Abiotic Conditions

The macroinvertebrates graph (figure 2) represents the diversity of species inhabiting the Baldwin Swamp. In 2009 the Baldwin swamp was flourishing with a large diversity of species. A total of 33 macroinvertebrates, 8 species were recorded. At this time the baldwin swamp was healthy, abundant in life and the ecosystem and food webs were unaffected by the floods. Whereas 3 weeks after the floods swept through there were little to no range of species of macroinvertebrates. There were a recorded amount of 2 Damselfly Nymph and 1 waterboat man. A theory to why these two

The upper zone, also known as the high tide zone, does not have enough water to sustain large amounts of vegetation.[8] The predominant organisms are anemones, barnacles, hermit crabs and limpets. The rock pools in this area are inhabited by large seaweed and small fish.

Although it supports a number of different organisms, Nudgee Beach lacks many of the fundamentals that make up a healthy and successful ecosystem. The first indicator of this is from the lack of birds present in the area. Although it has been noted for terrestrial bird species – such as kingfishers, pelicans, ibis, egrets, jabiru, stilts and heron – and wading bird species – such as golden plovers, curlews, tattlers and godwits – to have been spotted at Nudgee Beach and surrounding areas in the past; after a day’s worth of extensive observation and research, it was found that the birds observed were limited to magpie, ibis, great knot and eastern curlew species. To intensify this factor, at the time by which this lack of species was recorded, Nudgee Beach was expected to have started seeing tens of thousands of birds arrive for the migratory season [21]. This blatant lack of bird species diversity and quantity may have been due to the lack of small organisms within the ecosystem. The restricted number of small organisms at Nudgee Beach is detrimental to the entire ecosystem as these organisms make up the bottom levels of the food web and provide higher-level organisms with adequate amounts of food to consume. The smaller organisms expected to be observed – including; crustacean, shell, mollusc, lizard, frog, fish, worm, arachnid and insect species – was limited to the infrequent observation of crustacean, shell,

The Tidal zones consist of splash zone, high water neap tide, low water neap tide, high water spring tide, low water spring tide, mid tide level and the splash zone and sub littoral zone. All of these tidal zones can be determined by which indicator organisms/animals are living there. For an example the splash zone is the highest of all zones and the organisms that are generally living there are noddiwinkles. If you spot a lot of honeycomb barnacles and blue-grey periwinkle’s then you are most likely in the high water tide zone and water only covers this zone at high tide. White tube worms are indictor organism the mid tide level zone and is covered by water for half of the day. There’s also the low tide zone which is engulfed in water for the majority of the day expect at low tide, you can determine this zone by finding indicator organisms such as sea squirts. The final tidal zone is the sub literal zone and this is always under water the indictor organism’s living here are brown tubeworms and striped girdled chiton.

Table 2: Presence and occurrence of marine organisms in the surf zone of Pallarenda beach.

Habitat: Commonly found in terrestrial. Forest light gaps, slips, margins, disturbed sites, open habitats, riverbeds, cliffs, inshore and offshore islands, fernland, herbfield,

Silvershell Beach is the home to many different aquatic species and other forms of wildlife. Last lab block the class and I went into the ocean at Silvershell beach and took seven different seine net samples. With each sample we took, we noticed a variety of different organisms. As we moved around different areas of the ocean, we would come out with changing species and number of species that we did not find in other areas of the water. Species we found included sea robin, hermit crabs, moon jellies, minnows, shrimp, eels, and more. Sample one and two were taken from around the same area in the water and there was a reappearance of three of the species. In sample one we found hermit crabs, minnows, moon jellies, and a sea robin. In sample two

For the convenience of the students, a packet for recording the stream’s content and results was provided. On the first and second page, tables for seeing the taxa types of aquatic macroinvertebrates found were laid out, and students were to check the boxes with the names of the taxa they found in this area. Students entered the stream with a large water strain, and put dirt from the stream and carried it out of the stream to be examined. After observing several catches from the stream, the group one taxa findings included Stonefly nymph, Mayfly nymph, and Dobson fly nymph.

Daphnia can be found in a wide range of different environments. They can usually be found in ponds and small pools of water near the river. They even can be found in temporary pools caused by flooding and other natural events They tend to live at a range of depths but are more commonly near the middle or toward the surface of the water.

Kelp forests are “a source of food and habitat for dozens of other coastal species” (qtd. in Soulé et al 1240). Therefore, to maintain the diversity and richness of the coastal marine ecology, kelp forests should be preserved.

The intertidal rocky shore of Caloundra Beach is inhabited by diverse range of biodiversity of animals and plants, many of which have developed high levels of adaptations throughout their existence. The very boundary of marine and terrestrial ecosystem, this environment is subjected to extremes of the physical environment such as temperature, desiccation, wave turbulence as well the ecological interactions that commonly occur in biotic communities (e.g. competition, predation). However Rocky intertidal shores are easily accessible by humans and provide an enjoyable opportunity for passive recreation and for science and environmental education as well.

I would expect that the sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus spp.) would spend more time hiding in refuges at intertidal site 2. The abiotic conditions and biotic interactions at site 2 are more optimal for sea urchins to spend more time hiding in refuges. Sea urchins spend more time hiding in crevices and depressions in the rocks due to strong water movement as it protects them. The water velocity is much higher at site 2 (0 m/s – 25 m/s) than at site 1 (0 m/s-25 m/s). This forces the sea star to find refuges as the water velocity has a fifty percent chance of dislodging them and it is above the expected tolerance range. The density of attached macroalgae at site 2 (1.8 individuals/m^2) is higher than at site 2 (0.3 individuals/m^2), this higher

The impact to the benthic invertebrate macrofauna occurs from the disturbance of the substratum from dredging at the proposed sand winning sites, this results in habitat loss and death of resident infanua (Biccard, Clark, Porter and Hutchings, 2012). However the significance is considered to be low as the proposed dredging site signify an abundant sandy-bottom habitat which can be considered tolerant to disturbance when compared to bioclastic sediments and reefs (Biccard et al., 2012). In addition, the size of the area where the proposed impact will occur is negligible when compared to the size of the total area with the same type of habitat (Biccard et al., 2012). Dredged benthic

Bathymetry derived terrain variables are indicative of seabed morphology and can be used as predictors of suitable benthic habitats. A digital elevation model (DEM) is a digital representation of the elevation of locations on the land surface, and in the case of this report can be used as a digital representation of underwater bathymetry. The DEM can be used to derive various benthic terrain variables of underwater systems (Pescus 2012). Some terrain variables include depth, slope, rugosity, aspect and terrain variability. Depth is a major environmental gradient which controls species distribution, as various under water organisms rely on photosynthesis to survive and grow. As depth increases, less sunlight penetrates the water, resulting in a limited source of energy for photosynthesizing organisms (Pescus 2012). Additionally bigger/older individuals often prefer deeper waters (Lauria et al. 2015).

On the 9th of March, I went to Siren’s Rocks to investigate the community pattern, also called zonation, within the bounds of Island Bay’s Wellington Ecological Marine Reserve. The ecosystem of Taputeranga Marine Reserve takes the full impact of the Southern ocean swells. This Reserve is influenced by three different oceanic currents. This is an abiotic factor. The currents impact helps shape the rocky shoreline into the ecological community of different species of shore life into a pattern of different zones (zonation).