Marine Life and Adaptations to the Marine Environment

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Marine Life and Adaptations to the Marine
Environment
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Overview

• More than 250,000 identified marine species
• Most live in sunlit surface seawater

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Classification of living organisms

• Three domains of Life
• Archaea
• Prokaryotic, includes extremophile bacteria
• Bacteria
• Prokaryotic, includes what used to be in Kingdom
  Monera
• Eukarya
• Eukaryotic cells
• Includes Protists, Fungi, Plants, and Animals

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Domain Archaea

• Bacteria - Prokaryotic cells
• Cell wall differs from those bacteria in Domain
  Bacteria
• Includes extremophile bacteria
• Acidophiles
• Halophiles
• Thermophiles
• Etc.
• These bacteria are found to chemosynthesize in
  hydrothermal vents

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Domain Bacteria

• Bacteria prokaryotic cells
• Cell wall made of peptidoglycan
• Includes Staphylococcus, Bacillus, Vibrio,
  Pseudomonas, etc.
• Only a very small of bacteria are pathogenic
• Bacteria are very important in things like
  nitrogen cycle, decomposition, food making, etc.
• Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic bacteria

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• Archaea and Bacteria
• Most numerous organisms on Earth!!
• Think about how much bacteria lives just on you
• Viruses are thought to out number bacteria but if
  you are just talking about live organisms then
  bacteria are the most numerous
• Simplest of organisms
• But, can live in every thinkable habitat, even
  those once thought to be unsuitable to life, very
  successful organisms!!

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• Now we will talk about Domain Eukarya
• Includes protists, fungi, plants, animals

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Domain Eukarya

• Protists
• Algae
• Photosynthetic
• Can be unicellular, colonial, or multicellular
• Multicellular - seaweed kelp, sargassum, sea
  lettuce
• Unicellular phytoplankton, produce majority of
  oxygen in atmosphere comes from our
  phytoplankton, can cause red tides (examples are
  dinoflagellates and diatoms)
• Protozoans
• Heterotrophic
• Unicellular
• Amoeba, paramecium

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Domain Eukarya

• Fungi
• Heterotrophic
• Secrete enzymes and absorb nutrition
• Since they are heterotrophic, they are more
  closely related to animals than to plants
• Multicellular (mold) or unicellular (yeast)

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Domain Eukarya

• Plants
• Autotrophic, multicellular
• Many plant species cannot tolerate saltwater
• Very few species grow in/near ocean
• Sea grasses
• Mangroves
• Dune plants

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Domain Eukarya

• Animals
• Heterotrophic, multicellular, have motility at
  some point in life cycle
• Wide variety
• From simplest of animals (sponges) to most
  complex (mammals)

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Viruses

• Acellular entities
• Are they alive??? many scientists say no
• Do not have the machinery for life processes,
  have to take over host cell
• The ultimate parasites
• Viruses very prevalent in the marine environment

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Taxonomic classification

• Systemized classification of organisms
• Kingdom
• Phylum
• Class
• Order
• Family
• Genus
• Species
• Fundamental unit
• Population of genetically similar, interbreeding
  individuals

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• With new molecular methods (comparing DNA
  sequence and amino acid sequences of certain
  proteins), traditional taxonomy is changing
• Taxonomists are discovering new relationships
  between species
• Molecular data gives a clearer picture of
  relatedness as opposed to the traditional ways of
  classifying organisms
• Morphology, embryology, behavior, habitat, etc.

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• Lets take a closer look at Plant and Animal
  taxonomy

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• Kingdom Plantae
• Nonvascular Plants mosses, etc
• Vascular Plants
• Seedless Vascular Plants ferns, etc
• Seed Vascular Plants
• Gymnosperms naked seeds
• Angiosperms flowering plants (in the marine
  environment these include mangroves, sea grasses,
  etc.)

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• Kingdom Animalia
• Parazoa no true embryonic tissues
• Sponges
• Eumetazoa true embryonic tissues
• 2 true tissues radial symmetry Cnidarians,
  Ctenophores
• 3 embryonic tissues bilateral symmetry all
  other animals
• Acoelomate only flatworms
• Coelomates
• Protostomes
• Deuterostomes

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• Radially Symmetrical Animals, 2 true embryonic
  tissues
• Cnidarians
• Class Anthozoa sea anemones, corals
• Hydrozoa Hydra
• Scyphozoa jellies
• Ctenophores no stinging cells, complete gut
  unlike in the Cnidarians

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• What are the embryonic tissue layers?
• Tissue layers that form during development
• Ectoderm
• Mesoderm
• Endoderm

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• What is radial symmetry?
• What is bilateral symmetry?

