AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM

Tricia Mae C. Atienza

SOCTARES
 All ecosystem are linked together by water. Because water
covers about 75% of Earth's surface, numerous plants and animals
inhabit it. Water sustains most life-forms and without it, Earth
would be a very hot and barren planet. The Aquatic Ecosystems are
divided into two:

*Freshwater Ecosystem
*Marine Ecosystem
 Freshwater Ecosystems

Rivers and streams, ponds, wetlands, and lakes

are freshwater ecosystems. Only about 3% of the
world's water is fresh water and frozen water
locked up in glaciers and polar ice caps.
Lakes and Ponds
Lakes are large bodies of water that are
surrounded by land, while ponds are bodies of
water also surrounded by land but are smaller
than lakes. Some ponds dry up during the hot
summer. Ponds and lakes are often referred to as
lentic ecosystems because they have standing or
still waters unlke the moving waters in rivers and
streams.
 Lakes are divided into four zones of biotic
communities:
1. Littoral Zone - The are closest to the shore where
aquatic plants grow
2. Limnetic Zone - The open surface of the lake, away
from the shore
3. Euphotic - The area below the water surface that
sunlight cn penetrate and where the process of
photosynthesis occurs
4. Benthic zone - The lowest zone or bottom of the lake.
Streams and Rivers
Streams and rivers are bodies of flowing water that get their
start at headwaters which may be a sping or even a lake and then
flow to another body of water or to the ocean. The river changes
as it flows from the water source to its mouth (where a river flows
or empties into a sea or lake).
Animals that live in or around the streams and rivers include
fishes, crabs, snails, snakes, mudfishes, eels, and in some places,
crocodiles.
Plants that grow around these bodies of water include reeds,
Elodea (a kind of waterweed),water hyacinths, and kangkong,
which may also vary depending on the location.
Wetlands

are areas of standing water that support

various animals. These lands are saturated
with water and may be underwater most of
the time specially during the rainy season .
Wetlands include marshes, swamps, and bogs.
Marine Ecosystems
The marine ecosystems may be divided into
three types:

1. Oceans- These are the largest of all

ecosystems. An ocean in divided into zones based
on penetration of sunlight and depth.
a. Intertidial zone- Sometimes referred to as the littoral
zone, this is the area between high and low tides. This
area may be a sandy beach, a rocky beach, jagged coral
outcroppings, or wetlands.

b. Pelgic zone- The open water area except those near the
coast and the sea floor is called the pelagic zone. This
zone is the largest habitat on Earth with a volume of more
than 500 million cubic kilometers.
c. Benthic zone- This is located betwwen the pelagic zone
and the abyssal zone. It supports many fishes and
invertebrates.

d. Abyssal Zone- The water in this zone is high in oxygen

content but low in nutrition content.

e. Hadal- This is the deepest part of the ocean at 6 000 to

11 000 m. It is made up of deep trenches and troughs.
More than 400 species are known to live in the trenches.
 Organisms in this zone are more dependent on “food falls” or
dead plankton and fish carcasses sinking or falling down from the
surface waters and from nutrients swirling around the zone.
(HADEEP Project of the Universities of Aberdeen and Tokyo)
found that small shrimplike crustaceans of the genus Hirondellea,
lobsters, crabs, prawns, grenadiers (deep sea fish), liparids
(endemic hadal zone fishes that were never seen alive and were
caught only once in the 1950s) are found in this zone.
2. Coral reefs- About 25% of marine species live in coral
reefs. Here, hard and soft corals, sponges, crustaceans,
mollusks, fishes, sea turtles, sharks, dolphins, and other
marine species can be found.

3.Estuaris- These are partially enclosed bodies of water

along the coast where freshwater from rivers and streams
meet and mix with saltwater from the oceans.
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