Using the renowned Peterson Identification System, this easy-to-use guide, sponsored by the National Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, is the perfect companion for exploring the seashore.
More than one thousand illustrations, arranged according to visual similarities, show plant and animal species of the Atlantic Coast from the Bay of Fundy to Cape Hatteras. This guide includes information on how to locate each species by geographic range, tidal range, tidal level, season, topography, and climate.
Using the renowned Peterson Identification System, this easy-to-use guide, sponsored by the National Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, is the perfect companion for exploring the seashore.
More than one thousand illustrations, arranged according to visual similarities, show plant and animal species of the Atlantic Coast from the Bay of Fundy to Cape Hatteras. This guide includes information on how to locate each species by geographic range, tidal range, tidal level, season, topography, and climate.
Atlantic Seashore: A Field Guide to Sponges, Jellyfish, Sea Urchins, and More
352
Atlantic Seashore: A Field Guide to Sponges, Jellyfish, Sea Urchins, and More
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Overview
Using the renowned Peterson Identification System, this easy-to-use guide, sponsored by the National Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, is the perfect companion for exploring the seashore.
More than one thousand illustrations, arranged according to visual similarities, show plant and animal species of the Atlantic Coast from the Bay of Fundy to Cape Hatteras. This guide includes information on how to locate each species by geographic range, tidal range, tidal level, season, topography, and climate.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780544530850 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
| Publication date: | 09/01/2018 |
| Series: | Peterson Field Guides |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 352 |
| Sales rank: | 841,416 |
| File size: | 44 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
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Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
PLANTS
The predominant vegetation on land consists of seed plants or spermatophytes. Some of these can stand a dousing with salt spray or grow with their feet wet in salt marshes, but few of them live fully submerged in saline water. On this coast there are only 2 marine species of these flowering plants (p. 52). Some classes of plants, such as ferns, mosses, and club mosses, are entirely absent in salt water, although lichens are common in the spray zone, and at least 1 lichen species ranges down into the intertidal zone. Marine fungi are important pathogens (disease-causing organisms) infecting seaweeds, fishes, oysters, sponges, crustaceans, and presumably other invertebrates. They are essential, too, in affecting the decay of submerged wood and cordage. Some are visible without magnification as spots or other discolorations, but most are essentially microscopic.
Algae are the dominant aquatic flora in marine habitats. They form an assemblage of separate phyla for which there is no simple all-inclusive definition. Many have complex reproductive cycles, but they are usually simpler in structure than higher plants. Some algal groups are microscopic or nearly so, notably the diatoms, chrysophytes, and dinoflagellates, whose teeming billions of planktonic cells are the most important marine vegetation in total productivity. The last 2 groups are unicellular, but many diatoms form chains or branching aggregations of linked cells. Some of these are benthic, rather than planktonic, and are visible as fine whiskery or fuzzy coatings on almost any substratum available.
Three phyla contain what most people call seaweeds. Early botanists grouped such plants according to color, and this system, with refinements, is still used. Thus, there are the Chlorophyta (green), Phaeophyta (brown), and Rhodophyta (red). All 3 contain green photosynthetic pigments (chlorophylls) and usually yellowish xanthophylls or carotenes as well. The Phaeophyta and Rhodophyta have additional brown or red pigments that give them their principal colors or combine with the greens and yellows to produce such hues as olive or purplish green. In general, color distinctions are an effective identification aid, but they are not infallible; some care and scrutiny are called for, since color may vary according to habitat and the well-being of the plant. Dead or dying weeds may fade to white or yellowish, or turn green or black, completely losing their original color. In body form some seaweeds approach higher plants, but instead of roots have holdfasts. The algal stipe is approximately equivalent to the stem of other plants, and the leaf of leafy forms is called a blade or frond. The whole plant is called a thallus (plural thalli). Except for some of the kelps, seaweeds generally lack the elaborate water-conductive tissues of higher vascular plants, and the holdfast, lacking the more complex function of true roots, is simply for attachment.
