Ocean Seaweed

Structure of Seaweed 

http://oceanlink.info/biodiversity/seaweeds/seaweed

a.      Why are seaweeds assigned to the Protista rather than Plantae? 

Seaweeds are assigned to the Protista family rather than the Plantae family because. They are neither plants or animals. Seaweed lack a  specialized vascular system they dont produce leaves, stems or roots. They dont need the conducting system because they get there nutrients and fluids from the water. The seaweed has four basic parts holdfasts which takes place of the roots on a plant. The stripe is the name of the steam, the leaves of the seaweeds are called blades. Floats also known as pneumatocysts are what help the seaweed to float on the water surface. The whole body structure is called the thallus. The most important ecological roles filled by seaweed is that they are a food source for marine animals such as sea urchins and fishes. The seaweed also gives a shelter and protection to many sea creatures such as small fish, sea urchins and other small creatures. Just like humens seaweed gets stress. Several types of environmental stress is that the seaweed can not travel with the tides and are exposed to air pressure and weather conditions which can hurt the seaweed. The cells of adult seaweed plants are diploid, meaning that they contain two sets of chromosomes. Diploid plants are called sporophytes because they produce and release spores. Spores are produced by meiosis, a cell division process that halves the number of chromosomes and forms new cells containing only one set of chromosomes. After they are released from the sporophyte, the haploid spores settle and grow into male and female plants called gametophytes. The gametophytes are also haploid, and they produce gametes which are the egg and sperm. When the sperm and egg are released the fertilize in the water than creates seaweed.  

Four Human benefits of Seaweed are,, 

• Seaweed is chock-full of vitamins, minerals, and fiber, and can be tasty. For at least 1,500 years, the Japanese have enrobed a mixture of raw fish, sticky rice, and other ingredients in a seaweed called nori. The delectable result is a sushi roll.
• Many seaweeds contain anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial agents. Their known medicinal effects have been legion for thousands of years; the ancient Romans used them to treat wounds, burns, and rashes. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that the ancient Egyptians may have used them as a treatment for breast cancer.
• Certain seaweeds do, in fact, possess powerful cancer-fighting agents that researchers hope will eventually prove effective in the treatment of malignant tumors and leukemia in people. While dietary soy was long credited for the low rate of cancer in Japan, this indicator of robust health is now attributed to dietary seaweed.
• These versatile marine plants and algae have also contributed to economic growth. Among their many uses in manufacturing, they are effective binding agents (emulsifiers) in such commercial goods as toothpaste and fruit jelly, and popular softeners (emollients) in organic cosmetics and skin-care products. 

Examples of New England Seaweeds

Red seaweed Chondrus crispus

Green seaweed Ulva lactuca

Brown seaweed

Species: Laminaria Digitata

Also know as Kelp 

Photosynthesis of Seaweeds

  In class we did experiments called exploring the rate of photosynthesis. We took a peice of a tree and we put it in a tube and filped the tube into  a beaker of water and we put it under light. The light caused the plant to create bubbles that rised from the plant to the surface of the tube itself. This is the moisture moing up.

·         OceanLink;

·         NOAA Ocean Service;

·         The Seaweed Site.

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/seaweed.html

http://oceanlink.info/biodiversity/seaweeds/seaweeds.html

http://oceanlink.info/biodiversity/seaweeds/seaweeds.html

“For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it.” ― Jacques-Yves Cousteau  

Deep Sea Lights

What deep-sea organisms are capable of bioluminescence, and how does this ability benefit these organisms?

 All organisms that live in the hadel zone in the ocean all glow to help them see in the darkness of the deep ocean bottom. 

 Bioluminescence helps the sea organisms to see in the darkness at the deep sea bottom. Each individual organism usually glows a different color so that each fish can be determined. It helps the organisms to attract there food so they can eat because you can really see much in the darkness the glow helps them to survive in the constant darkness.  

Pinconefish 

They are rounded and are yellow with black lining that looks like the pine cone shape. Sybiotic bacteria in there organs create a green-blue glow during the night and orange during the day. They have big eyes, little tales and little flippers. The Pinecone fish is a small fish. They live about 100-200 feet down in the ocean. They like to stay near caves, rocks and hard bottom and they live in schools. They use there light to attract the zoo plankton which is what they eat. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monocentridae

Energy Flow

The bigger the animal the more it eats. Such as a Great White they eat fish, seals, and other sea animals. Smaller animals eat other small animals such as plankton, krill, shrimp, copopods.
The primary producers are things such as plants ans small organisms. The top carnivores are animals such as sharks,dolphins and whales that eat the smaller organisms such as jellyfish, smaller fish and clams ect.

How do the fundamentals of physical oceanography and meteorology make earth habitable ?

  The fundamentals of physical and meteorology oceanography make earth habitable because.

the climate and winds affect the tides and currents causing waves. The ocean holds most of the earths

heat and food sources. When the ocean reflects the extra heat, the heat goes into the atmosphere

creating rain to fall. The ocean also helps keep the earth at a constant temperature that keeps us from

 burning up or freezing to death.

When you are out in the ocean have you ever noticed how windy it is and how if you keep going

further out into the ocean you will notice the waves as they grow and become stronger. These winds

are created because of the wide open space of the ocean. There is nothing blocking the wind from

being slowed down. The winds help to keep the ocean moving from place to place throughout the

ocean. Winds get stronger as they cross through open space. The Arctic for example is extremely

windy because of all the open space across the ice. Other examples of high winds are open fields,

huge open areas and the ocean itself.

The winds go from high to low and low to high. The winds circle around on the outside of the earth.

The ocean adsorbs the suns rays and as the water heats so does the air. The heat circles around as heat

 releases throughout the air creating the warm air. The air tarps heat above the clouds, the clouds hold

moisture and when it rains that warm air comes down in rain form. The clouds are like heat trappers

that allow heat into the earth.

