Rocky Shore

The rocky shore biome is a fascinating ecosystems that is packed with a wide variety of marine organisms. During high tide in the intertidal zone the shore is engulfed by sea water and pounded by reoccurring waves, conversely during low tides the shore is exposed to dry heat and air. Plants and animals that thrive in this biome have adapted in such ways to cope against freshwater and saline water, as well as maintaining body water during dry periods and withstanding high salinity when submerged underwater. Animals in this biome are categorized as mobile animals or sedentary animals. Mobile animals are very active moving along with the tides, they can retreat into gulleys and under rocks when faced with stressful environments. Mobile animals include crabs, small fishes, and sea lice. Sedentary animals on the other hand survive best in narrow range condition to which they are adapted, they spend their lives attached to rocks preventing them from being washed away by waves, gaining most of their nutrients from filtration of small particles found in water.

In this investigation the abiotic and biotic factors of the rocky shores were measured using the line transect technique, and prior to setting up the transect the shore was throughly surveyed for it's geographical features. The abiotic factors that were collected included temperature, wave frequency, wind direction, aspect, and light intensity. After the abiotic factors were collected seven quadrats were placed along the line transect and the biotic factors of each quadrat was collected. The collected biotic factor include crabs, periwinkle, barnacles, and knobbed snails, and the distribution of these organisms could be greatly impacted by human disturbances including a pathway built on the rocky shore, as well as a few visible fishing boats docked in the vicinity.

Table 1: Abiotic Factors Rocky Shore (Green Turtle)

Graph 1: Biotic Factors Rocky Shore (Green Turtles)

The abundance of each organism was modeled using the kite diagram. In this part of the investigation seven quadrat was laid down the line transect facing the rocky shore. According to this data there was a abundance in sedentary animals such as barnacles, periwinkles, and knobbed snails, which heavily populate the rocky shore, conversely there is a scarcity in motile animals such as the crab. The explanation for this distribution is because sedentary animals are stationary and exposed to predator with minimum protection, therefore more offsprings are produced during reproduction to ensure survival of the particular organism. On the other hand there is a scarcity in motile animals because they relie on factors such as evasiveness and camouflage hide from predator, so it is harder to detect these organisms. In conclusion the distribution of organism in the rocky shore vary greatly and could be explained using both abiotic and biotic factors.

Mangrove Biome

Mangroves biomes are found in tropical and subtropical tidal areas, which includes estuaries and marine shorelines. There are about 110 species of mangroves that grows in saline swamps, and to overcome these harsh environments conditions the mangrove plants have a number of adaptations towards anoxia, high salinity and frequent tidal inundation. Since each species have their own adaptations mangrove tree species show distinct zonation pertaining to small environmental variations. The mangrove biome slows the flow of water and thereby enhancing sediment deposition in the area hence providing a ideal habitat for several marine species. In this investigation we measured the abiotic and biotic factors from two different red mangrove sites, using the continues belt transect technique. The abiotic factors that were measured in this experiment included temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, turbidity, nitrate levels, ammonia levels, phosphate levels, water depth, and light intensity. To increase the reliability of this investigation the data was collected by four separate teams, where each team surveyed both mangrove sites twice.

Table 1: Abiotic Factors Red Mangrove Site A (Green Turtle)

Table 2: Abiotic Factors Red Mangrove Site B (Green Turtle)

According to the abiotic factors collected both mangrove ecosystems have roughly the same air temperature, water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, dissolved particles, and water depth. The abiotic factors for turbidity on the other hand vary greatly, where the turbidity value range from 25~40 in mangrove site A and 35~60 in mangrove site B, this variation could be a result of stirring up the sediment while collecting water samples, an example of systematic error within the investigation. In this investigation both mangrove sites were red mangroves therefore from the similarities observed in the following abiotic data we could provide supporting evidence to the theory of zonation for different mangrove species. From this we conclude that different species of mangrove thrive in areas containing preferable abiotic factors in which they have adapted to.

Above are displayed bar graphs of the organisms that were found in both red mangrove sites, where the red mangroves in site A were submerged in water and the red mangrove in site B were anchored in the soil. Since the mangroves has the ability to slows water flow through prop roots, it allows rich sediments to settle hence attracting organism in site A. Conversely the mangroves in site B is not submerged in the water therefore many of the organism are exposed, however there is a lack in variety of organisms. The prop roots of mangroves cover a large surface area to volume ratio and allow for the growing or plants species such as lichen or algae, and the abundance of these producers give rise to species of snails. From this we could observe the interaction between different organisms  and draw out appropriate food chain and webs to model the interaction between different organisms in the red mangrove ecosystem.