Marine Primary Producers Study Guide

What does it mean to be a plankton

-weakly swimming or drifting organisms that go with the current or can swim vertically (lifestyle), some microscopic, some easy to see, and they are nekton (organisms that can swim)

Causes and Effects of Algae Blooms

1. increased amounts of nutrients from fertilizer and runoff which means more nitrates and phosphates 2. warmth 3. sunlight 4. decrease in water movement

brown algae (kelp) (macro algae):

50m deep, additional pigment adaptation meaning they can go deeper down into the water and still absorb sunlight far down

Phytoplankton are responsible for what percentage of primary productivity globally?

80-90

No zooplankton are:

AUTOTROPHS

how do plankton move around?

CURRENTS

NOT a holoplankton?

Crab Larvae, holoplankton is dino, diatoms and krill

Types of Phytoplankton

Diatoms, dinoflagellates, cyanobacteria, coccolithophere

Zooplankton

Heterotrophic (animal-like) ex: copepods, ciliates and larvae, consumers including herbivores and carnivores, micro and macro organisms, vertically migrate to a depth of 200m during day for protection but then near surface again at night to feed (MEROPLANKTON)(HOLOPLANKTON)

Seaweed Adaptations:

Lower wave shock: huge holdfasts, flexible stipe, regeneration Drying out dessications: high sugar content, thick cell walls, hollow core, trap sand, rehydration Predators: secretes tough CaCO3, bitter/bad taste Competition for attachment space: attach to other seaweed, keep blades near sun

Positive and Negative Effects of Algae Blooms

POSITIVE: increasing primary producers and decrease in Co2 in atmosphere NEGATIVE: decreased dissolved O2, fish and marine life die, industry decreases because there are no fish and decreased food source which means no food for animals

Meroplankton

Part of life, nekton-can swim and benthic can crawl

Primary producers by trophic level

Plankton-Zoo/phyto

Phytoplankton

Plant-like, autotrophic with some heterotrophs, ex: diatoms, dinoflagellates, green algae- producers, single cells or chain of cells smallest plankton (pico plankton)-REMAIN NEAR SURFACE, they capture sunlight to produce chemical energy and they consumer carbon dioxide, and release oxygen

Diatoms

Protista, enclosed like a pill box, green, one upper one lower, SiO2 glass, the silica shell is called frustule made of two halves-they store food as oil, the frustule allows photosynthesis, the valves in the shell differ, 55% of the light they absorb is turned into energy which is the best rate. they form chains, spine and oil to help float, they reproduce by dividing in half and drifting apart-smaller over time, or sexual repro

Dinoflagellates

Protista, single-celled autotrophs, external plates made of cellulose, they store food as oil OR starch, whip-like flagella in order to vertically swim, some produce toxins and some are bioluminescent, repro: binary fission, one per day, depends on conditions, many dinoflagellates are bioluminescent, (symbiotic zooxanthellae) which gives coral sugar

Holoplankton

Whole life

macro algae definition

algae is weightless, floats in water,sugar is in all leaves and no need for transport system, plants with no veins for water, no need for roots, O2 diffuses out and CO2 diffuses in through the blades

What can cause an algae bloom?

an increase in sunlight, nutrients, and temperature

green algae (Chlorophyta)

answer

which of the following organisms spend a portion of their lives as plankton?

barnacles, snails, and crabs

rapid increase in a phytoplankton population that leads to water discoloration is called?

bloom

Cyanobacteria

blue-green algae, abundant in ocean responsible for nitrogen fixation, small and unicellular and often grows in colonies, photosynthetic, chlorophyll a, reddish or green photosynthetic pigment

Algae that is kelp?

brown

Zooplankton? (kahoot) are....

carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores

accessory pigment in seaweed

chlorophyll a/b/ carotenoids

mangroves (forests) stabilize:

coastal wetlands

Calcium carbonate covering

coccolithophore

characteristics of zooplankton?

consumers, NOT single celled or remain near surface

Compensation Depth

depth at which oxygen is being created and consumed at the same rate (diatoms have greater compensation depth than dinoflagellates) -AUTOTROPHS use some of the carbs and O2 they produce

zooplankton eat..

each other or other phytoplankton

What does it mean to be plankton

ecological connection

zooplankton protect themselves by..

floating up and down in water column vertically

macro algae types:

green algae, brown algae (kelp), and red algae

red algae (macro algae)

has a red glow that is used for a lot of paints, it can grow at great depths

Biomagnification

is the increasing concentration of a substance (toxic chemicals) in the tissues of organisms that are higher in the food chain

light availability

little photosynthesis below 100 meters, too much light can overwhelm photosynthetic chemistry, color of light matters

green algae (macro algae):

lives in shallow depths in intertidal zone, smallest number of species, good food for tide pool animals "ancestor of true plants"

how do dinoflagellates obtain nourishment?

photosynthesis

Toxic Algae Bloom question:

phytoplankton give off domain acid, biomagnification occurs because all the phytoplankton begin to eat eachother contaminating all the other plankton making everything toxic resulting in bioaccumulation

nutrient availability:

plankton bloom can cause lack of nutrients, common in colder water

Marine plants are...

plants that are vascular

NOT members of phytoplankton..

radiocarians

algae blooms

rapid increase in the algae population, two types of algae: phytoplankton and seaweed

Types of Algae Bloom (red tide) (HABS)

red tides: bloom of red pigment algae (HABS) harmful algae blooms: they have poisonous toxic algae ex: DOMOIC ACID

Bioaccumulation

refers to the accumulation of substances such as pesticides or other organisms, when an organism absorbs a toxic substance faster than the substance excretes itself

Phytoplankton means autotrophic which means..

self-fed

diatoms shells are made of

silica or glass

what causes HABS to be toxic?

specific species of phytoplankton

seagrass forms

submerged meadows

What happens to meroplankton?

they become nekton and benthic

why do large animals die?

they die because of the dead zones caused by the phytoplankton, and they have no food to eat so they starve

zooplankton where they get energy from:

they eat (heterotrophic) and get energy from that

what describes meroplankton?

they spend part of their life drifting

zooplankton size and population:

tiny to large in size, and they have seasonal basis for population

why do zooplankton resurface at night?

to feed

Coccolithophore

unicellular eukaryotic protists, CONTAIN CALCIUM CARBONATE PLATES