The oceans tides, currents and waves create are created by the movement of the moon everyday

 creating tides within the ocean. The tides differ in some parts of the world there will be some oceans

 that have two tides a day and others that will only have one at night or in the morning. The moon

changes the tides. As the moon comes out in the tide comes in and as the moon disappears the tide

goes out creating the tide change. Tsunamis within the ocean are created when the earth moves, also

 known as an earthquake cracks the crust of the ocean bottom moving the plates. The pressure that the

 quake causes upward pressure that pushes the water creating waves. The waves then grow as the

wind catches up to the waves and they push towards land. The currents also have an affect on the

 ocean.

The currents all move in different directions. The warm and cold waters collide at some points its

 called at gyre and its when the cold and warm air mix together creating a circular motion in the

ocean.

 The earth is habitable because. The ocean prevents world temperatures from getting to hot or too

 cold.  Without the ocean we would most likely be dead. Because the earth would burn up, the heat of

 the sun would make the earth to hot and the earth would disappear slowly. The ocean creates life for

the humans it does so much for us we should do the same and keep the ocean clean and well because

 if the ocean is affected so is earth itself affecting our air and our habitat.

Interactions of the sun, atmosphere and the water to the ocean

How so the interactions between the sun,atmosphere, and water create environmental conditions in the ocean?

  Interactions of the sun, atmosphere , and the water create environmental conditions in the water. The atmosphere consists of a stratosphere, thermosphere, trosphere and the mesosphere.The thermosphere is the top layer of the atmosphere, the metosphere and the stratosphere are the middle layers and the troposhere is the lowest layer and it extends from the bottom of the earth. Inside the layers there are many diffent gasses they is oxygen, nitrogen, argon, carbon, and other gasses that hold our planet together. The sun effects the oceans because. The suns rays reflect off of the ocean and the thermosphere. The thermosphere consumes 50% of the suns rays, while the rest is left in the atmosphere. The ocean also consumes the sun rays heating the water. The cycle is a circulation in the from the atmosphere to the clouds and the ocean. The heat that enters the ocean is brought through the by the Gulf Stream, this brings warm water to diffrent parts of the ocean. Pressure is then put on the salt and fresh water creating mixture and currents and waves these are called mouths where salt and fresh water mix. The ocean convayere belt is when salt is carried to parts of the ocean to places that are missing the salt that need it. The polar eastelies winds push downward in the ocean well the polor front winds push back at the eastelies winds. The other winds are called westline winds and they are found between 30 degrees and 60 degrees lattitude toward the poles. When the winds collide its called a gyre. Every ocean has a grye but they are diffrent because the winds directions are diffrent. Many of the currents in the oceans are created by the grye effect. Geostophic currents also create the ocean currents becasue of the earths rotation. Overall the ocean is effected by the sun the atmosphere and the water itself. The oceans are most effected by the earths roatation more than anything else the movement creates winds cretaing the currents and everything else. The suns rays and the atmosphere all work together to make our oceans the way they are.

A Beach By Another Name

  Physical and Geological characteristics are used to classify earths dynamic coastlines, using coastal classification by graphing and finding estuaries. The differences of the characteristics defer and can create changes on the ocean floor. Coastlines are different everywhere in the world, in every ocean, bay, delta and rivers.
   Coastal classifications are put into groups, primary and secondary coasts. The Shepard Coastal classification system was created to find the differences between coastlines in the ocean. Primary coasts are split into five different coasts types, Land erosion, Subaerial-deposition, Volcanic, Diastrophic, and Ice coasts. Florida for example has primary beaches caused by Subarial-Deposition and land erosion. Secondary coasts are put into three different parts Wave erosion, Marine-deposition and coasts built by organisms. Chesapeake bay is a secondary coast because there are marshlands and grasslands this means its a coast built by organisms. Coastal classifications are very important, they tell us what to look for and what the ocean floor is made of.
   Graphing estuary salinity profiles helped to show the differences between estuaries. Graph A explained the depth and salinity, the graph went across than up than across ending on points (10, 30.5). Graph B showed  a strait line ending on points (10,20). Graph C showed an staircase looking line which ending points are (10,30.5). Graph A was a coastal plain, Graph B was a Fjord and Graph C was a Tectonic Coast. graphing the estuaries helped explain how the estuaries effect the different places and sections in the ocean.
   Estuaries are considered as nurseries in the ocean, they protect organisms from currents and waves. Fish will go to the estuaries to lay eggs to keep them protected from predictors. there are four types of estuaries Coastal Plain, Fjords, Bar built and tectonic estuaries. San Francisco Bay is a coastal plain because its a small river into a big body of water. The Indian river is a tectonic because there are barriers holding in the water. Puget Sound is  a fjord because its a river. Biscayne Bay is a bar built because its man made land around the the ocean. Estuaries are very important to our oceans because they help to bring in life to the ocean, they keep fish protected and its a great place to go fishing.
   This activity helped me to understand the greatness of the ocean and how important estuaries are to the ocean and the sea creatures. I learned how different coastlines effect the ocean and all around the United States coasts. Coastlines are very different and help keep the ocean moving. If coastlines where all the same the ocean would not move as smoothly because all the different coastlines have effects on the ocean and without them the ocean would not be as it is today.

Current events ( Isabel Could Cause Beach Erosion)

http://www.wtoc.com/story/1445350/isabel-could-cause-beach-erosion

Isabel Could Cause Beach Erosion

Hurricane Isabel may hit north of the island instead if south. The hurricane may not hit but we will still be affected. There will be big waves and high winds and beach erosion may happen. The chance of beach erosion is high.