We have learned about the fundamental information about plankton in the lecture that planktons are unable to swim against water currents. Based on the exhibit, I get a deeper understanding about the planktons. The Bay is full of microscopic organisms, including phytoplankton, that inhabits in the sunlit layers where it is able to get energy from the sun. Because of the characteristic of planktons that they cannot decide where they go, scientists found that the types of phytoplankton in the Bay change throughout the year. In January, because of the short day length between 9 hours to 10 and ocean currents carried nutrients away from the Bay instead of into the Bay, phytoplankton experience a slow month for their growth and absorbs less energy due to short time for photosynthesis and low nutrient levels. At this time, ceratium, a single-celled aquatic dinoflagellate algae, is the most abundant plankton in the Bay. In the next month, the most abundant plankton is replaced by thalassiosira and the overall …show more content…
condition of water also changes. As winds start to blow from the north, upwelling of high nutrient level ocean water starts to come near the bay. More foods are available for planktons than in last month and thus Pacific herring and other marine fish start spawning in the Bay. During March, as the daylight gets longer around 12 hours and upwelling driven by northerly winds, phytoplankton earns more energy and reproduces more.
This phenomenon of rapidly increasing numbers of phytoplankton is called spring bloom, a significant event for phytoplanktons. The bloom often continues for two to three months and reaches its peak time throughout the year in April when ditylum becomes the most plentiful plankton in the Bay. After April, as cool summer fog rolls in, the amount of sunlight used for photosynthesis decreases and spring blooms slows down rapidly. However, the exact time for the departure of spring bloom is not fitted but depends on air temperature, tides, rain, wind, and sunshine. At the end of the month, all numbers of phytoplankton almost touch the lowest point of the year because the ocean currents which contain nutrients stop moving to the Bay. Coscinodiscus and thalassiosira become the major population for the following two
months. In August, the fall bloom of phytoplankton, which is much smaller than the spring one, starts and often continues for around three months as ocean currents put warmer surface water to near the bay to increase water temperature. Due to the warmer and calmer water, the fall bloom is always dominated by dinoflagellates who arrive in the fall and thrive in the southern San Francisco Bay. This bloom begins to decline when winters rainstorms come with strong winds in the last two months of the year. At this time, the mixture of the bay and offshore water carried sediment to the bay prevents phytoplankton to process photosynthesis by blocking the sunlight. It is reasonable that this is a hard period for phytoplankton to grow and reproduce.
Dinoflagellates are one of the four main types of phytoplankton, which are photosynthetic, single celled and free living organisms in the ocean. Dinoflagellates cause the Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB) also known as the red tide effect (Hackett et al 2004). Toxicity persisting at upper levels of the food chain is detected in them from the ones which are toxic, but not all such blooms are toxic. Enhanced detection capabilities may in part contribute to observed high frequency and severity of toxic blooms. As they are also important in the health of coral reefs their study has gained significant interest. Species are often selected for genome sequencing based on their importance as a model organism or relevance to human health, such as the HAB case.
An abiotic factor affecting growth of T. californicus is the concentration of salinity of the seawater. It can range from 35ppt too much higher salinity concentrations. The concentration of UV radiation also affects t. californicus. They tend to stay in places of low concentration of UV rays when the sun is the strongest.
Do you love the slimy,green,and gooey, flavor of kelp? Many people don't , not realizing
cut back on the problems in the Bay. Scientists have given an unthinkable amount of attention to the Bay of the past several years and researchers from countless numbers of agencies and institutions have dove deep into the issues and studying every nook and cranny to create answers to every politicians’ questions. The biggest concern with the Bay, and the most concentrated ...
One oyster can filter 50 gallons of water a day, oysters used to be able to filter the Bay in about a week. However, these creatures are now scarce in the bay. The Chesapeake Bays Oyster (crassostrea virginica) population has declined severely because of over harvesting, agricultural runoff, and disease. Now the Chesapeake Bay is becoming polluted without the oysters, and the water is not nearly as clean as it once was. The Chesapeake Bay was the first estuary in the nation to be targeted for restoration as an integrated watershed and ecosystem.
