AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY RESTORATION ECOLOGY ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY RESTORATION ECOLOGY ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT

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Title: AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY RESTORATION ECOLOGY ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT


1
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMSLANDSCAPE ECOLOGYRESTORATION
ECOLOGYECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT
  • Chapters 8 and 10

2
What are the basic needs of aquatic biota?
  • CO2
  • O2
  • Sunlight
  • Nutrients- food minerals

3
What factors influence the availability of those
basic needs?
  • Substances dissolved in water- Nitrates,
    phosphates, potassium, O2
  • Suspended matter- (silt, algae) can affect light
    penetration
  • Depth
  • Temperature
  • Rate of flow
  • Bottom characteristics (muddy, sandy, or rocky)
  • Internal convection currents
  • Connection to or isolation from other aquatic
    ecosystems.

4
Types of Aquatic Ecosystems
  • Freshwater Ecosystems
  • Standing Water- lakes ponds
  • Moving Water- rivers streams
  • Transitional Communities
  • Estuaries
  • Wetlands- bogs/fens, swamps, marshes
  • Marine Ecosystems
  • Shorelines
  • Barrier Islands
  • Coral Reefs
  • Open Ocean

5
Freshwater Ecosystems
  • Usually 0.005 salt
  • Some exceptions
  • Great Salt Lakes-
  • 5-27 salt
  • Dead Sea- 30 salt
  • Moving water- high elevations cold high O2
    trout streamlined plants
  • Standing water- lower elevations warmer less
    O2 bass, amphibians cattails, rushes

6
How is a lake stratified and what lives in each
level?
  • Epilimnion- upper layer of warm water high light
    O2 ex water striders, phyto- zooplankton,
    fish
  • Thermocline (mesolimnion) middle layer medium
    light O2 ex phyto- zooplankton, fish
  • Hypolimnion- lower layer of cold water lower
    light O2 ex fish
  • Benthos- bottom level no light little O2 ex
    anaerobic bacteria, leeches insect larvae
  • Littoral- near the shoreline cattails, rushes,
    amphibians, etc.

7
Transitional Communities
  • ESTUARIES
  • Where freshwater dumps into ocean
  • Brackish (less salty than seawater)
  • Has rich sediments that often form deltas
  • Productive biodiverse
  • Organisms adapted to varying levels of salinity
    as tide ebbs flows
  • Nursery for larval forms of many aquatic
    species of commercial fish shellfish

8
Transitional Communities
  • WETLANDS
  • Land saturated at least part of the year
  • Swamps- have trees like bald cypress high
    productivity
  • Marshes- no trees tall grasses high
    productivity
  • Bogs/Fens- may or may not have trees waterlogged
    soil with lots of peat low productivity
  • Fens- fed by groundwater surface runoff
  • Bogs- fed by precipitation

Swamp
Marsh
Bog
Fen
9
Importance of Wetlands
  • Highly productive- get lots of sunlight, ? plants
  • ? animals
  • Nesting, breeding ground for migratory birds
  • Slows flooding by absorbing runoff
  • Silt settles, making water clearer nutrient
    rich
  • Trap filter water
  • Natural chemical rxns neutralize and detoxify
    pollutants
  • Gives H2O time to percolate thru soil replenish
    underground aquifers.
  • Threats- artificial eutrophication (see slide
    13), draining, sedimentation via construction
  • Natures Septic Tank

10
Marine Ecosystems
  • SHORELINES
  • Rocky coasts- great density diversity attached
    to solid rock surface
  • Sandy beaches- burrowing animals
  • Threats- due to hotels, restaurants, homes on
    beach, more plant life destroyed, destabilizing
    soil, susceptible to wind water erosion
  • Insurance high danger of hurricanes, erosion
  • Build sea walls to protect people but changes
    endangers shoreline habitat

11
Marine Ecosystems
  • BARRIER ISLANDS
  • Low, narrow offshore islands
  • Protect inland shores from storms
  • Beauty attracts developers developers destroy
    land
  • New coastal zoning laws protect future development

12
MARINE ECOSYSTEMS
  • CORAL REEFS
  • Clear, warm shallow seas
  • Made up of accumulated calcareous (made of
    calcium) skeletons of coral animals
  • Formation depends on light penetration.
  • Have a symbiotic relationship with algae
  • Very diverse, abundant (rainforests of sea)
  • Threats- destructive fishing (cyanide dynamite
    to stun fish), pet trade about 3/4ths have been
    destroyed

13
What factors can alter aquatic ecosystems?
  • Natural Succession- normal cycle of pond becoming
    forest
  • Artificial Succession- humans add N P to water
    via fertilizer sewage causing succession to
    happen faster EUTROPHICATION

14
What factors can alter aquatic ecosystems?
  • Humans!
  • Find food
  • Recreation
  • Waste disposal
  • Cooling of power plants
  • Transportation
  • Dams, canals

15
Biomes
  • Which biome has the largest total area? The
    smallest total area?
  • Which biome has the highest of undisturbed
    habitat?
  • Which biome has the lowest of undisturbed
    habitat?
  • Which biome has the highest human dominated
    habitat?
  • Which biome has the lowest human dominated
    habitat?

