Aquatic ecology and Biodiversity

Practical 9- Study of sandy shore habitat and organisms

Experiment No. 9
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Sandy shore
Sandy beaches results from littoral transport. It determines the appearance of the coastline. They are fairly calm in terms of wave conditions. Sandy beaches are soft shores that are formed by deposition of particles that have been carried by water currents from other areas.
Characteristics and adaptations plants and animals
This intertidal zone is covered part of the day by water and is part of the day exposed to air. High tides bring nutrients and food with it. When the tide retreats, waste products, eggs and larvae are taken. This causes changes for the organisms that live here and they have adapted to this changing environment.
The burrowing is rapid and powerful on high-energy sandy beaches. This is because the animals must not be swept away by incoming waves and swash. They also need to be high mobile and must be able to deal with the swash climate. Intertidal filter-feeders cannot feed while the tide has retreated. Many species of the meiofauna use vertical tidal migrations through the sand column. Other species move up and down the beach with the tides. Most are filter-feeding and scavenging. Some species descent into the burrow to escape from high temperatures. Another solution is evaporative cooling by replacing water through entering the burrow, plunging into the sea or absorption from the substratum. Another problem for intertidal animals is the time of reproduction. Adaptations for this is to reproduce at frequent times (iteroparous) or to reproduce just once in a year (semelparous). To ovoid predation, several behaviors are developed. The first one is to burrow very deep. Another one is tidal migration,so the animals remain protected from predation. Several groups of vertebrates make use of sandy beaches for foraging, nesting and breeding. Turtles nest on the backshore of sandy beaches. Birds use the beach for foraging, nesting and roosting. Seals use several areas of the beach for nesting, molting, breeding and raising pups. Most invertebrate phyla are represented on sandy beaches, either as interstitial forms
Macrofauna of the sandy beaches are often abundant and in some cases, attain exceptionally high densities. The macrofauna community consists of those organisms too large to move between the sand grains. - molluscs, crustaceans and polychaetes are the most important. Meiofauna - On most beaches the interstitial fauna is rich and diverse, even exceeding the macrofauna inbiomass . The dominant taxa of sandy beach meiofauna are nematodes and harpacticoid copepod with other important groups including turbellarians, oligochaetes, gastrotrichs, ostracods and tardigdades.
Plants low lying, prostrate, stoloniferous or cushion-like, dwarfed above ground, extensive underground growth, long tap root or widespread adventitious roots, adventitious buds and vegetative growth , leaves small, often spiny, leaves leathery or hairy, thick cuticle, thick epidermis, stem thorny, succulent, oil-dotted or bearing latex some fruits for water dispersal

Morphology of sandy shore:
Total Area -------------------- Tidal condition----------------
HHT & LLT zone: ----------- Aquatic weeds on sands----------------
Water Characteristics:
Physical:Temperature------- Colour / Odour-----------, Turbidity---------------
Chemical: pH------------- Dissolved oxygen---------------- Salinity----------------
Sandy shore communities: Gastropods, Bivalves, Worms, Crustaceans etc.
Species Diversity and Associations:
Inferences: