1 / 14

Life in the Ocean

Life in the Ocean. Major groups of organisms in ocean Plankton Nekton Benthos. Organisms (in general). Plankton: floaters Nekton: swimmers Won’t deal with these much in this course Comments on fisheries Benthos: bottom dwellers. Plants vs. animals. Phytoplankton

morrisonkevin
Download Presentation

Life in the Ocean

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Life in the Ocean Major groups of organisms in ocean Plankton Nekton Benthos

  2. Organisms (in general) • Plankton: floaters • Nekton: swimmers • Won’t deal with these much in this course • Comments on fisheries • Benthos: bottom dwellers

  3. Plants vs. animals • Phytoplankton • Carry on photosynthesis • Diatoms, coccolithophores, dinoflagellates • Zooplankton • Consumers • Radiolarians, forams, others

  4. PHYTOPLANKTON

  5. ZOOPLANKTON

  6. Time as a planktonic organism • Meroplankton vs. holoplankton • Part of life as a plankton • Part of life as nekton or benthos • Examples (oysters, barnacles, crabs, fish egg)

  7. Nekton • Many varieties • Consider commercial fisheries

  8. Commercial fisheries • Changes in last 50 years • Overfishing • Causes: human population, changes in fishing practices, environmental degradation, poor management. by-catch • Solutions: close fishing areas, marine sanctuaries, tighter regulations, consumer choices (http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_regional.aspx)

  9. Aquaculture • A solution to overfishing? • Pros and cons

  10. Benthos • Rocky shores • Tide pools • Sand and mud • Deep sea • Coral reefs Just a few examples

  11. Where benthic organisms live • Epifuana • Live on top of sediments • Examples (barnacles, starfish, crabs) • Infauna • Live within sediments • Examples (clams, worms)

  12. Epifauna

  13. Infauna (a, b, c, e)

  14. Why these patterns? Land 86% Sea 14% Benthic 98% Pelagic 2% DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE

More Related