Phytoplankton and Zooplankton: The Secret World of Ocean Producers and Consumers

1. Phytoplankton and Zooplanktonhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuXMz3j9E8k&feature=related

2. Photosynthesis • Process used by plants to turn CO2, carbon dioxide and H2O, water into C6H12O6, glucose and O2, oxygen • Light is required to provide the energy for this reaction. • Sunlight + CO2+ H2O  C6H12O6 + O2

3. Where does photosynthesis take place?

4. Photosynthesis up close and personal

5. Phytoplankton • Primarily the bottom of the food chain • The primary producers of the ocean, they carry out photosynthesis • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7sACT0Dx0Q&feature=related • Two main types: dinoflagelates and diatoms • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl7tCP8Py1M (50min) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjdJuY7ezp0&feature=related

6. Diatoms • Phylum: Bacillariophyta • Unicellular • Cell walls made of silica, SiO2 • Glassy shell called a frustule • Tiny holes in the shell allow light to penetrate • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYB5529hDPI • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYB5529hDPI

8. Diatoms • The holes in the shell also allow gases and waste products to pass • Golden yellow color • Oil droplets within the body and spines keep them afloat in the water column • Two types of chlorophyl, a and c, give them their color • Carotenoids also give color

11. Reproduction • Asexual and sexual • Asexual by cell division • Sexual has a resting phase called an auxospore, a fertilized egg sperm combo • Blooms can occur during favorable conditions, but diatoms get increasingly smaller due to a lack of materials for frustule development

12. Dinoflagellates • Phylum: pyrrophyta or dinoflagellataophyta • Unicelluar • Outstanding characteristic is their two uneven flagella • Cell walls made of cellulose • Many have chlorophyll but some also ingest food particles

13. Dinoflagellates • Light sensitive spot that acts as a crude eye • Reproduce by cell division almost exclusively • Bloom when conditions right • Blooms often called a red tide • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUCIZ36l8hw

15. Bioluminescence • Produce light when agitated • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCUxQ1Avdyw • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2xh9-UPSlU&feature=related

16. Dinoflagellates • Some are parasitic and cause damage to fish and shellfish • Memory loss in humans • Red tide cause very severe illness in humans

18. Zooplankton • Non-photosynthetic plankton • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIFiWrGwAZY&feature=related • Consumers who eat phytoplankton and other zooplankton • Come from many phylum including Cnidaria( jellyfish), arthropods, fish, molluscs • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbUc4u-veZE

21. arthropods • Baby crabs • Baby shrimp • Baby amphipods and isopods • Copepods

22. Cnidaria • Jelly fish • Comb jellies (Phylum ctenophora)

23. molluscs • Baby clams • Baby snails

24. Arrow worm phylum chaetognath

25. Holoplankton spend their entire lives as part of the plankton. This group includes krill, copepods, various pelagic (free swimming) sea snails and slugs, salps, jellyfish and a small number of the marine worms. To most people jellyfish are probably the most visible and best known of this group. Australian tropical waters contain a huge diversity of jellyfish, all of which are predatory, securing their prey using stinging cells (nematocysts) or sticky cells (colloblasts). The most famous is the Bluebottle or Portuguese Man-of-WarPhysalia physalis, which washes up in huge numbers on Australian beaches from time to time. Click on an image

26. Meroplankton • Meroplankton spend only the larval or early stages of their life as part of the plankton and spend their adult lives on the reef. Some, like polychaete worms, will then revisit the plankton during their reproductive stages. Many of the common, well-known animals found on the Great Barrier Reef spend time as free-swimming meroplankton, bearing little or no resemblance to the adult they will become. The differences between the appearance of larval and adult stages led to much confusion in the past when larval forms were often believed to be completely different species from the adults. • While living in the plankton, meroplankton either feed on other members of the plankton, or they live off the yolk they have retained from the egg they hatched from. Larvae spend varying amounts of time in the plankton, from minutes to over a year. However, just how long these tiny animals can be considered truly planktonic is under some debate. Scientists in recent years have discovered that many of these tiny animals in the plankton (in particular larval fish and crustaceans) quickly become very good swimmers capable of incredible feats of speed and endurance. • Meroplankton includes sea urchins, starfish, sea squirts, most of the sea snails and slugs, crabs, lobsters, octopus, marine worms and most reef fishes.

27. Health of the phytoplankton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFOLMF_vliE