If a major Hurricane hit our area: How would the Environment be Affected? How would a Scientist use Biotechnology to Eva

1. If a major Hurricane hit our area:How would the Environment be Affected?How would a Scientist use Biotechnology to Evaluate the Effects? Paths of major hurricanes past 50 years http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/climo/images/1851_2012_mjrhurr.jpg

2. Catastrophic Events Impact on Ecosystems Imges and slides from Isman/slideshare

3. Hurricanes Floods

4. Hurricanes What is a hurricane? A huge rotating tropical storm (up to 600 miles in diameter) Winds up to 200 mph Usually lasts less than10 days. Moves across the ocean at around 10-20 mph Arrows indicate “feeder bands” or “rain bands” • Winds are the strongest around the eye wall. • The eye of the storm is usually about 20 miles diameter. • Strongest winds are on the right side. • Heaviest rain is usually on the left side.

5. Hurricane Occurrences and Geographic Distribution

6. Hurricanes Destructive Forces

7. Hurricane Related Flooding • Floods during a hurricane causes more loss of life, more economic damage, and more damage to the ecosystem than by any other hazard. • Tidal surges duringhurricanespush ocean water inlandand can cause deadly flash flooding. Ocean City Maryland during Sandy

8. What is a storm surge? A massive dome of water swept across the coast near where the eye makes landfall. Stronger hurricanes cause higher storm surges. In coastal areas storm surges are one of the most dangerous parts of a hurricane.

9. Other causes of Floods • From heavy rains, river overflow, storm surge, rapid snow melt or dams break • Varies from a few inches of water to over rooftops • Most common natural hazard • In every U.S. state and territory

10. Ellicott City after Agnes -- 1972

11. After Agnes

12. Environmental Impact of Floods • Can be important in maintaining ecosystem habitats and soil fertility. • Can spread sediment containing nutrients to topsoil. • Human management of flood prone areas can disrupt the natural flood cycle.

13. Effects of a Flood on the Ecosystem Plants • Some plants benefit from large quantity of flood water. • Water stored underground will be replenished. • The nutrients in flood water can revive plants and aid in germination of seeds. • Flooding can kill woody and herbaceous plants.

14. How Flooding Affects Animals • Fish can breed and give birth. • Flooding forces many wild animals from their natural habitats. • Rats may be a problem during and after a flood. • Pooled water leads to an increase in mosquito populations.

15. Effects of Floods– Aquatic Ecosystems • Sediment decreases sunlight penetration. • Fertilizer increases algal growth and which decreases oxygen. • Toxic materials (paint, pesticide and gasoline) may be released. • Salt water balance may be changed by introduction of salt into fresh or vice versa. • Rawsewage can spill into bodies of water. • Species can be transported from one body of water to another. Abiotic Biotic

16. Floods Brings Sediment to Aquatic Ecosystems • Sediment may obscure sunlight and inhibits photosynthesis. • Can coat floor of pond, lake or bay and choke off benthic growth • Coral reefs are particularly at risk from the runoff from floods.

17. Hard Rains or Tropical Storms Wash Tons of Particulates into the Bay Before storm After storm http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/images/high_resolution/836_20110912-TSM-Chesapeake.jpg

18. Eutrophication

19. Fertilizer Run Off Leads to Eutrophication • Eutrophication --aquatic environment becomes enriched with nutrients. • Can cause algal blooms– over growth of phytoplankton. • Algae use up oxygen in the water, leaving none for other marine life. • As algae and other life dies and rots it uses up more oxygen. • Anoxic regions can lead to large dead zones. • Algae may block sunlight from photosynthetic marine plants under the water surface.

20. Eutrophication http://www.inlandbays.org/wp-content/images/healthy_bay_eutrophication.jpg

21. Sewage During High Water Events • Pools at sewage treatment plants may be flooded and washed into local streams. • Some storm drains mingle with sewage drains when volumes are high – spilling directly into natural water sources. • Standing water contaminated with sewage can lead to increase in cholera, dysentery, other diseases.

22. Toxins • Chemicals from roads, cars or industrial areas can wash into water system.

23. Salt/Salinity Changes • Katrina pushed a 30 foot high surge onto the coast.  • Salt in sea water shifts the delicate balance of freshwater and brackish wetland areas such as in the Chesapeake Bay. • Marsh grasses, crabs, minnows, fish hatchlings, insects, and myriad creatures of freshwater and estuarine environments are harmed by a surge. • Salt water intrusion does not drain off quickly and can harm or kill off bottomland forests and other coastal trees. See more at: http://blog.nwf.org/2012/10/hurricane-sandys-impact-on-fish-and-wildlife/#sthash.KkTQ0CG1.dpuf

24. How to Assess Storm Impact • Sample and Survey abiotic factors – pH, temperature, salinity, water levels • Sample and Survey life forms - microbes • Look for indicator species as signs of environmental change and/or pollution • Sample and survey over time, repeat

25. Why Microbe Studies? • There are far more microbial organisms on Earth than Macro- organisms • They can not leave an environment when it is not ideal – their presence can be used to identify ecological issues • The are the basis of most food webs in a ecosystem & play a key role in recycling of natural resources • Microbes common to an ecosystem may be indicators of the potential risk of illness after a natural disaster.

