Topic 4: Shark Physiology 3 Flashcards
What is the range of salinity for the open ocean?
34-35 aka 3.4-3.5% salinity
What is the break down of seawater? (9)
- 96.5% water
- 3.5% salts
L> Chloride(Cl)= 55% (19.25g)
L> Sodium(Na)= 30.6% (10.7g)
L> Sulfate (SO4) = 7.7% (2.7g)
L> Magnesium(Mg)= 3.7% (1.3g)
L> Calcium(Ca)= 1.2% (0.42g)
L> Potassium (K)= 1.1% (0.39g)
L> Minor constituents= 0.7% (0.25g)
What are the two main salts in seawater?
- Cl and Na
What are the three main electrolytes in seawater?
- Cl, Na, K
How many shark species function in low salinity water?
- 34
Why cannot a GW travel into freshwater?
- bc it would die in a short order of time…cells would lyse ….can’t keep flow of water/maintain it!
What are the three umbrella terms for the groups that involved in osmoregulation?
- Organs
- Organic Compounds
- Inorganic ions
Osmoregulation Players:
1. What organs are involved?(4)
- Kidney
- Liver
- Gills
- Rectal gland
Osmoregulation Players:
2. What organic compounds are involved ? (2)
- Urea
2. TMAO ( trimethylamine oxide)
Osmoregulation Players:
3. What inorganic compounds are involved? (3)
- Sodium
- Chloride
- Other salts
Osmoregulation Players:
- Are the inorganic compounds (Na and Cl) always grouped together?
- NO
- Sodium is speared from the other salts in some areas of the gills and rectal glands to be utilized in sodium-potassium pumps!
What are the two sharks thought to have been involved in the real events that occurred in Jersey shore that Jaws was based off of? Issues??
- Bull shark
- Great White
L> BUT GW would take on too much freshwater and couldn’t handle it. Although if there were high tides..salinity would be high enough for the great white to go up into freshwater swimming near the bottom through the seawater lingering there but it would have to leave the area with the tide!
Describe osmoregulation in a freshwater environment! (4)(teleost fish)
- they drink little water
- Actively takes up ions through the gills (water going in and ions too)
- Absorbs water through skin (water in and ions out)
- excretes very dilute urine and some ions
Describe osmoregulation in a marine environment! (teleost fish)
- Drinks a lot of water
- excretes ions and water through the gills
- loses water through the skin but gains ions through the skin.
-Excretes very concentrated urine! (with ions)
L> ions present in it = Na+, K+ and Cl-
Marine fish are hyper osmotic or hypo osmotic?
- Hypo osmotic
L> they have a high water concentration in them so water and salt concentrations diffuse out of them via the process of osmosis.
L> To make up for this they continuingly drink water and their gills process it, taking out the salt, to replace what they lost through osmosis. Because of these processes they have very little urine.
Freshwater fish are hyper osmotic or hypo osmotic?
- hyper osmotic
L>their insides are saltier than their surrounding environment (hyperosmotic). Osmosis draws water, salt, into its body via is skin and gills. As a consequence fresh water fish have very dilute urine and urinate often to balance off all the water coming from osmosis.
Elasmobranchs can be classified as ____ or ____. Hint: Think in terms of their waste product and a certain type of regulation…
- Ureotelic: A ureotelic organism excretes excess nitrogen as urea
- Ureosmotic: an organism (or species) that adjusts urea production or retention so as to maintain osmotic equilibrium, rather than as a means of disposing of surplus nitrogen.
Marine elasmobranchs surrounded by salt, gain or lose water? Why
- lose water
- need to get rid of excess organic and inorganic compounds
Freshwater elasmobranchs are surrounded by freshwater, gain or lose salts and electrolytes? Why?
- lose salts and electrolytes
- need to get rid of excess water
What does it mean to be a euryhaline species of elasmobranch?
- their environments fluctuate in salinity
- they must handle salt and fresh water conditions
- *ability to adapt to a range of salinity
Many or few species of rays have become freshwater locked?
- few
Where on an elasmobranch is osmolality maintained at or slightly above external osmolality?
- body tissues
Explain osmolality in terms of a nurse shark in a marine environment.
- Gills:
- Urea out
- Water in
- Salts out
* *Body osmolality is maintained at 1000-1050mOsm/kg
* * External seawater osmolality is ~1000 mOsm/kg - Excretions from cloaca
- Urea at 350mM
- TMAO 60mM
* * Urine Osmolality is 800 mOsm/kg
* * Rectal Gland Osmolality is 940 mOsm/kg
- **brings in salts from food
What is debated in terms of osmolality regulation in sharks?
- whether or not the gills excrete urea …some people believe they are impermeable and the urea must leave via urine.
Sharks in general are slightly ____ to seawater. Fresh water diffuses into their bodies through the ___, ___ and other ___.
- hyperosmotic
- mouth
- gills
- exposed membranes
Describe basic intake of sharks in general.
- food through mouth (water and salts transferred inwards)
- Water and salts absorbed through gills
- urea and TMAO in body tissue <retain a lot of TMAO but it is not specific to sharks
- cloaca : excretes salt precipitate
To osmoregulate, use _____ and _____ by what organ?
