Oceans 11
Ocean Life
Producers:
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Nutrition
o Autotrophs (Producers): make own food
 Phototrophs: use sunlight
 Chemotrophs: use surrounding chemical reactions
Plankton
o Zooplankton: refers to animal-like microscopic life
o Phytoplankton: plant-like microscopic life
Phytoplankton:
o Single celled algae
o Diatoms: yellow-green with intricate shell
o Elongated: pleurosigma
o Wheel shaped: coscinodiscus
o Dinoflagellates: have two flagella for moving
o Chaetocerus: have setae for joining other chaetocera to form chains or sheets of colonies
o These are the major producers of the ocean
o They perform photosynthesis to convert the sun’s energy to simple sugars
Algae: seaweed
o Present along the coastlines/ inshore regions
o Not found in open ocean
o Multicellular Producer: base organism on food chain.
o Types: green/red/brown
Green Algae
o Have lots of chlorophyll: photosynthesis
o Most abundant in freshwater but some salt water
o Found in intertidal zone where light is plentiful
o adaptations for surviving with out water when tide is out;
o Sea lettuce: dries out during low tide, yet stays alive
o Cladophora: grow filaments to trap sand and water during low tide
Red Algae
o are algae that are able to grow at slightly greater depths
o all contain phycoerythrin, a pigment that absorbs blue light and is what alows the greater
depth
o adaptations:
o Coraline red algae: calcified sections that give protection from pounding waves in surf.
o Pepper dulce: makes chemicals so that it is bitter to herbivores
Brown Algae
o all brown algae contain fucoxanthin (brown pigment)
o adaptations:
o Rock weed: tolerates drying out and has air bladders for keeping it afloat
Oceans 11
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o Kelp: holdfast for holding onto rocks in waves
Flowering Plants
o Flowering plants were once terrestrial (on land)
o All flowering plants have roots, stem/ trunk, leaves, flowers
o All require near direct sunlight
o Adaptations:
 Mangrove trees:
 specialized cells that regulate the flow of water and salt into the plant
 Prop roots keep the tree up right in soft muddy bottoms
 Sea grasses:
 Cells are able to excrete excess salt
Oceans 11
Consumers:
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Zooplankton
o Animal-like single celled creatures
o Plankton is classified by size, and life cycle
o Single celled for life: holoplankton
o Single celled for larvae: meroplankton
o Smallest are protozoans
o Larvae (egg size) are microplankton
o Larger are macroplankton
o Largest (jelly fish) are megaplankton
Location
o Plankton: organisms that float
o Nekton: organisms that swim
o Benthos: bottom dwellers
Nutrition
o Producers: make own food
o Consumers: eat for food
 Filter feeders: feed on plankton by filtering out microscopic life from sea water
ie. Sponge, clam, barnacle
 Herbivores: feed on phytoplankton/ seaweed/ grasses
ie. Manatee, green sea turtle,
 Carnivores: feed on filter feeders/ herbivores/ other carnivores
ie. Salmon, tuna, great white skark
 As a rule organisms only eat what they can fit into their mouth.
 Larger eat the smaller.
 Parasites: feed on other organisms without the intent to do harm but may cause
death of the host organism
ie. Parasitic copepods, marine nematodes
 Symbiote: two connected organisms receive nourishment/ protection from each
other.
ie. Lichen (algae and fungi)
 Decomposers: breakdown waste
ie. Hagfish, marine worms, bacteria, fungi
o Consumer Relationships
 Predation: where one organism kills and feeds on another
 Commensalism: where one organism lives close to and benefits from another, but
the other does not benefit
 Mutualism: where two organisms live together and both benefit from each other
 Symbiosis: where two live together and cannot survive without each other
 Parasitism: where two organisms live together, but one does harm to the other