16
LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY
17
LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY
  • Landscape- geographic unit with a history that
    shapes the features of the land and organisms in
    it.
  • Landscape ecology- the study of how landscape
    structure affects the abundance and distribution
    of organisms.
  • Does not just focus on untouched nature

18
LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY
  • Uses geographical information systems (GIS) to
    map patch size, type and configuration to create
    3-D maps
  • These maps assist land planners in analyzing land
    use patterns

19
LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY
  • Focus on how neighboring communities of a
    landscape interact

20
RESTORATION ECOLOGY
  • Chapter 10

21
RESTORATION ECOLOGY
  • Repair or reconstruct ecosystems damaged by
    humans or natural forces
  • Growing field of science
  • People are now being held responsible for their
    actions- restoring wetlands habitat for
    endangered species

Before
After
22
The 5 Rs of Restoration Ecology
  1. Restoration- manipulation of nature to re-create
    species composition ecosystem processes as
    close as possible to the state they were in
    before humans interfered.

Before
After
23
The 5 Rs of Restoration Ecology
  • Rehabilitation- to bring an area back to a useful
    state for human purposes rather than a truly
    natural state.
  • - reverse deterioration if cant be restored
    fully

These people in Africa are trying to use rocks to
create a sort of wind break to prevent wind
erosion of their soil. The soil will never be
like it was but it will hopefully be usable.
24
The 5 Rs of Restoration Ecology
  • Remediation- process of cleaning chemical
    contamination from a polluted area by physical or
    biological methods to protect human ecosystem
    health
  • - Incinerate soil contaminated with oil
  • - use special bacteria to clean up oil spills in
    water (bioremediation)

This is like an artificial wetland- wastewater
comes in, settles, roots cleanse the water
25
The 5 Rs of Restoration Ecology
  • Reclamation- techniques used to restore the
    shape, original contour and vegetation of a
    disturbed site
  • - Surface Mining Control Reclamation Act
    (SMCRA) requires mining operations to restore the
    open pit mines they create to natural state.

Before
After
26
The 5 Rs of Restoration Ecology
  • Re-creation- attempts to construct a new
    biological community on a site so severely
    disturbed that there is virtually nothing left to
    restore.
  • - often must build a wetland elsewhere to make
    up for the one destroyed by developer
  • - Read story of Army Corp of Engineers Florida
    Everglades restoration

27
Preservationists vs. Restorationists
  • Preservationist- dont start destructive projects
    in the first place. Preserve nature- you cant
    always fix what you broke
  • Restorationists- you are never going to be able
    to save every bit of land. Who says changes we
    make in restoring ecosystems is unnatural?
  • Are we members of the community or separate from
    it?
  • Should we use our creative energies to try to
    improve nature, or should we leave well enough
    alone?

28
Tools of Restoration
  • Prairies- collect native prairie grasses from
    graveyards and plant in abandoned farm fields to
    reestablish native grasslands
  • Remove alien species- like privet _at_ nature
    center hunting goats on Galapagos
  • Walk away from ecosystem let recover naturally-
    N. S. Korea after the Korean War

29
Restoration Ethics
  • If habitat was filled with diseased, ugly
    organisms, should you return it to that state?
    Should you reintroduce mosquitoes, black flies,
    leeches, ticks, poisonous snakes?
  • Should you improve on nature?
  • Where do you find plants for restoration? Do you
    take from small population nearby or find larger
    population farther away?
  • Is there more than one natural state? What is
    the history of the area?
  • Since humans are part of nature, whatever changes
    we make to landscape also are natural. Is that
    true?
  • Can we use nature to solve human problems? Read
    story on page 121 about Arcata, Californias
    artificial wetland project.

Canal in China Before
Canal in China After Notice plants used as
filtering system
30
Ecosystem Management
  • How can we have progress and still maintain the
    environment?
  • Aldo Leopold was one of the pioneers on his Sand
    County farm
  • US Forest Services, Bureau of Land Management,
    National Park Service all adopted versions of
    ecosystem management
  • Previously, these agencies used their lands for
    commercial or recreational uses did not focus
    on wildlife habitats, endangered species, etc.
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