Many seaweeds are seasonal in occurrence. A few develop quickly, mature, and are gone within periods as short as a month. Others are present through whole seasons or almost year-round. Many, especially the smaller species, are annuals. Others are perennials; some of these die back at the end of a growth season to a persistent holdfast, and some are present year-round as whole plants.
CHAPTER 2Green Seaweeds: Phylum Chlorophyta
Thalli are usually grass-green when alive and healthy, sometimes tinged with yellow, blue, or black, but not with brown or red. For filamentous and crustose species see p. 48. Greens need plenty of light and are most common at higher intertidal levels or subtidally in shallow water.
HOLLOW GREEN WEEDSEnteromorpha species Pl. 1
Identification:Tubular, branched or not and sometimes flattened. Grass-green. Hollow structure in larger specimens is easily determined by the presence of air bubbles within the thallus. Ranges in width from 1/16 in. (1.6 mm) or less to 1 in. (25 mm) or more, and 1 ft. (300 mm) or more long.
Numerous species; 2 are minute and inconspicuous. E. linza (not shown) resembles Sea Lettuce (see Plate 1 and next account). Identification of the remaining species is difficult; they fall into 2 groups: those with unbranched thalli and those with branches. E. intestinalis, the most common unbranched species, reaches the maximum dimensions given above. Most of the branched species are slender, 1/8 in. (3 mm) or less wide, and less than 1 ft. (300 mm) long. E. compressa and E. prolifera (neither shown) are sparsely branched, the first with branches near the base, the second with scattered branches; they are 5/8-1 in. (16–25 mm) wide and about 1 ft. (300 mm) long.
Similar species: The more slender forms could be mistaken for filamentous green seaweeds (p. 50); Enteromorpha species are usually coarser but individual cells are not visible even with a hand lens.
Season:E. linza, winter-spring only. E. intestinalis, year-round. Most others are spring-summer annuals.
Where found: Several species, including E. intestinalis, range from the Arctic south to the Carolinas; the others south only to n. New England, Cape Cod, or n. N.J.
Remarks: These species occur in a variety of habitats. Common on rocks, dead shells, or wood in lower intertidal zone, on mud flats, drifting free, or even as epiphytes. Several grow at higher levels in tide pools or places kept wet by freshwater seepage; some have a wide tolerance for varying and greatly reduced salinity and penetrate deep into estuaries. E. compressa is a good candidate for seawater aquariums.
Family: Ulvaceae.
SEA LETTUCEUlva lactuca Pl. 1
Identification: Thallus a translucent bright green sheet, often lobed or ruffled at edges. Initially attached by a short marginal stalk but later drifting free. To 3 ft. (900 mm).
Similar species: (1) Monostroma species (not shown) are very similar, but can possibly be distinguished from Sea Lettuce by using the following 2 field tests: Ulva has consistency of wax paper and fingerprints are indistinctly visible through it; Monostroma is thinner, more like tissue paper, and fingerprints are clearly visible. Several species and varieties; microscopic study required to distinguish between them. To 1 ft. (300 mm). Often epiphytic, also in pools or on rocks in shallow, brackish to salt water. Annuals: early spring-summer. 4 of the 5 species in our area range from L.I. Sound or N.J. to n. Mass. or subarctic; M. oxyspermum south to Fla. (2) Enteromorpha lima (preceding account) is very similar in thickness and form to young elongated Sea Lettuce, but is usually attached by a tubular tapering stipe and basal disk to upper intertidal rocks; to 1 ft. (300 mm) long by 1 ¼ in. (31 mm) wide; late spring-summer; Carolinas to Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Season: Holdfast perennial; blade annual.
Where found: Subarctic to tropics.
Remarks: Sea Lettuce is one of the most familiar shallow-water seaweeds. It grows in a variety of places ranging from exposed rocks to quiet, semistagnant, brackish pools, where huge detached sheets carpet the muddy bottoms. Tolerant of or actually thriving in moderate pollution. Edible; see the Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America.
Family: Ulvaceae, including Monostroma.
