Anig Van Der Anal (et al. 2012) has compiled a full set of revision notes to prepare you for Friday's M&F/W Eco Test! Woot!

1. Compiled by Anig Van Der Anal
(et al. 2012)

2.  Bathygraphic mapping
• Underwater land survey that maps features and
ocean depth.
• Continental shelf and slope
• Abyssal region (Oceanic floor)
 Largest cover more than 50% earths surface.
 Flattest and least explored regions on earth
• Oceanic Ridge and Hadal System
 Peaks and troughs

3. Abyssal Region

4.  Shore/Splash
• Lichens
• Barnacles
• Periwinkles
 Intertidal
• Mussels and urchins
• Seastars
• Algae
 Subtidal
• Abalone
• Sea cucumber
• Crabs

5.  Shore/Splash
• Small bodies – surface area : volume ratio
• Thicker shells – reduces evaporation rate
• Muscular foot - fixation
 Intertidal
• Algae – holdfast prevent washaway
• Byssal threads – fastening
• Congregate together - prevent dessication
 Subtidal
• Crabs – recirculate water over gills prevent dessication
• Urchins – hollow out in rock cavities
• Algae – hollow stipe acts as air bladder - buoyancy

6.  Physiological tolerance
• Temperature
• Water quality
 Larvaland adult preferences
 Competition for space
 Predation

7.  Littorial:located at splash zone and king
tides height -edge of }intertidal
 Palegic: open water - beginning at
{intertidal zone at high tide
 Neretic: includes {intertidal and subtidal}
 Oceanic: Begins at end of subtidal{
• 600ft – Euphotic
• 3,000ft – Disphotic
• 10,000ft - Aphotic

8. Intertidal/Subtidal
2012 Anig Van Der Anal.

9.  Close to continental shelf
• Shallow seas
• Few 100m deep
• Most diverse
• Covers 7-8% of total ocean area
 Abyssal
• Ocean floor - 7-11kms deep
• covers 50%
 Ridge & Hadal System
• Trenches and troughs caused by erosion

10. Horizontal Verticle Devision Light Depth Verticle Depth
Province
Neretic epipalegic euphotic 200m
Oceanic mesopelagic disphotic 200-1,000m
Oceanic bathypalegic aphotic 1,000-4,000m
Oceanic abyssalpalegic Aphotic 4,000-10,000m
 Benthic
 Derriere dwellers
 Six-gilled sharks

11.  Plankton:drifting organisms that live in the
water column with limited locomotion
ability.
• Defined by ecological niche rather than taxonomic
classification.
 Phytoplankton:autotrophic component of
the plankton community.
• Usually single celled and invisible, but when multi-
cellular looks like a green blur.

12.  Zooplankton:non-autotrophic organisms
with locomotion ability.
• Feeds on
phytoplankton, plankton, nekton, bacteria.
 Nekton: actively swimming organisms
• Primarly tiny algae and bacteria, small eggs and
larvae of marine animals.
• Larger and stronger than plankton.
• Eg. Squid marlon

13.  Neritic: Horizontal province containing
intertidal and subtidal oceanic zones
 Epibenthic: Benthic region of the
epipalegic zone
 Infauna: Organisms that reside in the
epibenthic substrate
• Bivalves
• Tubeworms
• Crabs

15. A woody plant community in saline
sediments, often inundated by tides.
• Location: tropics and subtropics
 True:
• Only occur in mangrove forests
 Associates:
• Found elsewhere
 Rainforest

16.  Sponges
• Facultative mutualism
 For habitat and carbon energy; enhances root growth and
protection
 Sea-squirts
 Gastropods
• Decomposers and nutrient cycling
 Crabs (mudskippers)
• Nutrient cycling
 Habitat for threatened and endangered
species
• Brown pelican and green sea turtle

17.  Verticle branches
• Snorkel
• Knee
• Plank
• Props
 Root system
• Pneumataphores – above ground spongey tissue
roots with small holes allow oxygen transport in
anoxic sediments
• Salt removal – reverse osmosis

18.  Tough succulent leaves
• Excretes salt
• Move leaves out of direct sunlight
• Stomata open/close to sunlight/water loss
• Sacrificial leaf – salt collected and dropped.

