SALTWATERECOSYSTEM

Pomar, Princess Joyce P.

Oceanography-deals with the study of the sea in all its

aspects- physical, geological, and biological. -one who studies the discipline is called

oceanographer.

The term marine comes from the Latin mare, meaning sea or ocean.Marine

HABITAT Marine Habitat

Marine Habitat Zonation

Horizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

Vertical Zonation: Benthic Habitat versus Pelagic HabitatB

A

Marine Habitat Zonation

IntertidalSandy ShoreRocky Sh0re

MudflatSalt MarshMangrove

EstuaryKelp Forest

Seagrass MeadowCoral Reef

Horizontal Zonation Vertical Zonation

Coastal Habitat Open Ocean Habitat Benthic Habitat Pelagic Habitat

Surface WaterHydrothermal Vents

TrenchesSeamounts

Littoral ZoneBathyal ZoneAbyssal ZoneHadal Zone

Epipelagic ZoneMesopelagic ZoneBathypelagic Zone

Abyssopelagic Zone

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

A.

Coastal Habitat/Neritic: found in the area that extends from as far as the tide comes in on the shoreline out to the edge of the continental shelf.

Open Ocean Habitat: found in the deep ocean beyond the edge of the continental shelf.

1.2.

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

A.

Coastal Open Ocean

Most marine life is found in coastal habitats, even though the shelf area occupies only seven percent of the total ocean area.

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

1.Coastal Habitat:

A.

Coastal habitats are mainly distinguished based by their inhabitants like corals, kelp, mangroves and seagrasses.

These organisms reshape the marine environment to the point where they create further habitat for other organisms.

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

1.Coastal Habitat:

A.

1a. Intertidal Zone

Area close to shore; where land and sea meet; covered with water at high tide, and exposed to air at low tide

Organisms are scavengers. They bore and grind exposed rock through the process of BIOEROSION.

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

1.Coastal Habitat:

A.

1b. Sandy Shore

Also called beach; coastal shoreline where sand accumulates; harsh and constantly changing environment

Habitat: birds (gulls, loons, sandpipers, terns and pelicans), clams, periwinkles, crabs, shrimp, starfish, sea urchins, diatoms, bacteria and other microscopic creaturesSpawn eggs: Some fish and turtlesRecover from illness: sea lions

1c. Rocky Shore

Has relative solidity; permanent nature compared to the shifting nature of sandy shores

Plants and animals can anchor themselves to the rocks. Examples are barnacles on rock spaces and mussels on rock crevices.

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

1.Coastal Habitat:

A.

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

1.Coastal Habitat:

A.

1d. Mudflats

Coastal wetlands that form when mud is deposited by tides or rivers; results from deposition of estuarine silts, clays and marine animal detritus

Are of particular importance to migratory birds

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

1.Coastal Habitat:

A.

1e. Salt marsh

Upper part of the mud, which the sea reaches only when the tide is high; start their life as mudflats

Habitat in temperate areas; flat low growing salt tolerant vegetation

1f. Mangrove

Habitat of a number of halophytic (salt-tolerant) plant species (more than 12 families and 50 species worldwide)

Habitat in tropical areas; dominated by mangrove trees of the genus Rhizophora (known as walking trees)

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

1.Coastal Habitat:

A.

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

1.Coastal Habitat:

A.

1g.Estuary

Partly enclosed coastal body of water; transition zone between river environments and ocean environments

Most productive natural habitats in the world (from inflow of both seawater and freshwater that provide high levels of nutrients).

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

1.Coastal Habitat:

A.

1h.Kelp Forest

Underwater areas with a high density of kelp. Smaller areas of anchored kelp are called kelp beds. Kelps are large, leafy brown algae.

Forms some of the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on Earth.

Occurs worldwide throughout temperate and polar coastal oceans.

The kelp forest exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

1.Coastal Habitat:

A.

1i.Seagrass Meadow

Seagrasses are flowering plants; grow in large meadows which look like grassland; submerged in the photic zone, where there is enough sunlight

Seagrass beds make highly diverse and productive ecosystems.

Habitat: juvenile and adult fish, epiphytic and free-living macroalgae and microalgae, mollusks, bristle worms, and nematodesFeed directly on seagrass leaves: green turtles, dugongs, manatees, fish, geese, swans, sea urchins and crabs

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

1.Coastal Habitat:

A.

1j.Coral Reef

Built up by corals and other calcium-depositing animals, usually on top of a rocky outcrop on the ocean floor.

Comprises some of the densest and most diverse habitats in the world

Support a huge community of life, including the corals themselves, their symbiotic zooxanthellae, tropical fish and many other organisms

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

A.

2.Open Ocean Habitat: 2a.Surface Water

Sunlit; usually low in nutrients as organic debris sink to the depths and are lost to the upper zone

Allows photosynthesis by phytoplankton due to light, upwelling of nutrients from the ocean depth, land runoff, storms or ocean currents; extreme multiplication of phytoplankton results to ALGAL BLOOM.

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

A.

2.Open Ocean Habitat:

2b.Hydrothermal Vents

Mid-ocean ridge; act as oases

Such places support unique biomes and many new microbes and other life forms have been discovered at these locations.

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

A.

2.Open Ocean Habitat: 2c.TrenchesAt such depths, water pressure is extreme and there is no sunlight, but some life still exists. The deepest recorded oceanic trenches measure to date is the Mariana Trench, near the Philippines, in the Pacific Ocean at 10,924 m (35,838 ft). A white flatfish, a shrimp and a jellyfish were seen by the American crew of the bathyscaphe Trieste when it dove to the bottom in 1960.