GREEN FLEECECodium fragile Pl. 1
Identification: Coarsely bushy, often branching in regular Y-shaped forks; branches thick — to ¾ in. (19 mm) — ropelike or spongy. Dark green, bleaching to yellowish. To 3 ft. (900 mm).
Season: Variously described as perennial, biennial, or "pseudoperennial"; in any event often living for several years.
Where found: Accidentally introduced from Europe or North Pacific about 1957. Now found from Orient Point, Long Island, to Chatham, Cape Cod, and south to Barnegat Bay; a separate population in Boothbay Harbor.
Remarks: This distinctive plant lives in shallow water ot sounds and bays but often washes ashore in heavy, ropy masses, dragging along its mooring of pebbles and shells. A serious pest where common because of its choking effects on shellfish. Other Codium species are tropical.
Family: Codiaceae.
GREEN SEA FERNBryopsis plumosa Pl. 1
Identification: Delicately bushy, branching regularly; grows in fernlike tufts. Light green. Collapses out of water. To 4 in. (100 mm).
Similar species: (1) B. hypnoides (not shown) branches irregularly and is dark green. N.J. to Nova Scotia in lower intertidal zone. (2) See filamentous seaweeds (p. 50) and especially Spongomorpha species (Plate 1) which form conspicuous ropy tufts and tangles on intertidal rocks north of L.I. Sound. Season: Perennial in South; annual northward.
Where found: Fla. to Cape Cod and less commonly north at least to Nova Scotia. In tide pools and on wood in fairly quiet water at shallow depths.
Family: Bryopsidaceae.
CHAPTER 3Brown Seaweeds: Phylum Phaeophyta
Healthy weeds vary in color from light to dark brown; some are almost black, or yellowish to golden brown, and when tinged with green they usually appear a shade of olive. These are the conspicuous algae of rocky shores in the mid to lower intertidal zone; north of New York the large kelp species dominate the lowest levels exposed by the tides and extend down into the subtidal. A few browns are crustose or filamentous, p. 48, but most are medium to large seaweeds.
BOTTLEBRUSHCladostephus verticillatus Pl. 4 Identification: Unlike any other brown weed; bushy with thickish — 1/16 in. (1.6 mm) — branches composed of a somewhat stiff central core and whorls of tiny curving branchlets. Resembles a very fine bottlebrush or pipe cleaner. Whole plant to 10 in. (250 mm).
Season: Perennial; dies back and sheds branchlets in winter.
Where found: N. Y. to Cape Cod, rarely northward. Subtidal at moderate depths in exposed places; washes ashore.
Family: Sphacelariaceae.
BLACK WHIP WEEDChordaria flagelliformis Pl. 4
Identification: Bushy; upper branches whiplike and longer than main axis; has few secondary branches. Texture firm, leathery but slippery. Dark brown or black. Often covered with epiphytes by late summer. To 2 ft. (600 mm) or more, axis and branches 1/16 in. (1.6 mm) thick.
Similar species: Black Whip Weed can easily be confused with several other brown weeds. (1) Acrothrix novae-angliae (Plate 4) is a lighter olive-brown, more delicate weed with more profuse secondary branching; it also has some branches longer than axis but distinction between axis and branches is more subtle. Whole plant spreading to 12–18 in. (300–450 mm); axis and branches less than 1/16 in. (1.6 mm) thick. Matures late spring-early summer; epiphytic or subtidal in quiet places. L.I. Sound to Cape Cod; unknown before 1928 and possibly derived from a European relative. Family Acrothricaceae. (2) North of Cape Cod, Black Whip Weed is most easily confused with the sour weeds, Desmarestia and Dictyosiphon species (Plate 4). Season: Perennial.
Where found: Formerly (and rarely) from New York harbor to Arctic; now chiefly north of L.I. Sound. On rocks or wood from lower intertidal zone to subtidal, in fairly exposed places.
Family: Chordariaceae.
BROWN SLIME WEEDSEudesme species Pl. 5
Identification: Slender and stringy; texture soft and gelatinous with hardly more substance than thickish egg white. A colorless core can be seen with hand lens if base of specimen is pressed between thin glass plates. Light brown, drying on paper to little more than a yellowish or greenish stain.
