Today we discussed zonation in Marine Ecology. Zonation happens when organisms are adapted to a very specific set of conditions. Because some organisms are better adapted to these certain conditions, we see bands of organisms occupying zones. Today we talked about zonation and specifically how it affects the rocky coastline.
Students identified zones on rocky coast pictures and took notes on the material. Here is an example of a photo where the zones can clearly be seen by changes in dominant seaweeds. The
Fucus would in the lower intertidal zone and the
Pelvetia would be in the upper intertidal zone. It is easy to see the high water mark or where the high tide will reach. You can also see the lichens in the spray zone.
The spray zone is one of the hardest areas to live in because of the huge changes in salinity and temperature.
We finished class by discussing coral reefs and passing around coral skeletons made of calcium carbonate that I have collected on my travels and inherited from my grandmother. Each hole in the coral houses a polyp... and all the polyps make up the coral colony. So the polyps make up a superorganism. We then watched some BluePlanet and learned about some of their predators like the crown of thorns sea star and saw how the corals that sometimes look like rocks are able to attack and eat each other.
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| This is the crown of thorns and you can see the white skeleton of the coral it has consumed on the bottom. |
3 comments:
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