Download The Caloosahatchee River

The Most Endangered Florida
Estuary
Manatee K-8
Mrs. Judith Nova’s Class
Florida's Endangered Estuary
The Caloosahatchee river is approximately 67 miles long
and runs on the gulf coast of Florida.
The river forms a
tidal estuary along
most of its course.
Which provides a
nursery for many
endangered species.
How The Caloosahatchee River
Was Formed
 The Caloosahatchee river was formed by sediments
from the sea called Pliocene and Pleistocene. This
process happened over one million years ago. Then
after sea levels receded it left a series of lakes and rivers
and this left the Caloosahatchee river.
 In the 1500’s Spanish explorers first named the
Caloosahatchee river the Calusa. Then after the 1700’s
it adopted its current name along with lake
Okeechobee
Water Quality
 The Caloosahatchee river has a water salinity of
brackish freshwater. The type of salinity can support
the Apple Snail or the Harvest organism the Trochus
Snail.
 The water quality is impacted by Cyanobacteria
Blooms which rob the Oxygen saturation and deprive
the sunlight from penetrating the surface.
 Due to the Algae Blooms through-out the warmer
seasons this estuary is subject to eutrophication.
Human Impact on the Estuary
 Massive discharges from Lake Okeechobee
 Seriously threaten the health of the Caloosahatchee
 Huge influx of lake water is killing coastal fishing
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


grounds
Triggering toxic algae blooms
Covering the surface of the water making life
underneath it malnourished.
Contains phosphates that are found in fertilizers
Cyanobacteria is absorbing the fertilized water and
this is causing major algae bloom.
Consumers of the River
Oysters
Wood Stork
West Indian Manatee
Shrimp
Mangrove Tree Crab
Mangrove Snapper
White Ibis/ Florida Water Snakes
Cyanobacteria
American Crocodile
Producers of the River
Paddle Grass
Manatee Grass
Turtle Grass
Star Grass
Widgeon Grass
Decomposers of the River
Marine Fungus
Bacteria
Caloosahatchee Food Web
Cyanobacteria
 Cyanobacteria , also know as blue-green algae, is a
algae that lives in brackish water, like the
Caloosahatchee River.
 Cyanobacteria blooms is when most of the effects that
Cyanobacteria cause happen.
 Blue-green algae has one main weapon, it’s toxin.
Consuming Organism Answers- A
and B
 The trait that gives Cyanobacteria an advantage over
all the other organisms is it’s toxin. Some types of
Cyanobacteria can produce a variety of toxins. Though
there seem to be two main toxins, Microcystins and
Anatoxin A.
 The Cyanobacteria “attacks” happen a lot during the
Cyanobacteria Blooms. The Blooms are most common
during the summer, though Cyanobacteria “attacks”
can happen anytime. The “attacks” can cause a lot of
issues but some are, fish kills, keep sunlight away from
sea grasses and other bottom dwelling organisms and
can kill domestic animals.
Consuming Organism Answers- C
and D
 The Cyanobacteria birth rate is low and decreasing.
Though, in 72,80 and in-between degree water,
Cyanobacteria grows rapidly. One of the
Cyanobacteria’s predators is the Apple Snail.
 Cyanobacteria is always growing but was not noticed
because they don’t grow rapidly. During the end of
summer and the beginning of fall, Cyanobacteria
grow the most because of the temperature changes,
seeing as it is at the highest temperature (22-80
degrees F.)
How Apple Snail’s will Save The Caloosahatchee River
The Florida Apple Snails is our base organism.
