|
Electra Posidoniae
''Electra posidoniae'' is a species of bryozoan in the family Electridae. It is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, and is commonly known as the Neptune-grass bryozoan because it is exclusively found growing on seagrasses, usually on Neptune grass (''Posidonia oceanica''), but occasionally on eelgrass (''Zostera marina''). Description ''Electra posidoniae'' is a white bryozoan forming encrusting colonies of zooids on the leaves of seagrasses. The colonies consist of irregularly branching ribbons formed from a single layer of zooids, up to four zooids wide, neatly arranged in parallel rows along the length of the leaf blade. The colonies can reach in length; they are poorly calcified which makes the colony flexible and able to bend as the leaf moves in the water. This species could be confused with ''Electra pilosa'', which also grows in the Mediterranean, but that species tends to grow in star-shaped colonies that have a rough or bristly appearance. Distribution and habitat ''Elec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Posidonia Oceanica
''Posidonia oceanica'', commonly known as Neptune grass or Mediterranean tapeweed, is a seagrass species that is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. It forms large underwater meadows that are an important part of the ecosystem. The fruit is free floating and known in Italy as "the olive of the sea" (''l'oliva di mare''). Balls of fibrous material from its foliage, known as ''egagropili'' or ''Neptune balls'', wash up to nearby shorelines. The Posidonia has a very high carbon absorption capacity, being able to soak up 15 times more carbon dioxide every year than a similar sized piece of the Amazon rainforest. Morphology Posidonia oceanica has roots (which mainly serve to anchor the plant to the substrate), rhizome and tapeform leaves. The rhizomes, up to 1 cm thick, grow both horizontally (plagiotropic rhizomes), and vertically (orthotropic rhizomes). The former, thanks to the presence at the bottom of lignited roots up to 15 cm long, anchor the plant to the substrate. The lat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electra Pilosa
''Electra pilosa'' is a species of colonial bryozoan in the order Cheilostomatida. It is native to the northeastern and northwestern Atlantic Ocean and is also present in Australia and New Zealand. Description Colonies of ''Electra pilosa'' form broad mats or star-shaped patches on the surface of the fronds of large algae such as '' Laminaria'' and '' Fucus serratus''. The zooids also grows in small patches or tufts on the surface of shells and stones, and encircling the fronds of red algae such as '' Mastocarpus stellatus''. The zooids are packed closely together, are cylindrical and about . Each one has a mineralized exoskeleton with a transparent, membranous oval window. The calcified protective covering bears about nine spines (four to twelve), the central one being much longer than the others, giving the colony a hairy (Latin ''pilosa'') appearance. Distribution ''Electra pilosa'' is native to the northeastern and the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheilostomatida
Cheilostomatida, also called Cheilostomata, is an order of Bryozoa in the class Gymnolaemata. They are exclusively marine, colonial invertebrate animals. Cheilostome colonies are composed of calcium carbonate and grow on a variety of surfaces, including rocks, shells, seagrass and kelps. The colony shapes range from simple encrusting sheets to erect branching and even unattached forms. As in other bryozoan groups, each colony is composed of a few to thousands of individual polypides. Each individual has a U-shaped gut, and no respiratory, circulatory, or nerve system. Unique among bryozoans, cheilostome polypides are housed in a box-shaped zooids, which do not grow larger once the zooid is mature. The opening through which the polypide protrudes is protected by a calcareous or chitinous lidlike structure, an operculum. Cheilostomes possess avicularia, which have modified the operculum into a range of mandibles (possibly for defense) or hair-like setae (possibly for cleaning). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polycera Quadrilineata
''Polycera quadrilineata'', is a sea slug, a species of dorid nudibranch. It is a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Polyceridae. The specific epithet ''quadrilineata'' means four-lined and refers to the four longitudinal black lines present on the original specimen. This species is sometimes called the fourline nudibranch. In 2020 a integrative molecular and morphological study showed that ''P. quadrilineata'' was a complex of two species in the NE Atlantic and one of these species was given the new name ''Polycera norvegica''. Distribution This nudibranch was described originally from Norway. In the NE Atlantic it is a common species in shallow water.Picton, B.E. & Morrow, C.C., 2010''Polycera quadrilineata'' n/nowiki> Encyclopedia of Marine Life of Britain and Ireland. It is distributed from Greenland to Norway and south along the European coasts into the Mediterranean Sea. It is found from the intertidal zone to 160 m. It has also been reported off the South African co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seaweed
Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of ''Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as kelps provide essential nursery habitat for fisheries and other marine species and thus protect food sources; other species, such as planktonic algae, play a vital role in capturing carbon, producing at least 50% of Earth's oxygen. Natural seaweed ecosystems are sometimes under threat from human activity. For example, mechanical dredging of kelp destroys the resource and dependent fisheries. Other forces also threaten some seaweed ecosystems; a wasting disease in predators of purple urchins has led to a urchin population surge which destroyed large kelp forest regions off the coast of California. Humans have a long history of cultivating seaweeds for their uses. In recent years, seaweed farming has become a global agricultural practice, p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'. Phytoplankton obtain their energy through photosynthesis, as do trees and other plants on land. This means phytoplankton must have light from the sun, so they live in the well-lit surface layers ( euphotic zone) of oceans and lakes. In comparison with terrestrial plants, phytoplankton are distributed over a larger surface area, are exposed to less seasonal variation and have markedly faster turnover rates than trees (days versus decades). As a result, phytoplankton respond rapidly on a global scale to climate variations. Phytoplankton form the base of marine and freshwater food webs and are key players in the global carbon cycle. They account for about half of global photosynthetic activity and at least half of the oxygen production, despi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plankton
Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a crucial source of food to many small and large aquatic organisms, such as bivalves, fish and whales. Marine plankton include bacteria, archaea, algae, protozoa and drifting or floating animals that inhabit the saltwater of oceans and the brackish waters of estuaries. Freshwater plankton are similar to marine plankton, but are found in the freshwaters of lakes and rivers. Plankton are usually thought of as inhabiting water, but there are also airborne versions, the aeroplankton, that live part of their lives drifting in the atmosphere. These include plant spores, pollen and wind-scattered seeds, as well as microorganisms swept into the air from terrestrial dust storms and oceanic plankton swept into the air by sea spray. Though m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lophophore
The lophophore () is a characteristic feeding organ possessed by four major groups of animals: the Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Hyolitha, and Phoronida, which collectively constitute the protostome group Lophophorata.Introduction to the Lophotrochozoa – Retrieved 3 May 2010 All lophophores are found in aquatic organisms. Etymology ''Lophophore'' is derived from the Greek ''lophos'' (crest, tuft) and ''-phore'', ''-phoros'' (φορος) (bearing), a derivative of ''phérein'' (φέρειν) (to bear); thus crest-bearing.Characteristics The lophophore can most easily be described as a ring of ciliated tentacles surrounding the mouth, but it is often horseshoe-shaped or coiled. Phoronids have th ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diatom
A diatom (New Latin, Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group comprising several Genus, genera of algae, specifically microalgae, found in the oceans, waterways and soils of the world. Living diatoms make up a significant portion of the Earth's Biomass (ecology), biomass: they generate about 20 to 50 percent of the oxygen produced on the planet each year, take in over 6.7 billion metric tons of silicon each year from the waters in which they live, and constitute nearly half of the organic material found in the oceans. The Protist shell, shells of dead diatoms can reach as much as a half-mile (800 m) deep on the ocean floor, and the entire Amazon basin is fertilized annually by 27 million tons of diatom shell dust transported by transatlantic winds from the African Sahara, much of it from the Bodélé Dep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zostera Marina
''Zostera marina'' is a flowering vascular plant species as one of many kinds of seagrass, with this species known primarily by the English name of eelgrass with seawrack much less used, and refers to the plant after breaking loose from the submerged wetland soil, and drifting free with ocean current and waves to a coast seashore. It is a saline soft-sediment submerged plant native to marine environments on the coastlines of northern latitudes from subtropical to subpolar regions of North America and Eurasia. Distribution This species is the most wide-ranging marine flowering plant in the Northern Hemisphere. It lives in cooler ocean waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, and in the warmer southern parts of its range it dies off during warmer seasons. It grows in the Arctic region and endures several months of ice cover per year.Borum J., et al., (Eds.) (2004.European seagrasses: an introduction to monitoring and management.European Union: Monitoring & Managing of Euro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label= Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label= Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the 20 regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia and immediately south of the French island of Corsica. It is one of the five Italian regions with some degree of Autonomous administrative division, domestic autonomy being granted by a Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, special statute. Its official name, Autonomous Region of Sardinia, is bilingual in Italian and Sardinian language, Sardinian: / . It is divided into four provinces of Italy, provinces and a Metropolitan cities of Italy, metropolitan city. The capital of the region of Sardinia — and its largest city — is Cagliari. Sardinia's indigenous language and Algherese Catalan are referred to b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seagrass
Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families ( Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the order Alismatales (in the clade of monocotyledons). Seagrasses evolved from terrestrial plants which recolonised the ocean 70 to 100 million years ago. The name ''seagrass'' stems from the many species with long and narrow leaves, which grow by rhizome extension and often spread across large " meadows" resembling grassland; many species superficially resemble terrestrial grasses of the family Poaceae. Like all autotrophic plants, seagrasses photosynthesize, in the submerged photic zone, and most occur in shallow and sheltered coastal waters anchored in sand or mud bottoms. Most species undergo submarine pollination and complete their life cycle underwater. While it was previously believed this pollination was carried out without p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
