Saltwater Aquatic Ecosystems

1. Saltwater Aquatic Ecosystems

2. Where are the Oceans?

3. PREDICT: What percent of the earth is covered in water? What percent is land? Explain your prediction.

4. PREDICT:What percent of the earth’s water is salt? What percent is fresh? Explain your prediction.

5. Shoreline and Continental Shelf Where do you think more organisms would live? From the shoreline to the continental shelf. Why?

6. Oceans have many types of ecosystems depending on the conditions (sunlight, temperature, depth, salinity) of that part of the ocean. shoreline is the piece of land at the edge of a large body of water continental shelf is the extended edge of each continent and is submerged under water

7. What kind of organisms live in the ocean? Producers – phytoplankton, algae, seaweed, coral Consumers – fish, whales, sharks, zooplankton Decomposers – bacteria, fungus, marine worms, sea slugs, brittle stars Do you think a crab would be a consumer or decomposer? Another way to classify the ocean’s organisms is by how they live: drifters (jellyfish or seaweed), swimmers (fish), crawlers (crabs), and those anchored to the ocean floor (coral).

8. Where do the oceans organisms live? Some organisms live in the open ocean, near the surface or down to the deep ocean bottom. Plankton float in the upper regions of the water. Some organisms swim to the surface to find food or for air (whales, turtles, sharks) while others live closer to the bottom (lantern fish, octopus, tubeworms).

11. Click here for the interactive food web

13. North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reservewww.nccoastalreserve.netPowerpoint modified by Leah BurnetteA cooperative program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the NC Division of Coastal Management

14. What is an Estuary? • Where land, rivers, the ocean and the atmosphere intersect • Brackish water • 80% - 95% of commercial seafood species spend some part of its life cycle here • There are 2 million acres of estuaries in North Carolina

15. What habitats are found in the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve?

16. Can you find producers, consumers, and decomposers?

19. Salt Marshes-biotic perspectives Maia McGuire, PhD Modified by Leah Burnette Florida Sea Grant Extension Agent

20. What is a salt marsh? • A community of vegetation in areas near estuaries and sounds.

21. Where are salt marshes found? • Along intertidal shore of estuaries • Flat, protected waters • From Maine-Florida, along Gulf coast from Florida-Texas • In FL, most abundant north of the freeze line (70% of state’s salt marsh)

22. The salt marsh community Plants • Marsh grasses: Smooth cord grass, Black needle rush, Swamp sawgrass, Salt meadow cord grass • Plants must be salt-tolerant plants

23. Associated plants • Many are succulent • Exceptions include saltgrass • Many are edible (saltwort, glasswort, sea purslane)

24. Resident animals • Crabs • Fiddler crabs • Marsh crabs • Ribbed mussel • Marsh periwinkle (snail)

25. Tidal Marsh Visitors • Birds • Crabs • Shrimp • Fish • Diamondback terrapin Why would animals be described as a visitor to the Salt marsh?

28. The importance of Salt Marshes • The majority of commercially-important marine species rely on estuaries/salt marsh at some stage of life • Examples include blue crab, oysters, hard clams, shrimp, red drum, seatrout, sheepshead, bluefish, mullet • Nursery Areas, Feeding Grounds

29. Salt marsh food web Dolphins Humans Fish Birds Oysters Insects Mussels Shrimp Crabs Snails Marsh grass Zooplankton Bacteria, fungi Detritus Phytoplankton