Lecture 6: Primary Production

• Types of eukaryotic microbes: fungi, stramenopiles, haptophytes, alveolates, choanoflagellates, ameboid protozoans
• Marine fungi are mainly found in benthos, have cell walls made out of chitin, are not photosynthetic
• Four phyla of marine fungi: chytridiomycota, zygomycota, basidiomycota, ascomycota
• Maritime lichens have a mutualistic association between fungi and blue/green algae
• Stramenopiles have two flagella

  Includes diatoms, silicoflagellates, and brown algae
• Labryintomorphs are a type of stramenopile that causes "wasting disease" in eelgrass
• Haptophyta are mostly photosynthetic and possess two simple flagella
• Coccolithophores are a unique type of haptophyte that is made out of coccoliths and account for 30-40% of carbonate production in seas
• Coccolithophores are the most prominent in tropical seas
• Dinoflagellates are a type of alveolate
• Big three types of alveolates: diatoms, cyanobacteria, dinoflagellates
• Dinoflagellates are responsible for harmful algal blooms and release toxins
• Dinoflagellates are bioluminescent
• Ciliates are a type of protozoan that use cilia for locomotion and gathering food
• Choanoflagellates are closely related to animals and can be found in either singe cells or in colonies
• Foraminiferans are a type of amoeboid protozoan that have pseudopods for capturing prey
• Radiolarians are a type of amoeboid protozoan that have silica shells and needle-like pseudopods
• Primary productivity defined by the rate of formation of energy-rich organic compounds from inorganic materials
• Gross production defined as the total amount of organic material fixed
• Net production defined as the total production left to support other tropic levels
• Standing crop defined as the total amount of organism's biomass present at a given time
• Turnover rate defined as the rate at which a population replaces itself
• Compensation depth defined as the depth where the amount of oxygen produced by phytoplankton cells equals the oxygen consumed in respiration
• Critical depth defined as the depth where total production of oxygen from photosynthesis in the water column equals the total consumption from respiration
• Factors that affect primary production include light, nutrients, hydrology, and grazing