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• What is an acoelomate?
• What is a coelomate?

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• Bilaterally symmetrical animals are divided into
  2 groups
• Protostomes 1st blastopore that forms during
  development becomes the mouth
• Includes Annelids, Arthropods, Molluscs
• Deuterostomes 1st blastopore that forms during
  development becomes the anus
• Includes the Echinoderms, Chordates

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• Bilaterally symmetrical animals
• Platyhelminthes flatworms
• Protostomes
• Annelids
• Mollusks
• Nematods
• Arthropods
• Deuterostomes
• Echinoderms
• Chordates

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• Platyhelminthes flatworms
• Class Turbellaria free-living flatworms
• Class Trematoda flukes
• Class Cestoda - tapeworms

http//ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/photos/m
arine-worms//marine-worms03-flatworm_18260_600x45
0.jpg
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Protostomes

• Mullusca
• Class Polyplacaphora - chitins
• Class Gastropoda snails, conchs
• Class Bivalvia oysers, scallops
• Class Cephalopoda squid, octopus

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Protostomes

• Annelida
• Class Oligochaeta earthworms
• Class Polychaeta many marine species, sand
  worms, feather dusters
• Class Hirudinea - leeches

Marine feather duster worm
http//www.aquariumdomain.com/viewMarineInvertSpec
ies.php?invert_marine_id26
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Protostomes

• Nematoda round worms
• Many of these are parasitic

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Protostomes

• Arthropoda
• Largest group of animals on the planet!!!!
• Chelicerates horseshoe crabs and arachnids
• Crustaceans marine and freshwater, crabs,
  lobster, shrimp, barnacles
• Insects and relatives

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Limulus polyphemus
Callinectes sapidus
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Deuterostomes

• Echinodermata
• Adults have pentahedral symmetry but larvae are
  bilaterally symmetrical
• Class Ophiuroidea brittle stars
• Class Echinodea sea urchins
• Class Holothuroidea sea cucumber
• Class Crinodea sea lillies

Sea cucumber from IRL
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Deuterostomes

• Chordata
• Characteristics dorsal hollow nerve cord,
  notochord, post-anal tail, pharyngeal gill slits
• Subphylum Urochordata tunicates
• Larvae have bilateral symmetry, look like tadpole
• Subphylum Cephalochordata lancelets
• Subphylum Vertebrata
• Superclass Agnatha jawless fishes
• Superclass Gnathostoma jaws
• Class Chondrichthyes
• Class Osteichthyes
• Class Amphibia
• Class Reptilia
• Class Mammalia

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Vertebrates

• Class Chondrichthyes
• Sharks, rays

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Vertebrates

• Class Osteichthyes
• Bony fish, ray-finned fish
• Great diversity in the ocean!
• Very small to very large
• Large tuna, grouper, sailfish
• Deep sea fish
• Flattened fish flounder
• Seahorses
• Eels

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Vertebrates

• Class Reptilia
• Includes birds now!!!
• Sea turtles, sea snakes, pelicans, penguins,
  osprey, sea gulls

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http//seaturtlesofindia.org/?page_id12
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Vertebrates

• Class Mammalia
• What are the characteristics of mammals?
• Carnivores Sea otters, Polar bears, pinnepeds
  (walruses, seals, sea lions)
• Sirenians manatees
• Cetacea
• Odontocetes toothed whales dolphins,
  porpoises, sperm whale
• Mysticetes baleen whales gray whale, right
  whale, blue whale (largest animal to roam the
  Earth)

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Classification in the marine environment by
habitat and mobility

• Plankton (floaters)
• Nekton (swimmers)
• Benthos (bottom dwellers)

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Plankton
http//i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/2110
315/icephytoplankton-main_Full.jpg

• Most biomass on Earth consists of plankton
• Phytoplankton
• Microscopic algae, Autotrophic
• Zooplankton
• Heterotrophic
• Protozoans, tiny animals, larvae of larger
  animals
• Bacterioplankton
• Virioplankton
• Viruses that infect bacteria and eukaryotic cells

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Plankton

• Holoplankton
• Entire lives as plankton
• Example is algae, protozoans, small microscopic
  animals
• Meroplankton
• Part of lives as plankton
• Juvenile or larval stages in the plankton
• Examples are lobsters, some fish species, etc.
• Macroplankton
• Large floaters such as jellyfish or Sargassum
• Picoplankton
• Very small floaters such as bacterioplankton

