts

Bony fish; indirect life cycles, external fertilization, ~31,000 named species

Elasmobranchs

cartilaginous fish, direct life cycles with internal fertilization, ~1,000 named species

Elasmobranchs Reproduction

Internal fertilization, only 6-7 eggs per event, direct development with lots of provisions, 45% oviparity, 55% viviparity

Oviparity

Female provides a lot of yolk to each offspring, develop in the sac surrounded by the yolk

Viviparity

Live birth; develop inside mother with lots of provisioning; use up set amount of yolk and then born

Cannibal Viviparity

A lot of fertilized eggs which are all provided yolk and develop, they then begin eating one another; one survives from each section

Placental Viviparity

Fertilized eggs with yolk sac, closely associated with mother’s blood vessels; constantly getting nutrition from mother

Rhincodon

Whale sharks; largest fish on Earth (10-15 tons, 50ft long), and suspension feeds

Cetorhinus

Basking sharks; the second largest fish (5 tons, 50ft long), and suspension feeds

Manta Rays

Largest skates (1 ½ tons, 20-23ft wide), and suspension feeds

Productivity

The reason the largest animals are evolving into suspension feeding; the most productivity is produced in the first trophic level, less and less available in the following trophic levels

Mysticetes

Group of whales that feed with baleen (suspension feed); feeding apparatus hangs from upper jaw; smallest size is comparable to the odontocete orca

Baleen

Made from the same material as our fingernails, inner edge frayed into fibers that catch food

Suspension Feeding

Water flows in over gill archer, gill raker deflects harmful objects/is the feeding aparatus

Baleen Feeding

Suck water in, squeeze water out the side of the mouth through the baleen, sifts out food

Odontocetes

Whales that are toothed, all teeth are pegged shaped, just different sizes

Threats to Estuaries

People wanting to be near ocean, cutting down mangroves, loss of freshwater

Value of Estuaries

Type of wilderness, large commercial catch within, offshore commercial catch large-species use them as nurseries, absorb storm energy