- Urea
- Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO)
- Liver
- *put together via liver
Urea waste product is from what?
- nitrogenous compounds…which can be toxic at high levels and will break down proteins
TMAO produces what kind of smell at low concentrations vs high concentrations?
- Low: fishy smell
- High: strong ammonia smell
Describe some general characteristics of the interaction between TMAO and urea !
- smell is from breakdown of proteins as well
- higher levels of this than urea and it stabilizes urea
- together urea and TMAO ensures the shark is saltier than the seawater (hyper osmotic )
- TMAO counteracts urea to protect proteins
- ** which came first? no one knows!
In polar fish they do depress what?
- the freezing point via TMAO(acts like antifreeze) …thought to do the same in the greenland shark
L> known to be very toxic meat when ingested
**drunk like effects when consumed
What is the common name for Somniosus microcephalus ?
- Greenland shark
What is the maximum length, average length and weight seen in greenland sharks?
- Max length: up to 7.3m (24`)
- Average length: 2.5m to 4.5m ( 8-15`)
- Weight: Up to 1,200kg ( 2,645lbs)
Where do Greenland sharks live?
- deep, dark cold water
- Arctic (salinity is decreased bc of run off from ice)
- St. Lawrence as well
- along Maine as well
- *constantly changing in osmoregulation
The greenland shark has a ___ body. It has no ___fin. There is a distinct ____ on the caudal base. Its head is ___ compared to the rest of its body.
- cylindrical
- anal
- caudal keel
- smaller
Greenland shark:
-There are two large ___above and slightly behind the eyes. The shark’s skin can be __, __,__ or a spotted mix of all three. It’s whitened rostrum is a sign of what?
- spiracles
- black
- brown
- grey
- repeated abrasion from the foraging shark’s quest for food on the seafloor.
- *mostly collagen fibres
Greenland shark:
- It has __ dorsal fin(s) which are ___ and ___. The base of the dorsal(s) is ___ than the length.
- 2
- small
- spineless
- shorter than their lengths
Greenland shark:
- Its caudal fin is ____.
- asymmetrical
Greenland shark:
- It’s eyes are ___ and ___ and are usually host to a _______, except in the case of the ___ specimens observed by GEERG which rarely have them.
- round
- small
- parasitic copepod
- St. Lawrence
Greenland shark:
- why do they have large nostrils?
- compensate for the lack of vision!
Greenland shark:
- what happens to their eyes infected by the parasite?
- clouds over the cornea like cataracts
- **relies a lot on chemo sense to smell prey
Greenland shark:
- The sharks ____ determines its feeding technique.
- dentition
Greenland shark:
- The upper teeth are ___ but not ____ and enable the shark to ____ its food __. The bottom teeth, ___ and ___, serve to cut the food item by seining the head in a ____ motion. BY doing so, the shark cuts out?
- pointy
- serrated
- pin
- into position
- wide
- curved sideways
- circular motion **jaws do not open wide
- a round plug of flesh from its victim when it is too large to swallow whole.
Greenland shark:
- How many teeth are in the upper jaw? Lower jaw?
- 48 to 52
- 50 to 52
Greenland shark:
- what happens to small prey?
- if they are small enough to fit right into the sharks mouth, they are sucked off the bottom.
Greenland shark:
- describe its scales
- they are dispersed all over the place….typical of a slow moving shark…since it doesn’t need to worry about laminar flow!
Greenland shark:
- what is a crucial factor for this shark’s comfort zone?
- water temperature
- It prefers very cold water (-0.6 C to 10C)
Greenland shark:
- what determines whether it migrates up or down the water column?
-seasonal variations in water temperature determine its migration up or down the water column. (0-2200m)
Greenland shark:
- In the summer, the shark is normally found at ___ depth where the water is the ___. In the winter, it ___ which is colder than the water ____.
- great
- coldest
- rises up to the surface layer
- on the sea floor
Greenland shark:
- Aside from acting as an antifreeze what else do they believe TMAO does for these bottom dwelling sharks?
- helps with pressure!
Greenland shark:
- Prey:
L> The greenland shark is a(n) _____ predator, primarily a ___.
- an opportunistic predator
- scavenger
Greenland shark:
- Prey:
L> Verified Stomach contents?
- Fish
- mammals
- invertebrates
- others: birds and kelp
Greenland shark:
- Prey:
L> Verified Stomach contents:
- Fish??
- Arctic charr, Atlantic Halibut, Atlantic salmon, capelin, cod, eelpout, eels, greenland halibut (turbot), grenadier, haddock, herring, lumpfish, pollack, sculpins, skates and other sharks including other greenland sharks (cannibalistic tendencies ), spotted wolffish
Greenland shark:
- Prey:
L> Verified Stomach contents?
- Mammals??
- beluga, narwhal, porpoise, seals and other animals including a dog, horse, reindeer, lose and white polar bear remains.
Greenland shark:
- Prey:
L> Verified Stomach contents?
- Invertebrates??
- crustaceans, gastropods, jellyfish, octopus, sea stars (sun stars and brittle stars), squid, urchins, whelk and other snails.
Greenland shark:
- Reproduction:
L> Has there been a lot of research?
- hmm…nope