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Nekton

• Independent swimmers
• Most adult fish and squid
• Marine reptiles
• Marine mammals

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Benthos

• Epifauna live on surface of sea floor
• Infauna live buried in sediments
• Nektobenthos swim or crawl through water above
  seafloor
• Most abundant in shallower water

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Number of marine species

• More land species than marine species
• Ocean relatively uniform conditions
• Therefore, less adaptation required, less
  speciation
• Dont get this fact confused with of individual
  organisms
• There are fewer different species in the ocean
  but greater of individuals
• Majority of life on Earth lives in the ocean!!
• Diversity in the ocean is high, also think
  about different types of fish (seahorses to
  sharks, for example)
• Marine species overwhelmingly benthic rather than
  pelagic
• Most of these will be in shallow coastal benthic
  areas where there is light and a lot of primary
  productivity

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• Marine organisms have a lot of adaptations for
  living in the marine environment
• Lets take a look at some of these adaptations

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Adaptations of marine organisms

• Physical support
• Buoyancy
• How to resist sinking
• Different support structures in cold (fewer)
  rather than warm (more appendages) seawater
• Smaller size

http//www.solaster-mb.org/mb/images
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Adaptations to marine life

• Oil in micro-organisms to increase buoyancy
• Over-time, if these organisms die and sink to
  bottom
• Can become offshore oil deposits

Fish egg with oil droplet
Fig. 12.9
http//www.rpgroup.caltech.edu/natsirt/aph162/web
pages/dylanandco/lab1/image
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Adaptations to marine life

• Streamlining important for larger organisms
• Less resistance to fluid flow
• Flattened body
• Tapering back end fusiform

http//www.wissenschaft-online.de/sixcms/media.php
/591
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Fin designs in fish

• Vertical fins as stabilizers
• dosral and anal fins
• Paired fins for steering and balance
• Pelvic and pectoral
• Tail fin (caudal) for thrust

http//www.biologycorner.com/resources/fish_fins.g
if
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Adaptations to marine life

• Narrow range temperature in oceans
• Smaller variations (daily, seasonally, annually)
• Remember it takes longer to change water temp
  than air temp
• Deep ocean nearly isothermal

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Adaptations to marine life

• Cold- versus warm-water species
• Smaller in cooler seawater
• More appendages in warmer seawater
• Why?
• Tropical organisms grow faster, live shorter,
  reproduce more often
• Higher of species in warmer seawater
• Not necessarily higher of individuals
• More biomass in cooler seawater (upwelling)
• Polar waters are much more productive (more
  plankton growth) than tropical waters

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Adaptations to finding prey

• Most fish cold-blooded but some are warm-blooded
• Homeothermic-body temperature above sea water
  temperature
• Modifications in circulatory system
• Mainly in fast-swimming fish

http//www.sciencedaily.com/images/2005/10/0510311
33653.jpg
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Adaptations of deep-water nekton

• Mainly fish that consume detritus or each other
• Lack of abundant food
• Bioluminescence
• http//www.ted.com/talks/edith_widder_glowing_life
  _in_an_underwater_world.html
• Fishing lures
• Large, sensitive eyes

Anglerfish w/ males
Lanternfish
http//www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/biolum/organism/pictu
res/myctophid1.jpg
http//www.antoranz.net/CURIOSA/ZBIOR2/C0301
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Adaptations to marine life

• Stenothermal
• Organisms withstand small variation in
  temperature
• Typically live in open ocean
• Eurythermal
• Organisms withstand large variation in
  temperature
• Typically live in coastal waters

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Adaptations to marine life

• Stenohaline
• Organisms withstand only small variation in
  salinity
• Typically live in open ocean
• Euryhaline
• Organisms withstand large variation in salinity
• Typically live in coastal waters, e.g., estuaries

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Adaptations to marine life

• Extracting minerals from seawater
• High concentration to low concentration
• Diffusion
• Cell membrane permeable to nutrients, for example
• Waste passes from cell to ocean

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Adaptations to marine life

• Osmotic pressure
• Less concentrated to more concentrated solutions
• Isotonic
• Hypertonic
• Hypotonic

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Adaptations to marine life

• Dissolved gases
• Some animals extract dissolved oxygen (O2) from
  seawater through gills

Fig. 12.15
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Adaptations to marine life

