Aquatic Ecosystems

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Aquatic Ecosystems
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4 things determine aquatic ecosystems

1. Depth
2. Flow
3. Temperature
4. Chemistry

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• Only 3 of the Earths surface is fresh water.

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Two types of freshwater ecosystems
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Flowing water ecosystems
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Standing water ecosystems
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Flowing Water Ecosystems

1. Rivers
2. Streams
3. Creeks
4. Brooks

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Animals that live in Flowing Water ecosystems
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Catfish
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Trout
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Turtles
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Beavers
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River Otters
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Standing Water Ecosystems

• Lakes
• ponds

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Plankton

• General term for the tiny, free-floating or
  weakly swimming organisms that live in both fresh
  and salt water environments.
• Phytoplankton single celled photosynthetic
  algae
• Zooplankton small animals, usually microscopic,
  that feed on the phytoplankton.

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Wetlands

• Wetlands are productive because they are shallow
  with a lot of organic plant matter in the water
  that serves as breeding grounds for insects,
  fishes and other aquatic animals, amphibians, and
  migratory birds.

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Wetland Bogs

• Form in depressions left by sheets of ice.
• Thick mats of sphagnum moss grow and the bogs
  tend to be very acidic.

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Bog Finds

• Many ancient bodies are preserved in the acidic /
  oxygen free bogs.
• This man found in
• 1950 is estimated to
• be over 2000 years
• old.

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Venus Flytrap

• Pitcher Plants

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Wetland Marshes are shallow wetlands along
streams that remain wet at least half the year.
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Sawgrass marsh in the Everglades
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Wetland Swamps

• Wet year round
• Often look like flooded forests with trees and
  shrubs.

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Okefenokee Swamp
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• Estuaries are wetlands formed where rivers meet
  the sea.
• They contain a mixture of fresh and salt water.

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Estuaries

• Freshwater and saltwater mix - brackish

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Estuary Examples

1. Salt marshes temperate zone estuaries dominated
   by salt-tolerant grasses above the low tide line,
   and by seagrasses under water.
2. Mangrove swamps are coastal wetlands that are
   widespread across tropical regions, including
   southern Florida and Hawaii.

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Salt Marsh
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Marine Ecosystems

• Contain salt water
• Photic zone well lit upper layer down to 200
  meters where algae and other producers can grow.
• Aphotic zone permanently dark area where no
  photosynthetic organisms live, but some
  chemosynthetic organisms live.

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Marine zone based on depth of water distance
from shore

1. Intertidal zone
2. Coastal ocean
3. Open ocean

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Tides

• The portion of the shoreline that lies between
  the high and low tide lines is called the
  intertidal zone.

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Intertidal zone

• Barnacles
• Seaweed
• Snails
• Sea urchins
• Sea stars

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• Intertidal Zone

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Coastal ocean

• Kelp forests
• Snails
• Sea urchins
• Sea otters
• Fishes
• Seals
• whales

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Coral Reefs

• Corals are relatives to the jellyfish that
  secrete a hard substance called calcium
  carbonate.
• They live in symbiosis with algae contained
  within the body of each coral animal.
• Almost all grow within 40 meters of the surface.

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Coral Reefs
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Open Ocean

• Begins at the edge
• of the continental
• shelf and extends
• outward.
• Largest marine zone
• 500 meters to 11,000 meters.
• Swordfish, octopus, dolphins, whales

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Plankton

• Small organisms that live in the waters of the
  photic zone.
• phytoplanktonmicroscopic plants and bacteria
• zooplanktonmicroscopic animals

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Benthic Zone

• Ocean floor
• Organisms that live near or attached to the
  bottom
• Sea stars, anemones, marine worms all referred
  to as benthos.
• Clams, sea cucumbers

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• Harris Neck NWR

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• Baby Alligator

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• Sapelo Island

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• Sapelo Island - Blackbeard