Apple Snail Fast Facts
 The species name is Pomacea paludosa
 The Caloosahatchee temperature is 24.96° C
 The Apple Snail water temperature tolerance is 20-28° C
 Apple Snails reproduce sexually
 Common names include:
 Mystery Snail
 Chinese Mystery Snail
Habitat
 Apple Snails are found in:
 Southeastern America
 Northern South America
 Most of the inland area of Africa
 Southern Asia
 Eastern South America
How Apple Snails kill Cyanobacteria
Apple Snails kill Cyanobacteria by putting small amounts of the bacteria
into it’s mouth. In disgust, the Apple Snail consumes small amounts of
the Cyanobacteria, while spitting out larger amounts. If we bred the
Apple Snail with a snail dependent on Cyanobacteria then the offspring
would be the solution to the river pollution issue.
The Trochus Snail is our harvest organism. This
organism is what we are breeding with the Apple Snail.
Trochus Snail Shapes and Colors
Modified Traits
 There are some traits in the Apple Snail that we would
like to replace with the Trochus Snail traits. These
Traits are:
 The over arching trait that we would like to replace is
how much the Apple Snail consumes
 One of the other traits is How the Trochus Snail cannot
live without the Cyanobacteria. We want the Apple snail
to have the ability to have the Cyanobacteria apart of the
Apple Snails diet.
Trait And How It Benefits The Base
Organism
We have decided to mutate and translate only one trait.
We have decided to give the Apple Snail the ability to
consume large amounts of the Cyanobacteria. It will
benefit the Apple Snail because it will help them take in
more Cyanobacteria which means that it will help
control the rivers large consumer.
Process of Apple Snail & Trochus Snail
Offspring
The base organism has a trait that allows them to eat some of
the cyanobacteria, though they spit most of it back out. Luckily we
have found an organism that has traits to eat large amounts of
cyanobacteria with out spitting it out. We’ll be using selective
breeding chart and punnett square to track the alleles of both
organisms. We will breed the Apple snail (homozygous recessive)
and the Trochus snail (homozygous dominant) until the
homozygous recessive alleles don’t show up in any of the offspring
and they all become homozygous dominant. By having the
offspring being homozygous dominant, all of the offspring will
have the trait of eating cyanobacteria.
Selective
Breeding process
Apple snail
Trochus snail
P1
EE
ee
F1
Ee
Ee
Ee
Ee
F2
EE
Ee
Ee
ee
F3
EE
Ee
EE
Ee
F4
EE
EE
EE
EE
Conclusion and Ethics
 The selective breeding and the project overall doesn’t invade or
violate any animal rights. Therefore, this project idea would not
be prohibited if we decided to conduct this experiment in real
life.
 Humans have a large impact on the Caloosahatchee River in a
variety of ways. Some are beneficial others are through damage.
The amount and timing of freshwater flows into the lower
Caloosahatchee/San Carlos Bay Estuary have been significantly
altered, at times denying the system its historical supply of fresh
water and at other times deluging it. The barrier (filter) built
between the San Carlos bay and Caloosahatchee is supposed to
be used to clear water of algae and other potentially dangerous
organisms, it can be considered inefficient.
How has the base organism exerted successful
population control over the monopolizing consumer?
 The Apple Snails are physically able to consume the
Cyanobacteria. Therefore the more Apple Snails being
reproduced, the less Cyanobacteria damaging the
Caloosahatchee River.
The Impact of the New GMO Organism on the
Ecosystem
The new organism, The GMO Apple Snails, will greatly
impact the Caloosahatchee River in a positive way.
When the Cyanobacteria is consumed by GMO Apple Snails,
the other organisms will flourish from a restore ecosystem.
Resulting in larger populations and diversity of organisms in
the Caloosahatee Estuary.
Healthy and viable Ecosystem!
Impacts on Human Population
 People will be able to return to using the river for
recreational activities as there will be a large reduction
in harmful toxins.
 People will be able to enjoy a healthy estuary
producing an ongoing abundance of life.
Benefits and Balance of GMO
 The GMO will increase control of cyanobacteria
 Snail Kites can feed upon the GMO controlling its
population size.
 Both Apple Snails and Trochus are native species.
 There will be more benefits than negatives to
introducing them to the Ecosystem.
 We will promote the release of the GMO snails in an
attempt to control The algae blooms.