19.  Low tidal range
• Dominance of freshwater flow
 Seasonal flood plains that are inundated
with freshwater
 Salinity is reduced during wet season

20.  Seasonal influx of salt water
 Inter-tidal
• High wave action along bays and lagoons
 “Fringing” mangroves
• Pioneered to occupy intertidal mudflats
 Vertical profile
• snorkle

21.  Most common community type
 Inland depressions
• Irregularly flushed by tides
 Salinity variable
• evaporation/rainfall
 Contributelarge amount of organic debris
to adjacent waters

22.  Protect shorelines
• erosion
 Provides habitat
• Nursery ground
 Improves water quality
• Filtering pollutants
 Heavy metals
 Renewable resource
• Harvested for water-resistant wood
 Nutrient-source to organisms in systems
• Leaf litter

24.  All coastal seas.
• Minus Antarctic regions.
• 7 species in Victoria
 Angiosperms:
• Sexually, or
• Asexually
 Majority are diecious
 Hydrophilous pollination
• Pollen dispersed by water movement

25.  Ecological importance
• Resource
 Nursery ground
 Food supply for small grazers
 Shelter
 Mitigateeutrophication
 Bind organic pollutants
• CO2 -> O2

26.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wydM5X-HRDY
 Aim: To detect seagrass health outside natural
variability.
 Information collected is used to track how
seagrass habits change over time to help inform
how they are managed.
 Seagrass monitored in two ways.
(1) Seagrasses mapped annually in 6 areas within
the bay using aerial photography.
(2) Seagrass health including cover, height and
shoot density measured by scubas quarterly within
sites of mapping regions.

27.  Information collected is then analysed
against historically seagrass data dating as
far back as 60 years in the case of aerial
photographs.
 Results show health vary between sites
and seasons changes observed between
„08 and „09 were within natural
variability, consistent with changes
observed prior to channel deepening in the
Bay.

29. System Scenario
Ecosystem Kelp forest
Keystone species Sea otter
Prey Sea urchin
Removal Sea otter
Consequence Urchin populations increase and
reduce the kelp forest, creating urchin
barriers
Further consequence Decline in sea otters = increase in
urchins = kelp decrease

30.  Plankton populations controlled by nutrient
availability
 Marine populations
• fluctuate seasonally
 Influencing factors of recruitment
• Food availability
• Physical constraints (currents)

31. A species whose conservation confers
indirect protection among numerous co-
occuring species.

32.  Removal of a species that has dis-
proportianal large effects on its
environment relative to its abundance.
 Conservationmaintains the structure of an
ecological community.

33.  Predators residing at the top of the food
web with no predators of their own.
 Crucial role in maintaining health of the
ecosystem.
 Affects prey species population dynamics.

34. System Scenario
Ecosystem Seagrass meadows
Keystone species Tiger shark
Prey Dugong
Removal Tiger sharks
Consequence Dugong populations increase and
reduce the seagrass meadows
Further consequence Decline in tiger sharks= increase in
urchins = kelp decrease

35. System Scenario
Ecosystem Oceanic province
Keystone species Plankton
Predator Blue whale
Removal Photosynthetic process
Consequence Blue whale populations decrease
because reduced photosynthetic
processes decrease plankton
abundance
Further consequence Decreased photosynthesis =
decreased plankton population =
decreased blue whale population =
decreased Japanese population

36.  Pheramones
 Temperatures
 Water quality
 Nutrients
 Predators
• Higher consumers
 Physical processes
• Turbulance, current speed

38.  Addition of nutrients and chemicals into
water
 Disturbance to wildlife
 Damage to reefs
 Crowding, noise, litter
 Reduction in endemic species richness
 Habitat fragmentation
 Introduction of pest species
 Sustainable tea-bagging

39.  Public educational resources
 Limit visitor numbers and tour-operators
 Limit number of tourist sites
 Develop sanctuary areas
 Ensure hospitality industry is
environmentally friendly
 Develop guidelines/regulations
 Ensure tour operators comply to conditions
in their permit by enforcement