El Niño can be an issue for marine life in the Pacific Oceans as it disrupts and affects fish distributions. Furthermore, El Niño results in fishes such as the mahi mahi, swordfish, striped marlin, and blue marlin to occur in areas where they are not normally found.
Glibert, Patricia M. and Daniel E. Terlizzi. “Nutrients, Phytoplankton, and Pfiesteria In the Chesapeake Bay.” Available: http://www.arec.umd.edu/policy/Pfiesteria/terlizzi/terlizzi.htm (22 Nov. 1999).
The Chesapeake Bay plays host to an astonishing amount of plant and animal life, providing much of our fish intake for species that aren’t being overfished. For the species that are being overdrawn, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is working to restore the populations, and it’s going well thus far. Another theme that is endangering the marine life populations as well as the health of the human population is the massive amount of polluti...
One of the Bays biggest resources is its oysters. Oysters are filter feeders which mean they feed on agley and clean the water. The oysters feed on agley and other pollutants in the bay turning them into food for them, then they condense the food down to nutrient and developed things like pearls.Filtering the water also helps the oyster to grow. One oyster can filter 50 gallons of water a day, Oysters used to be able to filter the Bay in about a week. However these creatures are now scarce in the bay. The Chesapeake Bays Oyster (crassostrea virginica) Population has declined severely because of over harvesting, agricultural runoff, and disease. Now the Chesapeake Bay is becoming polluted without the oysters and the water is not nearly as clean as it once was. The Chesapeake Bay was the first estuary in the nation to be targeted for restoration as an integrated watershed and ecosystem. (Chesapeake Bay Program n/d). This report will show the cause and effect of the Chesapeake Bay's Oyster decline on the Bay.
According to NOAA phytoplankton are microscopic organisms that continuously convert sunlight and nutrients into living tissue. Phytoplankton can be harmful to the bay because they at an uncontrollable rate causing harmful algae blooms when there is an abundance of nutrients. Phytoplankton also serve as the main food source for a larger but still microscopic organism named Zooplankton. Marine Bio.org did a study on zooplnkton revealing that they are very weak swimmers making them an easy food source for any larger organsim. Zooplanktons’ main purpose serves as the main food source for small fish and
The Florida Keys is one of the most famous and most visited archipelagos in the world. Contrary to what many people think, though, the Florida Keys do not begin at Key Largo. To the north lie nearly 50 more keys (ancient coral reef islands) that are mostly undeveloped pieces of land. Great adventures await you as you venture from the mangrove shoreline out to the coral reefs of Biscayne Bay. Biscayne Bay is a shallow estuary, managed by the National Park Services along with Florida Wildlife Commission and many others. The bay serves as a nursery for many infant and juvenile marine life species that need protection until big enough to survive in the open ocean. Large healthy seagrass beds provide hiding places and food for many of the animals living on the reef. Protected by a chain of islands or keys off shore and the mainland to the west, the bay is one of the most productive ecosystems in the park. It is comprised of four different ecosystems; the two major ecosystems are beneath the bay 's clear waters: hardbottom and seagrass.
Change in water temperature changes the places where grasses are able to grow, when fish and crab feed, reproduce, and migrate ("Chesapeake Bay Program"). The temperature in the bay goes from high in the summer to very low in the winter. During summer, the surface water is warmer than the deeper water which creates two different temperature layers that actually separate surface waters from deeper waters (“Chesapeake Bay Program”). The temperature layers change th...
The Chesapeake Bay is a lively and diverse estuary-- it holds our famous blue crabs, oysters, scallops, fish, 87 species of waterbirds, and over 3,600 species of plants. Any impact that we have on the oceans and the bay greatly affect the life and health of not only the bay, but also the many diverse species of seafood and fauna that exist in the bay.
28 October 2010. 16 April 2014 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0607_040607_phytoplankton_2.hyml. “Solutions to Plastic Pollution in our Ocean” Natural Resources Defense Council. 3 March 2014. web.