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1E2_2011 Group 5 - Pacific Seashore

Page history last edited by 1E2_Group5_2011 13 years, 6 months ago

Team members

Names / Roles:

. Mardhiah Abdat (leader)

Tan Hui Joo (Wiki Writer)
Carina Ng (Researcher)
Riya Mishra (Researcher)
[name] (Researcher)

Overview

In this section, include a brief description of the allocated ecosystem. You should include the following information:

Location of the ecosystem
Description of ecosystem
Biodiversity of ecosystem (richness of life in ecosystem)

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical parts of the environment with which the organisms interact , such as, air, soil ,water and sunlight. It is all the organisms in a given area along with the non-living factors with which they interact; a biological community and its physical environment.

The entire array of organisms inhabiting in a particular ecosystem is called a community. In a typical ecosystem, plants and other photosynthetic organisms are the producers that provides the food. Ecosystems can be permanent or temporary. Ecosystems usually form a number of food webs.

Ecosystems are functional units consisting of living things in the given area, non-living chemicals and physical factors, of their environment , linked together through nutrient cycle and energy flow.

Central to the ecosystem concept is the idea that living organism interact with every other element in their local environment, interact with

Physical Factors

Search the Internet for information on the following physical factors in the allocated ecosystem.

Light (availability of sunlight in the ecosystem),
Temperature (temperature of the ecosystem),
Water (water quality in the ecosystem),
Salinity (freshwater or seawater found in the ecosystem).
Air (quality of air in the ecosystem),
pH of the environment (how acidic or alkaline the ecosystem is),
mineral salts (availability of nutrients and mineral salts in the ecosystem)

light: the avalibility of light depends on which part of the shore we are interested in. it also depends on the time of the day.

tempreature: the temperature of the shore is 98 degree celcius or less. It depends on the amount of light able to reach the seashore.

water: the water is almost pure, it just contains salt, which makes is undrinkable as well.

salinity: the average salinity is 35 ppt. this means that the seashore does not contain too much of salt.

nutrients: there are many types of nutrients available, such as seaweed and small creatures. The deeper you go into the ocean there are dolphins, whales, sharks and food for these organisms.

Classification of Living Organisms

Classify at least eight of the living organisms found in the allocated ecosystem into the categories below:

Producers
Primary Consumers
Secondary Consumers
Tertiary Consumers
Decomposers

For each of the living organism, find a picture and write a short description on the organism. You may wish to include feeding habits, region in the ecosystem where it is normally found etc.

Coralà Giant starfishà Sea ottersà Orca (killer whale )

Decomposer: Fungus, Mushroom

Corals: Corals are marine organisms in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria normally living in compact group of many identical individual "polyps." The group makes up of the important reef builders that live in tropical oceans, which secrete calcium carbonate to form a firm skeleton.

Giant Starfish :

The Giant sea star, Pisaster giganteus is a species of sea star that lives along the western coast of North America from Southern California to British Columbia It makes its home on rocky shores near the low tide mark. It preys on mollusks. It can grow as large as 24 inches in diameter. Its color varies from brown to red or purple.

Sea Otters: The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg making them the heaviest members of the weasal family but among the smallest marine mammals. Unlike most marine mammals, the sea otter's primary form of insulation is an exceptionally thick coat of fur, the densest in the animal kingdom. Although it can walk on land, the sea otter lives mostly in the ocean.

Orca ( Killer Whale ): The orca or killer whale is a toothed whale that is an efficient predator, even attacking huge young blue whales. Their only enemy is human beings. Orcas live in small, close-knit, life-long pods and have 1 blowhole. The killer whale belongs to the family of dolphins and is the biggest dolphin. It is sometimes called the "wolf of the sea" because its behavior is similar to that of wolves

Fungus:

Fungi are designed for use by plant pathologists and veterinary and medical mycologists. They provide integrated information to allow identification / confirmation of identity of significant species, along with related information on pathology or other economic significance

Mushroom:

The mushroom Amanita muscaria, usually known as "fly agaric"

A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. Like all fungi, mushrooms are not plants and do not undergo photosynthesis. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom,Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that have a stem a cap and gills) or pores on the underside of the cap.

Parrotfishes are a group offishesthat traditionally have been considered afamily(Scaridae), but now often are considered a subfamily (Scarinae) of thewrasses.^[1]They are found in relatively shallow tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world, but with the biggestspecies richnessin theIndo-Pacific. There are approximately 90 species found incoral reefs, rocky coasts andseagrassbeds, and play a significant role inbioerosion.

Sharks(superorder Selachimorpha) :are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago.

Since that time, sharks have diversified into 440 species, ranging in size from the small dwarf lanternshark, Etmopterus perryi, a deep sea species of only 17 centimetres (6.7 in) in length, to the whale shark, Rhincodon typus, the largest fish, which reaches approximately 12 metres (39 ft 4 in)
and which feeds only on plankton, squid, and small fish by filter feeding. Sharks are found in all seas and are common down to depths of 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). They generally do not live in freshwater, with a few exceptions such as the bull shark and the river shark which can live both in seawater and freshwater. They breathe through five to seven gill slits. Sharks have a covering of dermal denticles that protects their skin from damage and parasites, and improves their fluid dynamics so the shark can move faster. They have several sets of replaceable teeth.

Food Web

Create a food web using at least eight of the living organisms listed above. You may wish to use Microsoft PowerPoint to create your food web. Save your food web as a picture. Finally copy and paste your picture in this section of your wiki.

Interrelationship in Ecosystem

Give at least one example for each of the following relationships in the ecosystem:

Predator-prey relationship
Parasitism
Mutualism

PREDATOR PREY RELATIONSHIP:

Starfish and Sea otter / Parrot fish and sea otter / Sea otter and Sea otter and Shark / Sea otter and orca

PARASTITSM:

Fungus/ mushroom and Fungus/ Mushroom

MUTUALISM:

Coral and Parrot Fish.

Parrot fish takes in oxygen and gives out carbon dioxide. The coral then uses the carbon dioxide to photosynthesis. As the coral photosynthesis, it gives out oxygen for the parrot fish to respire. Also the fish can depend on the coral for food.