2 species. (1) E. virescens is a coarsely branching form with main parts to 3/8 in. (9 mm) thick, whole plant to 14 in. (350 mm). (2) E. zosterae (not shown) is more delicate, sparsely branched; to 1/8 in. (3 mm) thick by 4–6 in. (100–150 mm) long.
Similar species: Red Slime Weed, Nemalion multifidum (Plate 5) is similar both in its slimy texture and cored structure but is rusty to dark red. To 10 in. (250 mm). On exposed intertidal rocks. Slippery. Maturing in midsummer. Long Island to Nova Scotia. Phylum Rhodophyta, Family Helminthocladiaceae.
Season: (1) E. virescens matures spring-early summer. (2) E. zosterae, summer-fall.
Where found: (1) E. virescens, Long Island to subarctic. Epiphytic on Eelgrass and larger seaweeds, also on pebbles subtidally. (2) E. zosterae, Gulf of St. Lawrence south to tropics; chiefly epiphytic on Eelgrass.
Family: Chordariaceae.
SEA POTATOLeathesia difformis Pl. 5
Identification: Grows in lumpy, often hollow, saclike masses. Rubbery in texture, yellow-brown in color. Epiphytic on larger seaweeds or on rocks in lower littoral zone. Suggests a compact sponge but lacks porous structure of sponges; more like partly dried grapes. To 3–4 in. (75–100 mm) across.
Season: Summer.
Where found: Newfoundland south to L.I. Sound and locally to N.C. Initially epiphytic on Irish Moss, Coral Weed, and other plants, but sometimes choking out its host and spreading over rocks.
Family: Chordariaceae.
SLIPPERY TANGLE WEEDSphaerotrichia divaricata Pl. 5
Identification: A slender bushy weed, finely branched with ultimate branchlets wide-angled; texture soft and slimy. Largest branches less than 1/16 in. (1.6 mm) thick, plant spreading to 20 in. (500 mm).
Similar species: Rough Tangle Weed, Stilophora rhizodes (Plate 5) is coarser, somewhat stiff and brittle, finely roughened with bumps. Pale- to yellowish-brown. Thickest branches to 1/8 in. (3 mm); whole plant to 1 ft. (300 mm). Summer; N.C. to Cape Cod and Prince Edward I. Epiphytic or drifting free in quiet shallow water. Family Stilophoraceae.
Season: Summer.
Where found: N.J. to Labrador; epiphytic.
Remarks: Slippery Tangle Weed from protected and somewhat polluted coves is stiffer, less slimy than average.
Family: Chordariaceae.
SPINY SOUR WEEDDesmarestia aculeata Pl. 4
Identification: Bushy; branches somewhat stiff, alternating on main axis and often partly flattened. Seasonally variable: has tufts of fine brownish hairs in spring; summer form bristly with short, spiky branchlets. Dark brown fading to yellow-brown, often bleaching white or yellowish at tips when exposed by low tides. Usually to 18 in. (450 mm), axis 1/16-1/8 in. (1.6-3 mm) thick.
Similar species: See next account.
Season: Annual, spring and summer only.
Where found: L.I. Sound to Arctic. On rocks or wood from lower intertidal to subtidal at shallow depths in fairly protected places.
Family: Desmarestiaceae.
SOFT SOUR WEEDDesmarestia viridis Pl. 4
Identification: Bushy; main branches opposite and regularly spaced, with abundant fine, terminal branchlets, and covered in spring with fine hairs. Pale brownish but fading rapidly out of water to yellowish olive. Sour smelling especially when out of water for any length of time. Usually to 2 ft. (600 mm), main axis 1/16-1/8 in. (1.6–3 mm).
Similar species: (1) False Sour Weed, Dictyosiphon foeniculaceus (Plate 4) is more delicate-looking, though it is stiffer than Soft Sour Weed. It lacks sour smell, is chiefly epiphytic, and more randomly and often sparsely branched. Light brown when alive, dries dark. To 2 ft. (600 mm) but main axis usually less than 1/16 in. (1.6 mm). Perennial; L.I. Sound to Cape Cod, less common northward to Arctic; often in rock pools. Family Dictyosiphonaceae. (2) See Plate 4 for other similar species.
