Weekly summary of Tropic101x

as posted by student Lucia_Agudelo

With minor grammatical and content edits by Tropic101x team

Summary of Week 1
Lucia_Agudelo
TROPICAL COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS
Some of the simplest organisms that are found in tropical coastal ecosystems are the
nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria. They're able to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere using
an enzyme known as nitrogenase.
Part of the diversity of life on coral reefs is taken up by micro-algae. These tiny plants
have a range of different photosynthetic pigments and include organisms such as
green micro algae, diatoms, and other single-celled, eukaryotic, photosynthetic
organisms.
One of the most important ecological interactions within some tropical coastal
ecosystems is the competition between macro-algae and other organisms. On coral
reefs, macro-algae and corals are usually engaged in a fierce competition for space,
which is modulated by the presence or absence of other organisms such as grazers.
Within organisms that play an important series of roles in tropical coastal ecosystems,
we can find:
Protists (cilliates and dinoflagellates) Sponges Phylum Cnidaria (jellyfish,
hydroids, corals, and sea anemones) Ctenophores (comb jellies) Bryozoans or
Ectoprocts Flatworms Ribbon worms or Nemerteans Molluscs (octopus and
squids, bivalves and clams, snails and sea slugs) Annelids (polychaete worms)
Crustacea (crabs, prawns, lobsters, barnacles and sand hoppers) Sea spiders
Echinoderms (sea cucumbers, starfish, crinoids and brittle stars) Tunicates Fish
Reptiles Seabirds Marine mammals
CORAL REEFS
Coral reefs are benthic ecosystems which are typified by a dominance of Scleractinian
corals.
Carbonate coral reefs occur where significant amounts of calcium carbonate have built
up over time.
Non-carbonate reefs occur where corals still precipitate calcium carbonate but not at a
rate which can keep up with the erosion and loss of carbonate due to storms and
biological agents that remove calcium carbonate at a high rate.
Deep-water coral reefs are often called mesophotic coral reefs because light levels
have dropped to very low levels.

Corals types:

Carbonate reef systems do not persist where temperatures drop below 18 degrees
Celsius. Light levels need to be high enough to sustain the photosynthetic rates of the
symbiotic dinoflagellates in the corals. This means the water column (the medium
through which light must penetrate) cant have a lot of sediments and particles in it or
it will make the benthic habitat too dark for photosynthesis-dependent corals to
survive.
Another important factor is the amount of CO2 in the water column. If CO2 gets too
high, it will decrease the carbonate ion concentration and thereby restrict the rate of
calcification by corals and other calcifying marine organisms.

Calcification is the process by which calcium carbonate is precipitated into the shells
and skeletons of marine organisms. Decalcification is the process by which calcium
carbonate is broken down and solubilized.
The growth rate of a coral reef is inversely proportional to the decalcification and is
directly proportional to calcification.
PROFILE OF A REAL CORAL REEF
Plants have to survive quite violent storms, high temperatures, high salt content and
have to deal with the limited amounts of nutrients and water that are on Heron Island.
Some plants and animals adapted to live on Heron Island are:
Pandanus trees Octopus bush Heliotropium Calophyllum Pisonia or birdcatcher trees Noddy terns Buff-Banded Rails
The intertidal section is an area that's still quite close to the island and it is not
circulating at low tide with the rest to the ocean and that has some problems.

Temperatures can get very warm in this part of the intertidal section, oxygen levels
can get very high during the day. If you have a low tide at night CO2 can get to a
thousand parts per million or more because cellular respiration is happening but
photosynthesis is not. Despite all the challenges in this rather harsh environment, we
still have a lot of organisms living here:
Holothuria atra (cucumber) Turbinaria (brown alga) Pedina (alga) Caulerpa
(alga) Chlorodesmis (green alga) Halimeda (alga) Montipora (coral) Starfish
Epaulette shark Linckia (starfish)
One of the important functions that coral reefs have is to dissipate that energy that's
coming from waves and storms.
At 10 meters in the reef slope, there's luxurious coral growth, more branching coral,
and it is this part of the reef which is really growing at the fastest and most productive
rate.
But as we keep on going down the reef slope, it'll start to lose light, there will be less
and less coral until it get to the great sandy expanses which is where the coral reef
part of the reef has finished.
At 20 meters below the surface, the light levels are getting lower, the amount of coral
is giving way to sandy expanses so it no longer has the rich coral habitats it has
behind, but of course it has a whole series of new habitats.