• Waters transparency
• Many marine organisms see well
• Some marine organisms are nearly transparent to
  avoid predation

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Adaptations to marine life

• Camouflage through color patterns
• Countershading
• Disruptive coloring
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vPmDTtkZlMwM

http//theplasticocean.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_arc
hive.html
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Adaptations to marine life

• Water pressure
• Increases about 1 atmosphere (1 kg/cm2) with
  every 10 m (33 ft) deeper
• Many marine organisms do not have inner air
  pockets
• Collapsible rib cage (e.g., sperm whale)

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Main divisions of the marine environment

• Pelagic (open sea)
• Neritic (lt 200 m) and oceanic
• Benthic (sea floor)
• Subneritic and suboceanic
• Another classification scheme
• Euphotic
• Disphotic
• Aphotic

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Pelagic environments Open ocean

• Epipelagic
• Mesopelagic
• Bathypelagic
• Abyssopelagic

Fig. 12.19
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Benthic environments ocean floor

• Supralittoral
• Transition from land to seafloor
• Subneritic (under neritic)
• Littoral (intertidal zone)
• Sublittoral (shallow tidal zone to 200m)
• Suboceanic
• Bathyal (200-4,000m)
• Abyssal (4000-6000m)
• Hadal (below 6000m)

Fig. 12.19
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Distribution of benthic organisms
Fig. 15.1

• More benthic productivity when closely beneath
  areas of high surface primary productivity
• Mainly on continental shelves
• Affected by surface ocean currents

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Humans and coral reefs

• Activities such as fishing, tourist collecting,
  sediment influx due to shore development harm
  coral reefs
• Sewage discharge and agricultural fertilizers
  increase nutrients in reef waters
• corals thrive at low nutrient levels
• Phytoplankton overwhelm at high nutrient levels,
  limit light reaching the corals
• Bioerosion of coral reef by algae-eating organisms

Coral covered with macroalgae
http//daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/oceancolor/images/coral_
reef_algae.jpg
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Ocean Literacy Principles

• 3.e - The ocean dominates the Earths carbon
  cycle. Half the primary productivity on Earth
  takes place in the sunlit layers of the ocean and
  the ocean absorbs roughly half of all carbon
  dioxide added to the atmosphere.
• 5.a - Ocean life ranges in size from the smallest
  virus to the largest animal that has lived on
  Earth, the blue whale.
• 5.b - Most life in the ocean exists as microbes.
  Microbes are the most important primary producers
  in the ocean. Not only are they the most abundant
  life form in the ocean, they have extremely fast
  growth rates and life cycles.
• 5c. - Some major groups are found exclusively in
  the ocean. The diversity of major groups of
  organisms is much greater in the ocean than on
  land.
• 5.e - The ocean is three-dimensional, offering
  vast living space and diverse habitats from the
  surface through the water column to the seafloor.
  Most of the living space on Earth is in the
  ocean.
• 5.f - Ocean habitats are defined by environmental
  factors. Due to interactions of abiotic factors
  such as salinity, temperature, oxygen, pH, light,
  nutrients, pressure, substrate and circulation,
  ocean life is not evenly distributed temporally
  or spatially, i.e., it is patchy. Some regions
  of the ocean support more diverse and abundant
  life than anywhere on Earth, while much of the
  ocean is considered a desert.
• 5.g - There are deep ocean ecosystems that are
  independent of energy from sunlight and
  photosynthetic organisms. Hydrothermal vents,
  submarine hot springs, methane cold seeps, and
  whale falls rely only on chemical energy and
  chemosynthetic organisms to support life.

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Sunshine State Standards

• SC.6.L.14.3 - Recognize and explore how cells of
  all organisms undergo similar processes to
  maintain homeostasis, including extracting energy
  from food, getting rid of waste, and reproducing.
  
• SC.7.L.17.3 - Describe and investigate various
  limiting factors in the local ecosystem and their
  impact on native populations, including food,
  shelter, water, space, disease, parasitism,
  predation, and nesting sites.
• SC.912.L.15.5 - Explain the reasons for changes
  in how organisms are classified.
• SC.912.L.15.6 - Discuss distinguishing
  characteristics of the domains and kingdoms of
  living organisms.
• SC.912.L.17.2 - Explain the general distribution
  of life in aquatic systems as a function of
  chemistry, geography, light, depth, salinity, and
  temperature.
• SC.912.L.17.7 - Characterize the biotic and
  abiotic components that define freshwater
  systems, marine systems and terrestrial systems.