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An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem found in and around a body of water, in contrast to land-based terrestrial ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems contain communities of organisms—aquatic life—that are dependent on each other and on their environment. The two main types of aquatic ecosystems are marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems. [1]
A freshwater aquatic food web. The blue arrows show a complete food chain (algae → daphnia → gizzard shad → largemouth bass → great blue heron). A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community.
An ecosystem may experience a dramatic shift if a keystone species is removed, even though that species was a small part of the ecosystem by measures of biomass or productivity. [158] Sea otters limit the damage sea urchins inflict on kelp forests. When the sea otters of the North American west coast were hunted commercially for their fur ...
Marine ecosystems are characterized by the biological community of organisms that they are associated with and their physical environment. Classes of organisms found in marine ecosystems include brown algae, dinoflagellates, corals, cephalopods, echinoderms, and sharks.
The neuston of the surface layer is one of the lesser known aquatic ecological groups. [5] The term was first used in 1917 by Naumann to describe species associated with the surface layer of freshwater habitats. [3] Later in 1971, Zaitsev identified neuston composition in marine waters. [6]
Phytoplankton (/ ˌ f aɪ t oʊ ˈ p l æ ŋ k t ə n /) are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems.The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν (phyton), meaning 'plant', and πλαγκτός (planktos), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'.
Grazing is a central, rate-setting process in ocean ecosystems and a driver of marine biogeochemical cycling. [75] In all ocean ecosystems, grazing by heterotrophic protists constitutes the single largest loss factor of marine primary production and alters particle size distributions. [76]
Algal blooms are the result of a nutrient, like nitrogen or phosphorus from various sources (for example fertilizer runoff or other forms of nutrient pollution), entering the aquatic system and causing excessive growth of algae. An algal bloom affects the whole ecosystem.