LSM3254: Aquatic vs Terrestrial Environments

This is not an exhaustive or detailed checklist of differences between aquatic and terrestrial environments. Instead, we hope these point help to jog your memories and get you thinking about the discussions we had in the first two lectures on this topic. Density, viscosity, gravity and pressure

Organisms and particles supported and suspended o Adaptations to facilitate/enhance this. Plankton unique to aquatic systems. Suspension/filter feeders unique to aquatic systems. Water becomes less viscous as it heats up. It requires much more energy to move on land than in water (but water viscosity is a major problem for plankton) More structural material needed on land. Water experiences greater changes in pressure with depth than air does.

Light, temperature, sound and electrical resistivity

Water strongly absorbs light. Autotrophic generally life is limited to the photic zone. Lots of adaptation to low light. Water has a very high specific heat. Less temperature variation in aquatic environments than on land. Aquatic organisms often less tolerant to temperature fluctuations. Fourfold increase in speed of sound in water and the wavelength in water increases by factor of four. o Adaptations to exploit this for various purposes Electrical resistivity in water is 1016 times less than that of air. o Adaptations to exploit this for various purposes

Oxygen, dissolved organic matter

Water holds less oxygen than air Aquatic organisms need special adaptations/behaviours to breathe. Water contains energy-rich dissolved organic matter (DOM)a potential food source

Structural, functional and reproductive differences

Macroscopic plants (macrophytes) are not as dominant in aquatic ecosystems as on land. Dominant autotrophs are microscopic algae and cyanobacteria. Dominant herbivores of the sea are also small Herbivores can consume microscopic autotrophs completely. Aquatic organisms may shed both male and female gametes There are no aquatic equivalents of the many terrestrial pollinators.

Biodiversity and community differences Number of higher animal taxa in the three main World ecosystems Taxon Phyla Classes marineterrestrial 31 14 85 28 freshwater 16 35

The emphasis here is on phyla and classes because such higher taxonomic levels represent more fundamentally different types of animals, and therefore better reflect overall diversity than lower levels like genus or species.

The oceans have only 50 species of flowering plants. Aquatic systems and the land both have similar latitudinal gradients in biodiversity. Terrestrial communities are often characterized by a matrix of long-lived plants The majority of large animals in the sea are carnivores. Aquatic food chains tend to be longer than terrestrial ones. The efficiency of transfer from first to second trophic levels is higher in aquatic ecosystems. Evolutionary innovations in plant and animal groups: If you revisit what you learnt in LSM1103 Biodiversity (or other general biodiversity courses), you may recall that the most primitive groups are almost exclusively aquatic, and in the more advanced groups, there is a tendency to colonise terrestrial environments. There are some evolutionary innovations (e.g., changes in body form, excretory products, etc.) associated with groups as they progress in terms of colonization of terrestrial environments and independence from the aquatic environment. Think about these changes as they often reflect fundamental differences between aquatic and terrestrial environments.