41.  Transportation
• Boats, ice breakers etc…
 Dredging and construction
 Hydrocarbon and mineral exploration and
recovery
 Geophysical surveys
• airguns
 Ocean science studies
• Seismology, acoustic propagation

42.  Physiologically
• Temporary/Permanent transition shift (TTP/PTS)
• Rupture of gas bladders
• Hemorrhaging
 Behaviorally
• Increase stress levels
 limit of feeding, breeding, nurturing of young behaviours
• Put animals off sonar path
• Increase stranding

43.  Shut down procedures
 Signals should have a gradual increasing
source level onset, to allow the animals
sufficient time to displace themselves from
the source to a safe distance
 Observers to look for large marine fauna

44. 6 Consequences:
• Temperature increase
• Acidification
• Shifts in wind and radiation regimes
• Hydrological cycle modifications
• Alterations related to oceanic circulation and
stratification
• Irregular occurrence of extreme events such as
storms

46.  H2O is bipolar as it has a +ive and –ive
end
 Structure of H2O allows for
tension, viscosity and solubility
 H2O can dissolve salts and nutrients
 Density of H2O > ice = float (8% lighter
than H2O)

47.  Maximum density at 4 C
• Ice acts as insulator
• Life continues
 Salt increases density
• Freshwater is 3% less dense than seawater

48.  High specific heat
• 4.8 kj/kg/ C
 Low heat transmission
• Water conducts heat poorly, therefore heat is
localized if molecular diffusion is only route for
mixing (e.g. when filling bath)

49.  Highest element surface tension (except
for mercury)
 Adhesion attraction
• Hydrophilic; cohesive forces < adhesive forces
• Hydrophobic; cohesive forces > adhesive forces
 Influencedby temperature and organic
chemicals, decreased by:
• Intense algal blooms
• Stained lakes
• Aquatic plants
 At 10 C

50.  Reflectionand refraction
 Blocked by suspended sediments
• Turbidity
• Organic matter
 Absorption
• Water molecules
• Suspended matter
• Plants
• Organic matter

51. Fast-flowing streams that drain
through elevated or mountainous
country, often onto broad alluvial
plains where they become lowland
rivers.

52.  Problem:
• large number of minor
order streams may join
to a larger order
channel, increasing its
discharge but not order.

53.  Problem:
• Difficult to compute.
• Depends heavily on
mapping scale used to
identify streams.

54. DISCHARGE CHANNEL SHAPE
 Base flow  Depth, width and shape
• Continuous groundwater influence flow velocity.
flow • Altering river flow influences
pool & riffles.
 Rising/recession limb
• Fluctuating flashy levels.
 Inundation of desert streams

55. SUBSTRATION DRIFT
 Boulder are rarely moved  Despite
except by rare extreme adaptations, organisms can
flows. become detached.
 In constrast, sand and silt  Downstream drift could
dislodge by current easily. result in depopulation of
upstream reaches.
 Epilithon covers rocks
 Bacterial, fungi and algae
biofilms.
 Epi = above
 Lithon - rock

56.  Permanent attachment
• Mainly underside
• Eg: freshwater sponges
 Boundary layer – turbulance protection
• Ideal for small organisms and stress toleraters
• Static: no nutrients, no oxygen
 Morphological existence
• Streamline bodies
• Long appendages for orientation
• Movable spines to lock into crevacies
• Temporary attachment
• Silk attachment - larvae
 Behavioural
• Laying eggs upstream

57.  Bacteria is ¾ of upland stream biomass.
 Organic Processing:
• Day 1: leaching of DOM (dissolved organic matter)
• Day 1-7: Microbial colonisation
• Day 7+: Invertebrate consumption, continuous
physical fragmentation

58.  Pollutants
• Heavy metals
• Sewerage
• Acids and alkilines
 Removal of Riparian Zone
 Climate change
 Eutrophication

59. The general more
turbid, warm, slow-flowing waters
and fine sediment beds that
channel from fourth order streams.

60.  Largeorder stream
 Bounded upstream
• By upland reaches
 Bounded downstream
• by ocean tides
 River is:
 Deep
 Wide
 Slow flow
 Meanders across floodplains
 Frequently turbid
• Draws water from large catchment

61.  Autocthonus – internal carbon
• Aquatic macrophytes
• Epiphytic algae
• Phytoplankton
• Autrophic bacteria
 Allocthonus – external carbon
• Fringing riparian zones
• Upstream CPOM and DOM } detritus
• Drift from upstream animals
• Groundwater/hyporheic input

62.  Zonebeneath and alongside a stream bed
where mixing of ground water and surface
water occurs.
 Important for fish spawns.

63.  Majorly angiosperms
 Recent re-invaders of terrestrial taxa
 Reduced root systems
 Large internal air-space
 Little woody tissue
 Thin cuticle

64.  Low light reaches roots
 High light surface
 Susceptibility to flooding/drying

66.  Major uses:
• Initially transport
• Irrigation
• Recreation
• Hydroelectric power
• Vital role for providing peak demands in
emergencies
• Harvest of riparian zone
 55% of Adelaide‟s drinking water

67.  2,500 kilometres long
 Discharge of 600 cubic metres per second
 Amazon discharges a days worth of water
compared to what the Murray discharges
in a year.
 Aussies utilise rivers better than all other
major river flows.

68.  Clearing of riparian zone
• Risks flooding
 Weed invasion
• 1/3 of species in Murray floodplain are exotic
 Grazing
• Exotic cattle reducing native growth
 Salinity
• Influx from oceanic tides

69.  Decreasing total flow
• Diversions
 Decreasing variability
• More constant
 Decreasing peak salinities
 Loss of downstream estuaries
 Change in sediment load
 Altered seasonality of flows
• inundation

70. A model for classifying and
describing flowing water in
addition to the classification of
individual sections of water after
the occurence of indicator
organisms

72.  Predictschanges in attributes such as
functional feeding group representation
with changes in stream size.
 Different organisms at different structural sites along water
flow
4 major food types:
• Shredders (herbi/detrivores)
• Collectors (herbi/detrivores)
• Grazers (herbi/detrivores)
• Predators (omnivores)

73. SHREDDERS COLLECTORS
 Feed off CPOM  Feed on fine particulate
 Small sections of leaves organic matter (FPOM)
• Adapted to filter feed
 Invertebrates that eat
detritivores  Filters of FPOM
• Mayfly • Fly larvae
• Stonefly • nematodes

74. PREDATORS GRAZERS
 Feed on other organisms  Feed on biofilm
and plants in the river • Periphyton
system.  Complex mixture of
algae, cynobacteria and
 Omnivores detritus attached to substrate
• Fish
• Invertebrates
 Biofilm accumulates on rock
substrates
• Frogs
• Snails
• Birds
• Caddisfly

75.  CPOM at Riparian zone
• 35% Shredders
• 35% Collectors
• 25% Predators
• 5% Grazers
 P:R < 1
• Photosynthesis : Respiration ratio is less than 1.
 Large allocthorous
• External carbon production

76.  FPOM gathers from intercepting stream
channels
• 55% Collectors
• 20% Predators
• 20% Grazers
• 5% Shredders
 P:R > 1
• Photosynthesis : Respiration ratio is greater than 1.
 Increased autocthorous
• Internal carbon produtcion (periphyton)

77.  Collectors
become strongly abundant in
more lowland streams
• 80% Collectors
• 20% Predators
 P:R <1
• Photosynthesis : Respiration ratio is less than 1.
 Continuous autocthorous
• Internal carbon production (collector f/feeders)

79.  Consumption of decaying organic material
• Coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM)
• Dissolved organic matter (DOM)
 Breakdown of leaf cannot release
phosphorus

80. 1. 2.
Dead Organic Detritivores
Matter (eg, fungi, bacteria
(eg, leaves, poop) ) feed on detritus
4.
Predators feed on 3. Invertebrates
invertebrates, poo feed on detrivores
p.

81.  Invertebrates would rather feed on the
detritivores rather than the decaying matter
because it obtains a higher accumulation
of energy
• Bacteria that feed on detritus have a
nitrogen:carbon ratio of 1:10
• Leaves have a nitrogen:carbon ratio of 1:1000
 Thus, less bacteria are littly sacks of nutrients

82. For Marine and Freshwater Ecology Revision
We accept Arnott‟s Tim Tams in gratitude