Saltwater Aquatic Ecosystems

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

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

Shoreline and Continental Shelf

Where do you think more organisms would live?

From the shoreline to the continental shelf. Why?

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

What kind of organisms live in the ocean?

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).

Producers – phytoplankton, algae, seaweed, coralConsumers – fish, whales, sharks, zooplanktonDecomposers – bacteria, fungus, marine worms, sea slugs, brittle stars

Do you think a crab would be a consumer or decomposer?

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).

Click here for the interactive food web

North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reservewww.nccoastalreserve.net

Powerpoint modified by Leah Burnette

A cooperative program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the NC Division of Coastal Management

What is an What is an Estuary?Estuary?

•Where land, rivers, Where land, rivers, the ocean and the the ocean and the atmosphere atmosphere intersectintersect

•Brackish waterBrackish water

•80% - 95% of 80% - 95% of commercial seafood commercial seafood species spend some species spend some part of its life cycle part of its life cycle herehere

•There are 2 million There are 2 million acres of estuaries in acres of estuaries in North CarolinaNorth Carolina

What habitats are found in the

North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve?

Can you find producers, consumers, and decomposers?

Salt Marshes-biotic perspectives

Maia McGuire, PhD

Modified by Leah Burnette

Florida Sea Grant Extension Agent

What is a salt marsh?

• A community of vegetation in areas near estuaries and sounds.

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)

The salt marsh communityPlants

– Marsh grasses: Smooth cord grass, Black needle rush, Swamp sawgrass, Salt meadow cord grass

– Plants must be salt-tolerant plants

Associated plants

• Many are succulent– Exceptions include saltgrass

• Many are edible (saltwort, glasswort, sea purslane)

Resident animals

• Crabs– Fiddler crabs– Marsh crabs• Ribbed mussel• Marsh periwinkle (snail)

Tidal Marsh Visitors

• Birds

• Crabs

• Shrimp

• Fish

• Diamondback terrapin

Why would animals be described as a visitor to the Salt marsh?

1 Lesser Yellowlegs 2 Rush

3 Sea-Milkwort 4 Sharp-tailed Sparrow

5 Black Duck 6 Salt-meadow Grass

7 Great Blue Heron 8 Arrow-grass

9 Common Snipe 10 Sea-Lavender

11 Glasswort 12 Raccoon

13 Salt-water Cord-grass 14 Sedge

15 Mud Crab 16 Semipalmated Sandpiper

17 Worm 18 Amphipod

19 Isopod 20 Mosquito larve

21 Mud Dog Whelk 22 Soft-shelled Clam

23 Mummichogs 24 Atlantic Silverside

25 Sand shrimp 26 Threespine Stickleback

27 Black-bellied Plover 28 Ditch-grass

• 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

The importance of Salt Marshes

Salt marsh food web

Marsh grass

DetritusBacteria, fungi

Insects

Snails

Crabs

BirdsFish

Phytoplankton

Zooplankton

Oysters

Mussels

Humans

Shrimp

Dolphins