Ctenophora

The movement and distribution of marine organisms has always been a main focal point of marine studies. With organisms such as Ctenophora, what role does temperature and rainfall play in their movements? To get a better understanding of how population densities change with weather, samples were taken during different periods of precipitation and temperature; rain the day before, clear the day before, warm temperatures, and cool temperatures. In the end, there were minor differences between the densities of Ctenophora per 3.5 liters, but not significant enough to make a conclusion of temperature and rainfall directly affecting the distribution of Ctenophora. If currents change because of an increase or decrease in rainfall or temperature, then…

Just like pores on human skin which absorb elements of the world around us, the holes all over the sponge’s body as essentially pores as well. The function of the holes all over the sponge’s body is to allow water to be absorbed into the sponge’s body. Through the absorption of water, the sponge also absorbs food and oxygen to ensure survival. There is no one set type of symmetry for sponges. Therefore, not all sponges have the same type of symmetry. Sponges can range from asymmetrical to…

Jellyfish is a free-swimming animal with a jellylike- bell or saucer shape body. Typically they are transparent and have stinging tentacles around the edge and considered as invertebrate species, meaning that they do not have backbones. The kingdom they are classified to is animalia(eukaryotic and multicellular organism) and belongs to phylum cnidaria, which is a taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. Theoretically, members of Cnidaria have life cycles that alternate between asexual…

Just north of Key Biscayne in sunny Miami, Virgina Key is a protected barrier Island in the Atlantic ocean. Consisting of 863 acres of land, it was once much larger, extending into the Ft. Lauderdale area. Between 1835 and 1838 hurricanes eroded the beach, creating inlets and dividing the island in two. The other portion became Fisher Island, which sits at the southernmost tip of Miami Beach. Virgina Key was a part of the civil rights movement. In a time when blacks were prohibited from going…

The Jellyfish is named by its jelly structure, which is made of a substance called mesoglea. Jellyfish are deboned animals that float openly throughout the oceans in Northern America. They can be found in all shapes and sizes. “If a jellyfish is cut in two, the pieces of the jellyfish can regenerate and create new organisms. If a jellyfish is injured, it may clone itself and potentially produce hundreds of offspring.”Although there are many different sizes of jellyfish, some jellyfish survive in…

Sea Walnut, Rippenqualle (German) Venus' girdle, warty comb jelly, these are just some of the names for the Comb Jelly. This animal is “any member of a common genus (Mnemiopsis) of gelatinous, planktonic marine invertebrates of the order Lobata (class Tentaculata, phylum Ctenophora).” (""sea Walnut"." Encyclopædia Britannica.) Because of its pronounced abundance in estuaries in the heavily populated parts of the US and its precarious population growth after the 1980s, the Mnemiopsis Leidyi or…

spread throughout the world. Diversity; Interactions with/ Importance to Humans Being that ninety percent of all extant plant species have these fungi in their roots, they have to be beneficial. Our food and our livestock’s food are all hosts to arbuscular mycorrhizae, making it an important resource for agriculture (Redecker). Arbuscular mycorrhizae facilitate plants and roots to fight off diseases and aid with nutrient uptake for the plant making it stronger and better at surviving. These…