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Nutrient Cycles in Marine Ecosystems Part II

Nutrient Cycles in Marine Ecosystems Part II. Section 4. Limited Productivity. Inorganic nutrients (ex: nitrate and phosphate ions) are essential for growth of primary producers. Productivity of primary producers will affect productivity of higher trophic levels

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Nutrient Cycles in Marine Ecosystems Part II

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  1. Nutrient Cycles in Marine Ecosystems Part II Section 4

  2. Limited Productivity • Inorganic nutrients (ex: nitrate and phosphate ions) are essential for growth of primary producers • Productivity of primary producers will affect productivity of higher trophic levels • Example: upwelling – high productivity

  3. Benguela upwelling system

  4. Removal of Nutrients • Sink to sea floor • In feces • Detritus (decaying organic materials); organisms die • Loss of nutrients from surface water • Will only return to surface by upwelling • Slow decomposition on sea bed (floor) due to cold/lack of oxygen

  5. Removal of Nutrients • Incorporated into coral reefs • Deposition of calcium carbonate for growth of corals

  6. Removal of Nutrients • Removed by harvesting • Removing/eating fish and other marine organisms

  7. Nutrient Biological Uses

  8. Nutrients derived from both • Summary of ways in nutrients are cycled in marine systems Removal (3)

  9. In Summary • Fertilizers, like nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K), are important for plant growth and are called 'nutrients.' The level of dissolved nutrients increases from animal feces and decomposition (bacteria, fungi). Surface water often may be lacking in nutrients because feces and dead matter tend to settle to the bottom of the ocean. Most decomposition is thus at the bottom of the ocean. In the oceans most surface water is separated from bottom water by a thermocline (seasonal in temperature and marginal polar regions, constant in tropics) which means that once surface nutrients get used up (by the plants there) they become a limiting factor for the growth of new plants. Plants must be at the surface for the light. Nutrients are returned to surface waters by a special type of current called 'upwelling' and it is in these areas of upwelling that we find the highest productivity of marine life.

  10. Website References • http://www.seafriends.org.nz/oceano/seawater.htm#composition • http://www.marinebio.net/marinescience/02ocean/swcomposition.htm

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