6 Intertidal Rocky Shores Flashcards
What is pelagic?
What is benthic?
- pelagic is the zone that begins at the low tide mark and includes the entire oceanic water column. Pelagic organisms live floating or swimming in the water column
- benthic is the bottom of an ocean or lake. Marine benthic organisms live on the sea floor
What is a rocky shore?
- intertidal area
- consists of solid rocks
- can include many different habitat types e.g. steep rocky cliffs, platforms, rock pools, boulder fields
intertidal pools
- tidal pools are rocky pools in the intertidal zone that are filled with seawater.
- they are formed by abrasion and weathering of less resistant rock and scouring of fractures and joints in the shore platform.
- this leaves holes or depressions in where seawater can be collected at high tide.
general characteristics of intertidal rocky shores
what are they?
Where can they be found?
significance?
*Transition zones between land and sea
*Globally distributed, but particularly abundant in temperate areas where erosion caused by the retreat of glaciers has removed sediments along the coast.
*They occupy a negligible portion of the globe, but have enormous ecological, social and economic importance
*Scientific value as model systems for experimental ecology and community ecology studies
*Relatively simple environment - Strong environmental gradients (i.e. wetting, exposure) in relatively small spaces
*Predominantly sessile and small organisms, relatively easy to manipulate
physical environment shaped/ dominated by
- Climate
- Tides
- Wave exposure
- Shore geometry
- Substratum morphology & mineralogy
- Climate - differences in temperate intertidal rocky shores and tropics
- Tropics defined as areas between 23.4 degrees north and south latitudes
- Less temperature variation and seasonal rainfall in tropical than in temperate intertidal
- Higher temperatures are more stressful
- Less temperature variation and fewer storms are
less stressful
- Tides
- generate strong vertical gradient
- Between high and low tide levels (range of a few cm to> 7 m)
- In a few meters we pass from a completely terrestrial environment to a completely marine environment
tidal ranges
high tide
The tide when the water is highest
low tide
The tide when the water is lowest
Spray zone
The area above the high tide mark, where the ocean periodically sprays on the land
Intertidal zone
The area along coastlines between the high and low tide
Subtidal zone
The area below the low tide mark, always underwater
Graph that shows terms used in describing tidal levels and the shape of typical spring and neap tide curves
Immersion and Emersion - is it a vertical or horizontal gradient? Why is it a gradient?
- vertical gradient
- drying stress
- climate (thermal conditions, rain, consequent osmotic stress..)
- food- and nutrient-availability
- lack of oxygen
Emersion: Aufsteigen des Landes über den Meeresspiegel
Immersion: Eintauchen in Flüssigkeit
- Waves - vertical or horizontal gradient?
both
waves - vertical gradient
waves - horizontal gradient
- refraction
- diffraction
waves and their hydrodynamic forces
- horizontal: drag force in the direction of the wave impact inertial force of impact reaction
- vertical: lifting force from bottom to top
why are very exposed shored stressful for organisms?
drag and lift forces
why are very stagnant conditions stressful for organisms?
- temperature
- oxygen
- nutrients
- shore geometry and inclination have an effect on ___ ?
- lighting
- hydrodynamics
- temperature
- sedimentation
- larval settlement
- Substratum morphology
- refers to underlying surface/ material
- morphology can vasry in composition/ arrangement of pebbles, boulders..
- sizes
- enables topography and small scale heterogeneity
- other factors that influence intertidal rocky shores
- Physical disturbance
- Sedimentation
- Salinity
- Nutrients
The biotic environment of intertidal rocky shores is mainly influenced by what? (categorization)
- dominant forms
- zonation patterns
- patch and temporal dynamics
- trophic structure
- dominant forms
features of: Sessile Benthos
- tolerant to desiccation stress (Austrocknen)
e.g. seaweeds have
- morphologies and alginate content that help retaining moisture
-complex physiological adaptations to desiccation
strategies of mobile intertidal organisms
- isophasic strategy
- isospatial strategy
most organisms have mixed complex patterns
isophasic strategy
Forms adapted to either the marine or air environment which, through a high vagility, access the intertidal zone in the periods in which it is hit by the favorable phase. Dynamic colonization of the intertidal environment
isospatial strategy
Organisms that manage to remain in the intertidal belt regardless of the temporal alternation of the two phases. The activity of these anymals is limited to the time that is suitable for moving and feeding
what is known as “vertical zonation”?
- intertidal species tat show marked distributional patterns
from high to low shore:
- marked changes in species composition
- increase of species diversity and biomass
Zonation
regular variation in the distribution and abundance of organisms along gradients in space
zonation and gradient analysis
- One of the main research topics in rocky shores has focused on understanding the relationships between environmental gradients and species distribution and the processes that generate them
- Gradient analysis: study of the effects of varying a factor on the way populations are distributed (are there clear boundaries?)
Vertical Gradients (image)
Vertical Gradientsin IRRS
favorable and unfavorable conditions on vertical gradient
what are the gradients that are more favored, the farther down it gets?
zonation models
vertical zonation along the Atlantic coast
changes in zonation patterns in relation to coast exposure to wave action
north Adriatic exposed zones
north Adriatic protected shores
different distribution along exposed and sheltered shores in UK
changes in zonation patterns in relation to climate
- small scale patchiness
- In addition to relatively predictable gradients, the distribution of organisms exhibits great small-scale heterogeneity (patchiness)
- Sometimes patchiness is prevalent to the point that we are talking about mosaic populations
“patch”-dynamics is largely related to ___ ?
disturbance.
- Disturbance events in nature (storm surges, herbivores, abrasion, etc.) that are heterogeneous in space and time originate populations consisting of patch mosaics with different colonization dynamics.
- A patch is a portion of the localized, discrete and uniform habitat in which the effect of a disturbance is homogeneous and within which the subsequent dynamics are similar
(Petraiti et al. 1989)
Patchiness and scale
patches show:
- temporal patterns (seasonal/ non seasonal)
-cyclic dynamics