Marine Habitat ZonationHorizontal Zonation: Coastal Habitat versus Open Ocean Habitat

A.

2.Open Ocean Habitat:

2c.Seamounts

Seamounts are undersea mountains (usually of volcanic origin) rising from the seafloor and peaking below sea level.

Marine Habitat ZonationVertical Zonation: Benthic Habitat versus Pelagic Habitat

B.

Benthic Zone or Habitat: sea bottom; the region defined by the surface of the earth beneath the sea

Pelagic Zone or Habitat: Limnetic zone; open sea; the region that encompasses all the watery parts of the sea

1.2.

Marine Habitat ZonationVertical Zonation: Benthic Habitat versus Pelagic Habitat

B.

Benthic

Pelagic

Marine Habitat ZonationVertical Zonation: Benthic Habitat versus Pelagic Habitat

1.Benthic Zone:

B.

1a.Littoral Zone

Also known as intertidal zone

Includes the continental shelf, which extends to about 100 m deep

Marine Habitat ZonationVertical Zonation: Benthic Habitat versus Pelagic Habitat

1.Benthic Zone: 1b.Bathyal Zone

Region of continental slope and rise which extends 2,000 meters

May be “geologically active” with trenches and canyons subject to underwater erosion and avalanches

B.

Marine Habitat ZonationVertical Zonation: Benthic Habitat versus Pelagic Habitat

1.Benthic Zone:

1c.Abyssal Zone

Area of the ocean “deeps” that may lie anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 meters down

1d.Hadal Zone

Very deep areas; trenches may drop below from 4,000 to 10,000 meters

B.

Marine Habitat ZonationVertical Zonation: Benthic Habitat versus Pelagic Habitat

2.Pelagic Zone:

B.

It is also called Limnetic Zone. It has two primary zones:

Neritic Zone: ”Near shore” zone; shallow water zone on the continental shelf

Oceanic Zone: Region of the open ocean beyond the continental shelf; particularly divided into different zones which are mainly determined by light penetration

Marine Habitat ZonationVertical Zonation: Benthic Habitat versus Pelagic Habitat

B.

2a.Epipelagic ZoneAlso known as euphotic zone or “producing region”; upper ocean region which sunlight generally penetrates at about 200 meters

Nutrient levels low; dissolved O2 high; photosynthetic activity

2b.Mesopelagic ZoneAlso known as disphotic zone or twilight zone; from 200 to 1000 meters; light is very dim

2.Pelagic Zone:

Marine Habitat ZonationVertical Zonation: Benthic Habitat versus Pelagic Habitat

B.

2c.Bathypelagic Zone

Part of aphotic zone; from 1,000 to 4,000 meters; dimly lit middle layer

No photosynthetic activity, zooplankton and fish live there and migrate to euphotic zone to feed at night.

2.Pelagic Zone:

Marine Habitat ZonationVertical Zonation: Benthic Habitat versus Pelagic Habitat

B.

2d. Abyssopelagic Zone

Part of aphotic zone; 4,000 meters below; dark bottom layer

Very cold; little dissolved O2

2.Pelagic Zone:

Marine Habitat Zonation

IntertidalSandy ShoreRocky Sh0re

MudflatSalt MarshMangrove

EstuaryKelp Forest

Seagrass MeadowCoral Reef

Horizontal Zonation Vertical Zonation

Coastal Habitat Open Ocean Habitat Benthic Habitat Pelagic Habitat

Surface WaterHydrothermal Vents

TrenchesSeamounts

Littoral ZoneBathyal ZoneAbyssal ZoneHadal Zone

Epipelagic ZoneMesopelagic ZoneBathypelagic Zone

Abyssopelagic Zone

Field Sampling Techniques

Types of Data

Physico-chemical Data• information about the

physical and chemical characteristics of the system.

• water depth• soil depth• water flow rate temperature• pH

Biological Data• information specific to

the biota within the system.

• Species diversity• Plant height• number of leaves• Internode length• Root:shoot ratio• Height of the animal• Number of offspring produced

and average life span

Field Sampling techniques• Quadrat Sampling Method– is a method used to intensively sample a subset of a system, so as

to obtain a representative sample. The technique involves randomly selecting square areas (quadrats) of a specific size within a study site and collecting data of interest within these quadrats.

Field Sampling techniques

• Point-quarter Sampling - is more complex than quadrat sampling but expands

on the same concept in an attempt to reduce the amount of intensive labor involved in quadrat sampling.

Field Sampling techniques• Transect Sampling

- is one of the most widespread ecological techniques for sampling both plants and animals. To implement this technique, the investigator establishes a line (i.e. the transect line) between two points.

Field Sampling techniques• Capture Techniques

- Are useful for many species of mobile animals that are elusive or live in an environment that is hard to access (e.g. many marine environments).- It may include nets, traps, snares, or settlement substrates.

> Grab Sampling– Good for bacteriological sampling.– The 250 ml bacteriological sample.

> Composite Sampling• Suspended sediment Sampler

Common Instruments used:

• Dissolved Oxygen Meter

• pH Meter• Conductivity

Meter• Flow Meter• Salinity Meter• Turbidity Meter• Secchi Disk

• Dissolved Oxygen Meter

• pH Meter

• Conductivity Meter

• Turbidity Meter

• Salinity Meter

• Secchi Disk