BIOL 3500: Ecology

1
Lecture 21

• BIOL 3500 Ecology
• Chapter 29 Wetlands
• Also, Invertebrate Review

2
Learning Objectives

• Define
• Wetlands
• Hydrophytic plants
• Hydroperiod
• Mitigation
• Contrast
• Obligate vs. facultative wetland plants
• Three basic wetlands types

3
Hydrophytic Plants

• Able to grow in water, or in anoxic soils
• Some are obligate, others are facultative
• NC Dept. of Natural Resources website
• Note 4 classes of wetland plants or wetland
  status

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Obligate Wetland Plants

• Highest water requirements (they MUST stay in the
  water!)
• Include cattails, lily pads, cypress trees
• U of Florida Extension Cypress in Florida
  website

5
Facultative Wetland Plants

• Sedges, alders
• USGS Sedge Meadows website
• Note sedge meadow is still a wetland!

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Facultative Plants

• Can live either on uplands or wetlands
• Red maple has deeper roots in uplands, shallow
  roots in wetlands
• USGS Wetlands Plants website

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Facultative Upland Plants

• Live mostly in drier areas
• Have a small chance of surviving in wetlands
• Beech trees are an example

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Three Basic Wetlands

• All three classified by water movement
• Basin wetlands water moves vertically
• Rains in, seeps out
• A rain garden might be similar to this
• Several along I-675
• Riverine wetlands water moves unidirectionally
• Fringe wetlands water moves in and out
• Salt marshes are great example (tide)

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Hydroperiod and Wetlands

• Hydroperiod time that wetlands are flooded
• Basin wetlands long hydroperiod
• Very seasonal (alternately flooded dry)
• Riverine wetlands also long hydroperiod
• Sometimes years go between flood stages
• Fringe wetlands hydroperiods very short
• Sometimes several floods in a day

10
Biological Productivity of Wetlands

• Wetlands are generally regarded as the second
  most biologically productive biome
• Which biome rates first?
• Unique availability of water sunlight
• Important as home to many wildlife species
• Migratory waterfowl such as geese, ducks

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Wetlands Prevent Floods

• Just 5 wetlands in watershed can reduce flooding
  50!
• Wetlands act as buffer for flooding
• By slowing water velocity, they keep water levels
  from rising or falling too quickly
• Allow aquifers to recharge

12
Wetlands Clean Water

• Home to many plants, they filter out many
  organic contaminants, such as DDT, dioxins, heavy
  metals, nitrates
• Key are the rhizospherestiny bubbles on
  wetland plant roots providing oxygen to bacteria

13
Wetlands are Endangered

• Well over 50 of original wetlands in contiguous
  48 states has been lost
• California particularly bad91 lost
• Mostly converted to farmland and homes

14
Wetlands Mitigation

• Mitigation making up for a loss
• Federal law requires that destruction of a
  wetlands be mitigated by the creation or
  preservation of wetlands elsewhere
• Problem creation of wetlands is a new, unproven
  concept
• Some ecosystems have proven difficult to
  reproduce (ie artificial prairies never have
  same biodiversity as original prairies)

15
7th Inning Stretch
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Learning Objectives

• Be able to
• Contrast Mollusks and Arthropods
• Identify invertebrates using an invertebrate
  guide
• Compare the invertebrate fauna from two different
  communities

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Question

• Name some shellfish

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Shellfish

• Typically two types
• Mollusks (Phylum Mollusca)
• Arthropods (Phylum Artropoda)

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All Mollusks Have

• Soft body
• A true coelom
• Muscular foot
• Mantle
• In snails clams, produces a shell
• Mantle cavity can also hold a gill or a lung!
• Many mollusks also have a radula
• A scraping tongue

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Mollusc Figure

• Is this a marine or land snail?

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The Molluscs

• Phylum Mollusca
• 3 Classes (names have Greek roots)
• Gastropods (stomach foot)
• Snails, sea slugs
• Bivalves (2 opening doors)
• Clams, oysters, mussels, scallops
• Cephalopods (head foot)
• Octopi, squid

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Arthropods

• Phylum Arthropoda
• All have
• Jointed appendages
• An exoskeleton
• Made of chitin (polysaccharide w/proteins)

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Ex Crustaceans

• Lobsters, crayfish, crabs, shrimps, barnacles
• Interesting notes on barnacles
• They use jointed appendages to gather food
  particles
• Like other crustaceans, they can be eaten!

24
Insects

• Easily the most diverse of the arthropods!
• 1 million species currently knownplenty left to
  be discovered
• There are more insect species than ALL other
  species combined!

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Shared Insect Characteristics

• Most have 3 body parts
• Head
• Thorax
• Abdomen
• Often have antennae
• Many have specialized mouth parts
• Ex mosquitos have mouth for piercing skin,
  sucking blood

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Ex Orthoptera and Hemiptera are Insects

• Order Orthoptera
• The grasshoppers and friends
• Hemiptera
• The true bugs

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Ex Odonata are Insects

• The dragonflies and damselflies
• 2 similar pairs of wings
• Larvae can be quite large
• Can eat small fish tadpoles!

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Ex Coleoptera are Insects

• The Beetles! The most popular (by number of
  species) order in the animal kingdom!
• Live in wide range of habitats forests, ponds,
  streams, soil, dung, carrion, plants
• Wide range of sizes 1mm to 12 cm
• 2 pairs of wings (dissimilar)
• Forewings form hard covering
• Hindwings used for flight

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Ex Dipterans are Insects

• All have
• Single pair of wings
• A pair of halteres
• Like little gyroscopes
• Used for balance in flight

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Summing Up

• See your Invertebrate Guide to learn scientific
  nomenclature common names