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Intertidal Ecology

Intertidal Ecology. What is the Intertidal Zone?. Zone between highest and lowest tide lines Immersed and Emersed Rocky and soft intertidal zones. Review: Tides. What causes tidal movements? What does it mean to be: Diurnal Semidiurnal Mixed How do tidal movements vary by area?.

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Intertidal Ecology

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  1. Intertidal Ecology

  2. What is the Intertidal Zone? • Zone between highest and lowest tide lines • Immersed and Emersed • Rocky and soft intertidal zones

  3. Review: Tides • What causes tidal movements? • What does it mean to be: • Diurnal • Semidiurnal • Mixed • How do tidal movements vary by area?

  4. Pattern: Vertical Zonation

  5. Processes: What causes the pattern? • Upper limit determined by physical factors • Exposure • Wave shock • Lower limit determined by biological factors • Competition • Predation • Recruitment • Varies by location and often not totally clear cut

  6. Exposure • Problems due to emersion: • Physical: • Dessication • Temperature and salinity fluctuation • O2 availability • UV radiation • Wave shock • Biological: • Feeding restrictions • Inability to hide from predators

  7. Dessication • Water loss to the air • Strategies: • “Run and Hide” - crevices, tide pools, moist algae, subtidal, burrowing (soft only) • “Clam up” - protective cover seals in moisture (mussels, periwinkles, barnacles) • Allow drying out - massive water loss until next tide (seaweed, limpets)

  8. Temperature Variation • Air vs. Water • Adaptations: • Higher tolerance • Seek shade and moisture • Morphology • Clumping (ex. Mussels)

  9. Other Issues • Salinity variation due to rain, evaporation • Respiration • Gills reduced and/or protected to reduce drying • Organisms slow down metabolism • Feeding • Active when tide is high (reduces risk of exposure)

  10. Wave Action • Varies based on shoreline • F=ma (Where does the force go?) • Wave shock and shearing

  11. Dealing with Wave Action • Shelter • Permanent anchorage • Holding on • Morphology • Compact and streamlined • Hardened bodies • Flexibility

  12. Competition - The Battle for Space • Open space quickly colonized • Strategies: • Fast dispersal and settlement • Evict competitors • Grow on or over competitors

  13. Connell experiment • Very little difference at settlement • Chthamalus range reduced by competition • Transplant/Exclusion experiment results: • Balanus high = dies • Chthamalus low = thrives

  14. Eating and Not Being Eaten

  15. How are limits set?

  16. How are limits set?

  17. Rocky Upper Intertidal • “Splash zone” • Lichens, cyanobacteria, and some algae • Periwinkles and limpets • Terrestrial predators

  18. Rocky Mid-Intertidal • Upper areas - gray and rock barnacles • Lower limit set by competition and predation • Lower areas - mussels and brown algae • Lower limit set by predation from sea stars and spiny lobsters

  19. Ecological Succession

  20. Ecological Succession

  21. Rocky Lower Intertidal • Mostly immersed • Dominated by seaweeds • Food for grazers, protection from predators • Compete with each other • Sea urchins, stars, anemones, nudibranchs, fishes

  22. Soft-Bottom Intertidal • Sediment accumulation • Unstable bottom - what kinds of organisms cannot live here? • Sediment composition based on wave mixing • Gravel, sand, mud

  23. Importance of Grain Size • Burrowing (Infauna) or living between grains (Meiofauna) • Water circulation • Less dessication • Needed for O2 (no photosynth) • Amount and type of detritus (coarser has less) • Dual problem with mud: Less water + more detritus to decay = less O2

  24. Feeding

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