26. Why Microbes? • Present in every type of environment on Earth • Directly effected by changes in the environment • Sampling of limited area can produce large sample size • Ideal Indicator Species

27. Sampling & Indicator Species

28. What To Look For? • Indicators of Ecology Equilibrium- Health • Species Diversity • Presence of essential species in appropriate proportion • Indicators of Pollution A pollution indicator should be: • absent from unpolluted environment • present when the source of pollution is present • easy (and inexpensive) to isolate, identify and enumerate • present in higher numbers than pathogens • respond to treatment and environmental conditions similarly to the pathogens of concern • not be a pathogen • should not multiply in the environment

29. WHY??? Principles of Microbial Ecology • Natural environmental conditions have established the presence of native species in an ecological balance • When environments change due to natural or made-man influences, the populations present in those environments change • Changes result in changes in the populations on microbes in the environment

31. Aquatic Habitats • Phytoplankton: Algae floating or suspended freely in the water • Benthic algae: Algae attached to the bottom or sides • Primary producers: Phototrophic organisms utilize energy from light in the initial production of organic matter. • Open oceans are very low in primary productivity; • Inshore ocean areas are high, with lakes and springs being highest of all in primary productivity

32. Microbes in Aquatic Environments

33. Aquatic Habitats Lakes

34. Lake Food Web

35. Life in Pond Water

36. Lakes and Ponds - Surface and littoral zone • Rich, Diverse Microbial Populations Include: • Algae -photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms; includes: golden, yellow, brown, red, green, and yellow-green algae, and diatoms • Examples: Syrogyra and Diatoms (protista) • Cyanobacteria - blue green photosynthetic bacteria • Examples: Gloeocapsa and fluorescing anabaena • Anoxygenic Photosynthetic Bacteria - do not produce oxygen as a by product of photosynthesis • Examples: Rhodospirillum rubrum, Chromatium, Chlorobium, Chloroflexus

37. Lakes and Ponds – throughout • Heterotrophs - feed off of other organisms and decaying organic matter (detritus) • Examples: Actinopod and Amoeba • Microbial Animals - animals are too small to be seen without aid of a microscope Examples: Rotifer, Hydra, Daphnia and insect larva

38. Lakes and Ponds – bottom dwellers Sulfate Reducers - breathe sulfate instead of oxygen; thrive in sediments, such as those found at the bottom of a pond; often found in the black colored zone of a pond because they convert sulfates into metal sulfides which are black. Examples: Desulfovibrio and Desulfomonile teidjii • Methanogens - bottom of the pond, furthest away from oxygen; live in murky swamps, where they produce swamp gas, also known as methane.

39. Microbes in Wetlands • Microbial activity can be used to assess the recovery rate of wetlands, after a storm & flooding events • Storms cause sedimentation and compaction • Microbes responsible for aeration of sediments/soil – counteract compaction • Storms wash organic debris into wetlands • Microbes – decomposers, break down organic debris

40. Studying Microbes in Wetlands

41. Aquatic Habitats - Oceans Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_geuP4GgAo0&list=PL833118C47C3E8362

42. Estuaries

43. (Microbes in) Intertidal Zone • foreshore and seashore and sometimes referred to as the littoral zone, is the area that is above water at low tide and under water at high tide (in other words, the area between tide marks) • Organisms adapted to an environment of harsh extremes. • Water varies from fresh with rain to highly saline and dry salt with drying between tidal inundations. • Waves can dislodge residents in the littoral zone. • High exposure to the sun - the temperature range can be anything from very hot with full sun to near freezing in colder climates • Area dominated by photosynthetic microbes (bacteria, protists, and algae)

44. Storms & Estuaries • Estuary - a partly enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. [Example : Chesapeake Bay] • Tropical storms, hurricanes and winter storms have had dramatic and long-lasting effects on the Chesapeake Bay. • 50% of all the sediment deposited in the Northern Chesapeake Bay between 1900 and the mid-1970s was due to Tropical Storm Agnes (June 1972) and the extratropical cyclone associated with the Great Flood of (March) 1936 (Hirschberg and Schubel, 1979).

45. Microbes of the Chesapeake Bay • Microbial life forms dominated by diatoms throughout the year (Adolf et al., 2006), phytoplankton production and species composition follow predictable seasonal patterns dictated primarily by streamflow, light, and temperature (Malone et al., 1996; Marshall and Nesius, 1996). • Winter/Early Spring: centric diatoms dominate the flora (Sellner, 1987) • Spring mid/late: diatom bloom sinks (mostly as intact cells) through the pycnocline • Summer: the algal community shifts to a mixture of picoplankton, small centric diatoms, and flagellates

46. Summer in the Bay • Aperiodic dinoflagellate blooms frequent and some taxa, such as Pfiesteria spp. and Karlodinium veneficum (Place et al., 2008), may exert toxic or harmful effects. • At this time, primary productivity (most of which is due to rapid nutrient recycling), microzooplankton grazing, zooplankton production, and fish production (Section 7.3) are high.

47. Storms & Microbes in the Bay • Storms overland - discharge would lead to increases in short-term stratification and increased preponderance of algal blooms (Mulholland et al., 2009), including some of the problematic taxa. • Storms pass over the Bay and tributaries - mixing of the water column would very likely occur, probably with increased discharge; this would yield optimal conditions for diatom growth, similar to the fall bloom in the mesohaline Bay (Sellner, 1987).

48. Microbiology: Laboratory Approaches to Studying Microorganisms

49. Purpose For Employing Analytical Techniques