Ecological Impacts Impacts on soft-bottom benthic macrofauna 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
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 sandy shores of beaches can be considered as a very harsh environment to live in (Ted Klenk, 1999). Survival in such a habitat requires an organism to withstand strong wave and current action, tidal rise and fall, unstable substrate, heavy predation and wide variations in salinity and temperature (The Otter Island Project). Any organism found in this type of harsh environment is specialized and highly adapted (The Otter Island Project).
Along the coasts of rocky beaches, an intricate ecological community inhabits the ‘rocky intertidal’ areas. The variety of rocks is home to an array of slimy, squishy, and colorful organisms. This intertidal community is comprised of nine species: three different algae, three stationary filter-feeders, and three mobile consumers. The three algae, Nori Seaweed, Black Pine, and Coral Weed, are the community’s producers and inhabit the bottom of the food chain. The next three species are stationary consumers. They are Mussel, Goose Neck Barnacle, and Acorn Barnacle. Because of their consumer status, they are more competitively dominant than algae. The last three components are the mobile consumers: Whelk, Chiton, and Starfish. They
The erosion of shorelines is a natural process that can have beneficial or adverse impacts on the creation and maintenance of habitats. Sands and gravels eroded from the shores of coastal bays maintain the beach as a natural barrier between the open water and coastal wetlands. Beaches move back and forth onshore, offshore and along shore with changing wave conditions. The finer-grained silts and clays derived from the erosion of shorelines are sorted and carried as far as the waters of wetlands or tidal flats, where benefits are derived from addition of the new material. However, excessively high sediment loads can smother submerged aquatic vegetation beds, cover shellfish beds and tidal flats, fill in riffle
Fort DeSoto Park is a protected marine environment that is next to Eckerd College, an unprotected marine environment in Boca Ciega Bay. Palaemonetes vulgaris (common name grass shrimp) is an invertebrate that is native to both areas. The comparison that is to be made is the average total length of Palaemonetes vulgaris between these two environments. The alternate hypothesis is because of human interaction occurring in the waters of unprotected areas, the Palaemonetes vulgaris will have a shorter average total length there. The null hypothesis is there is no difference in the size of Palaemonetes vulgaris growing in the protected vs. unprotected areas, because predators will eat all the shrimp in both areas causing them to have the same
The coastal environment I have decided to talk about today is Ningaloo Reef. The reef is on the remote western coast of Australia, it includes one of the longest nearshore reefs in the world. Temperate and tropical currents converge in the Ningaloo region resulting in highly diverse marine life including spectacular coral reefs, abundant fishes and species with special conservation significance such as turtles, whale sharks, dugongs, whales and dolphins.
The conservation of Udubia is a significant issue that needs to be dealt with promptly. There has been a decline in the marine wildlife surrounding the islands, which leads to a greater question; Why is this happening and what can we do to help? For one, fishing is a major concern. South of Tacominone, and to the east is where many tens and hundreds of tons of lobster and Rockfish accordingly, as well as hundreds of pounds Yelloweye Rockfish are being caught, and simultaneously a decline in the population of seals. There is a correspondence in the increased fishing yield numbers to the decreasing seal population. The dodo observed that 90% of manatees off the coast of Florida have scars on their backs due to the propellers of fishing boats.
The variations of tidal levels have created different degrees of sun and air exposure that have resulted in three zones, generally, the supra-littoral zone, littoral zone and the sub-littoral zone (See Appendix A, Figure 3). Diverse animal and plant organisms excel at surviving and dealing with different degrees of abiotic and biotic factors and as a result the rocky shore ecosystem is comprised of a series of bands known as vertical, or in this instance, intertidal zonation (See Appendix A, Figure 1). Abiotic stresses such as light intensity and wave action typically set the upper boundaries where as biotic stresses set the lower boundaries and limit the distribution of many organisms to particular strata (See Appendix A, Figure 2). It is due to the species distribution among the different zones that the rocky shore ecosystems cannot be defined as a uniform habitat, rather a dynamic and complex one (Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, 2013).
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.
By removing the phytoplankton, quaggas and zebra mussels in turn decrease the food source for zooplankton, therefore altering the food web. Impacts associated
The biological observations, conducted by the high school students, at the stream supported macro vertebrate fish such as trout, smallmouth bass, walleye, catfish, and smaller panfish. Other large game fish consist of musky, northern pike, pickerel, and American shad. The majority of these fish consumes a small variety of creatures, and based on the diets of the macro vertebrate fish, their diets include a wide variety of both aquatic and terrestrial insects, crayfish, other macro vertebrate fish, small fish such as minnows, and river crustaceans. Based upon this data, the population of life observed within the stream should conclude to the stream being able to consist of, however does not limit to, viable macro vertebrate fish. To collect
Mark Boyce: “Fishes as top-down and bottom-up drivers of coral reef community dynamics” -April 6, 2016
The European budget is drafted and overseen by the European Commission. It must first be approved by the Council and then the Parliament before it can be passed. According to European Union policy, the budget must always be in balance. Unlike many countries, the EU budget cannot operate in a deficit. For example, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the United States of America currently has a budget deficit of 5 billion dollars and the public debt at the end of this fiscal year was 13.1 trillion dollars. On 12 December 2014, the 2015 budget was confirmed by the Council to be €145 billion. The European Parliament formally approved it on 17 December 2014. This budget is actually fairly small. It is “smaller, for example, than the annual budgets of Austria or Belgium…which is only about 1% of the annual wealth of the entire EU” (EU Budget at a Glance, 3). To put this number into perspective, there are over five million people in the European Union and in 2013 individual citizens “contributed on average only around 80 euro cents a day towards the EU budget. That’s less than half the price of a cup of coffee in many places in Europe” (EU Budget at a Glance, 3). Ninety-four percent of
The coral reef surveyors were instructed to find the best sites that they believed had the most living coral and were thought to be least affected by human activities. This would allow Hodgson to determine if human activities were having an appreciable effect on the supposed pristine coral reefs, which were distant from urban centers. The invertebrate survey was undertaken at two depth intervals of 3m and 10m. Four 0.5 m wide by 20 m long belts were placed on the coral reef. Over a period of 3-5 minutes the observers counted the number of invertebrates found on the belts. The coral survey was performed, by placing four 20 m long belts on the coral substrate. At 0.5 m intervals the substrate on which the belts were lying was examined and recorded.
The coastal marine ecosystems off of Parana, Brazil consists of almost 99.9% of sandy-bottom communities (Brandini, 2013). This area lacks many hard substrates and has few natural, submerged