Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Aquatic Ecosystems

Today we discussed the ways in which organisms have adapted to survive in the varying conditions found in aquatic ecosystems. There are three broad categories of the types of organisms that exist in water; plankton (drifters), Nekton (free-swimming organisms), and Benthos (bottom dwelling organisms). I watched an online news segment about a marine biologist who has been studying some fascinating Benthos organisms, primarily the cuttlefish, and their amazing adaptations for camouflage. Octopi also have a camouflage adaptation and he was following one octopus for a while when he was able to capture this amazing footage:


BlogWork:
What is eutrophication? How does it happen? What effects does it have on aquatic ecosystems?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

excessive nutrients in a body of water, usually caused by runoff of nutrients (animal waste, fertilizers, sewage) from the land, which causes a lot of growth of plant life. The decomposition of the plants degenerates the amount of oxygen so animals die of sufication.

Anonymous said...

that video about the octopus was awesome. i have heard it could camoflauge like that but this is the first evidence i've seen i couldn't tell what was the octopus and what was the coral.

Anonymous said...

Eutrophication is the rise of chemical nutrients. Phosphorus and Nitrogen are two. This happens on water or land. This can hurt animals because it make the ecosystem lose a lot of oxygen and they lose a lot of water and that can effect fish. The amount of plankton increases. It gets to have less Biodiversity. More problems with the water.

I used this source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutrophication

Anonymous said...

The amazing octopuses can do a lot of interesting things. The way they can change their color is in their skin. They are also very smart because they can open bottles with no problem just like us humans. I noticed that the mimicking octopus can transform its body into other animals. In my opinion from the videos the octopus is one of the most intelligent and disguising animals in the world.

Anonymous said...

Eutrophication is a harmful process that occurs in water bodies. It is caused by excess nutrients building up in the water and causing plants to grow at a much higher rate than usual. These plants die and cause the oxygen level to lower rapidly in an ecosystem. The quick change causes the other organisms to die off and, of course, changes (or destroys) an area dramatically. The toxic nutrients comes from mainly human sources. Fertilizers on any land leak or erode into water, as well as sewage pollution and excess nitrogen from the atmosphere.

Anonymous said...

the octopus gets its nutrients from the plants and its body is compose to the plant by camoflauging into the coral i dont think that its real because you couldn't see its eyes and it look like the rest of the coarl. it was a cool video dan.

Anonymous said...

Wow, that video was insane! I did not know what to think.

Anyway, eutrophication is generally a large increase in chemical nutrients in an ecosystem. It can take place on land or in water. Usually these chemicals contain nitrogen or phosphorus. Eutrophication increases the primary productivity in an ecosystem, which means plants grow and decay much faster. Another downside to eutrophication is that it causes a decrease in oxygen. A great decrease in organisms is a cause of eutrophication.

Anonymous said...

whoa it just appeared out of nowhere. I thought that the octopus was just in that plant. That is probably one of its adaptations.

Anonymous said...

eurotrophication means having a water supply that has alot of minerals and organic nutrients and itsupplys it around so that plants and animals are able to grow. For example plankton which takes away oxygen which also takes away another organism.

Anonymous said...

http://toxics.usgs.gov/definitions/eutrophication.html

Eutrophication is what happens when there is too much nutrients in the water. It's often caused by farmers using fertilizer. When it rains, fertilizer runs into lakes and streams. This causes massive algal blooms. The algae grows so unnaturally fast that it chokes out other life.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the octopus video. It looked invisible.

Anonymous said...

Eutrophication:

1. Eutrophication is when any type of body of water gets nutrients such as nitrates or phosphates.

2. This could happen naturally, or from human impact. It could be caused by erosion, or runoff.

3. It can cause overpopulation of algae, and other aquatic plants. That can take oxygen out of the water, which makes it hard for fish to survive.

Anonymous said...

Eutrophication means an increase in chemical nutrients in an ecosystem. It may occur on land or in water. The bacteria can suck out most of the oxygen in water and can kill aquatic organisms.

Anonymous said...

Eutrophication is a strict enlargement in chemical nutrients--common compounds that contains nitrogen or phosphorus in an environment. It might happen on land or in water. The term is however mostly used to mean the resultant rise in the environments primary or most important productivity—in other meanings excessive plant growth and decay—and even further impacts, including lack of oxygen and terrible reductions in water quality and in water quality and in fish and other animal popuations.