Season: Annual. Winter in Barnegat Bay, but spring and summer from L.I. Sound northward.
Where found: N.J. to Arctic. On rocks and wood from lower intertidal zone to subtidal.
Remarks: The peculiar acrid smell due to acidic cell sap is distinctive and symptomatic of this weed's delicate constitution. Do not store collected specimens with other algae; it self-destructs when picked, and in crowded buckets is destructive to other weeds. Specimen mounts should be made as quickly as possible.
Family: Desmarestiaceae.
RIBBON WEEDSPunctaria species Pl. 6
Identification: Ribbon- or oar-shaped, broad to narrow, veinless and undivided. Holdfast a small pad. Color light to dark brown sometimes tinged yellowish or olive.
2 species, readily distinguished from each other but not always from several related species in other genera. (1) Delicate Ribbon Weed, P. latifolia, tapers abruptly to a basal stalk, is lighter, yellowish or olivebrown, and filmy thin. (2) Coarse Ribbon Weed, P. plantaginea, tapers gradually to a short stalk, is dark brown and relatively thick and leathery. Both species usually up to 1 ft. (300 mm) but sometimes nearly twice that.
Similar species: Ribbon weeds and both of the following differ from young kelp (Plate 3) in having a small padlike holdfast; kelp has a branching holdfast and a stipe ¼ in. (6 mm) or longer. (1) Petalonia fascia (not shown) is easily distinguished microscopically but varies in form, resembling both ribbon weed species. When abruptly tapered basally (latifolia-like), basal parts are usually asymmetrical. When tapered gradually (plantaginea-like) stalk is usually longer and round; olive- to dark-brown; to 18 in. (450 mm) long. On rocks or wood in upper littoral. Sometimes perennial, best from winter-spring; through summer in Chesapeake Bay. Fla. to subarctic. (2) Desmotrichum undulatum (not shown), a paper-thin, light-brown epiphyte on Eelgrass and algae, has narrowly tapered base; usually less than 3 in. (75 mm) but sometimes much longer. Best in early summer. Southern N.J. to Prince Edward I.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "A Field Guide to the Atlantic Seashore"
by .
Copyright © 1978 Kenneth L. Gosner.
Excerpted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Title Page,
Contents,
Copyright,
Dedication,
Editor's Note,
Acknowledgments,
Illustrations,
Map of Area Covered by this Field Guide,
How to Use this Book,
Collecting and Preserving Specimens,
Distribution and Habits,
Plants,
Green Seaweeds: Phylum Chlorophyta,
Brown Seaweeds: Phylum Phaeophyta,
Red Seaweeds: Phylum Rhodophyta,
Seed Plants: Phylum Spermatophyta,
Animals,
Sponges: Phylum Porifera,
Polyps and Medusae: Phylum Cnidaria,
Comb Jellies: Phylum Ctenophora,
Flatworms: Phylum Platyhelminthes,
Nemertean Worms: Phylum Rhynchocoela,
Aschelminthean Worms: Phylum Aschelminthes,
Entoprocts: Phylum Entoprocta,
Bryozoans: Phylum Bryozoa,
Arrow Worms: Phylum Chaetognatha,
Phoronid Worms: Phylum Phoronida,
Lamp Shells: Phylum Brachiopoda,
Mollusks: Phylum Mollusca,
Segmented Worms: Phylum Annelida,
Sipunculan Worms: Phylum Sipuncula,
Echiurid Worms: Phylum Echiurida,
Jointed-leg Animals: Phylum Arthropoda,
Spiny-skinned Animals: Phylum Echinodermata,
Acorn Worms: Phylum Hemichordata,
Tunicates: Phylum Chordata,
Glossary,
Selected Bibliography,
Index,
Endpapers,
About the Author,
Connect with HMH,