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Estuaries: Communities
This document describes different estuarine communities, including open water, mudflats, salt marshes, mangrove forests, and other communities like seagrass beds and oyster reefs. It discusses the characteristic species found in each community and their roles, like cordgrass and fiddler crabs in salt marshes or red, black, and white mangroves in mangrove forests. However, many estuarine communities are being destroyed by human activities like reclamation, dredging, shrimp farming, and coastal development.
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Estuaries: Communities
- 2. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Open Water Mudflats Salt Marshes Mangrove Forests Other Estuarine Communities
- 3. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Open Water Lots of suspended sediment → murky water → poor light penetration → limited primary production by phytoplankton Small estuaries – planktons are flushed in and out Large estuaries – have own estuarine species Good nurseries for fish and invertebrates Abundant food Fewer predators
- 4. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Open Water The Atlantic Menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus)
- 5. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Open Water yellow-eyed mullet flatfish anchovies
- 6. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Open Water Some organisms move through estuaries during migration Anadromous Fishes - migrate from the sea to spawn in fresh water. Salmon Smelt Shad
- 7. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Open Water Some organisms move through estuaries during migration Catadromous Fishes - migrate from fresh water to spawn at sea. European eelLong-fin eel
- 8. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Open Water Few spend entire lives in estuaries Killifish ( Fundulus )
- 9. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mudflats Bottoms of estuaries that are exposed at low tides Extensive in large tidal range Sand - accumulate near river mouth & tidal creeks Fine, silty – in calmer central part of mudflat Low tides expose organisms to dessication, temperature change, & predation Regular variations in salinity
- 10. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mudflats Primary producers: not usually evident EnteromorphaSea lettuce (Ulva)
- 11. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mudflats Primary producers: Diatoms forming golden-brown patches
- 12. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mudflats Primary producers: Bacteria decompose organic matter Production of H₂S by some bacteria H₂S is used by sulfur bacteria to produce energy
- 13. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mudflats Infauna Most dominant Burrow on sediments Feed on detritus Epifauna Live on sediment Some are sessile
- 14. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mudflats Meiofauna A.k.a interstitial animals Most are deposit feeders
- 15. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mudflats Deposit feeders – eat organic materials in sediments Suspension feeders – feed on suspended materials in water
- 16. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mudflats
- 17. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mudflats Predators: “Resource Partitioning”
- 18. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mudflats Predators:
- 19. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mudflats Predators:
- 20. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Salt Marsh Temperate and sub-arctic regions Partially flooded at high tide Salt / tidal marshes In N. Hemisphere, more extensive on the left side
- 21. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Salt Marsh: Communities are dominated by grasses & land plants A salt marsh near Atlantic Beach, North Carolina
- 22. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Salt Marsh zonation of plants in salt marshes Zone location is related to height of tide Varies accdg. To geographical location, substrate etc. Ex. Soil Salinity
- 23. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Salt Marsh Cordgrasses – most common where it meets mudflats Soil is drained , richer oxygen, less salty May gradually invade mudflats Stabilize soils by decreased wave action California cordgrass (Spartina foliosa),
- 24. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Salt Marsh Home to decay bacteria, diatoms, green algae, & cyanobacteria. Bacteria decompose – major source of detritus Some bacteria are nitrogen fixers –enrich sediment Animals: burrowing animals in mudflats Nematodes, small crustaceans, larvae of land insects
- 25. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Salt Marsh Animals: Fiddler crabs – burrows along mudflat edge → increase oxygenation Scavengers: Sesarma Hemigrapsus
- 26. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Salt Marsh Animals: Air breathing snails that feed on detritus, algae, fungi that grow on marsh plants Coffee bean snails (Melampus) Marsh periwinkles (Littorina)
- 27. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Salt Marsh Animals: Horse Mussel Juvenile Silverside American coot
- 28. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mangrove Forest Tropical equivalent to salt marshes Mangroves → Mangals 75% of sheltered tropical shores are surrounded by mangroves Need fresh water for growth Black Mangrove leaf
- 29. Mangrove Forest • TYPESOF ESTUARINE COMMUNITIES
- 30. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mangrove Forest mangrove forest on the southern coast of Puerto Rico.
- 31. Mangrove Forest Red Mangrove Livesright on the shore Roots branch downward along the shores of southern Florida, the Caribbean, and the gulfs of California and Mexico • TYPES OF ESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Rhizophora mangle
- 32. Mangrove Forest Black Mangrove Alongthe Caribbean and Atlantic coasts of the Western Hemisphere Seedlings can survive high salinity Develop pneumatophores - aerate the plant • TYPES OF ESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Avicennia germinans
- 33. Mangrove Forest White Mangrove Foundonly along the land ward edge of the forest Sweat glands • TYPES OF ESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Laguncularia racemosa
- 34. Mangrove Forest Animals: • TYPESOF ESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Sesarma Cardisoma mudskipper(Periophthalmus) Indo-West Pacific mangrove forests and mudflats
- 35. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mangrove Forest Animals: Sponges – provide nitrogen compounds. Protect the roots from isopods polychaetes, mud shrimps, and clams at the muddy bottom rich nurseries for many species of commercially important shrimps, spiny lobsters, and fishes
- 36. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Mangrove Forest Animals: Birds, snakes, frogs, lizards, bats & other land animals Detritus are broken down by bacteria
- 37. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Other Estuarine Communities Muddy bottoms below low tide Seagrasses: Roots help stabilize sediment Leaves shelter many organisms Source of detritus Eelgrass (Zostera) -temperate Turtle grass (Thalassia) -warm
- 38. • TYPES OFESTUARINE COMMUNITIES Other Estuarine Communities Oyster reefs: Form beds in temperate waters Provide 3-d surface for many organisms Oyster-reef community: seaweeds, sponges, tubeworms, barnacles,
- 39.
- 40. Salt marshes inSouthern California and in many other locations around the globe have been obliterated with reclamation. dredging of navigation channels destroys salt marshes
- 41. Mangrove forests convertedto Shrimp mariculture, and causes pollution Clearing of Mangroves for urban development, roads, garbage dumps Mangrove forests once fringed around 75% of all sheltered tropical coastlines, but 35 to 50% of these mangrove forests have been destroyed.