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Lake ecosystems can be divided into zones. One common system divides lakes into three zones. The first, the littoral zone, is the shallow zone near the shore. [5] This is where rooted wetland plants occur. The offshore is divided into two further zones, an open water zone and a deep water zone.
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]
These zones define various levels of productivity within an aquatic ecosystems such as a lake. For instance, the depth of the water column which sunlight is able to penetrate and where most plant life is able to grow is known as the photic or euphotic zone.
The climate and ecology of different locations on the globe naturally separate into life zones, depending on elevation, location, and latitude.The generally strong dependency on elevation is known as altitudinal zonation: the average temperature of a location decreases as the elevation increases.
In addition, some lakes become seasonally stratified. Ponds and pools have two regions: the pelagic open water zone, and the benthic zone, which comprises the bottom and shore regions. Since lakes have deep bottom regions not exposed to light, these systems have an additional zone, the profundal. [11]
Marine ecosystems can be divided into many zones depending upon water depth and shoreline features. The oceanic zone is the vast open part of the ocean where animals such as whales, sharks, and tuna live. The benthic zone consists of substrates below water where many
While benthic fauna differs between lakes, Chironomidae and Oligochaetae often dominate the benthic fauna of the profundal zone because they possess hemoglobin-like molecules to extract oxygen from poorly oxygenated water. [4] Due to the low productivity of the profundal zone, organisms rely on detritus sinking from the photic zone. [1]
The littoral zone, also called litoral or nearshore, is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. [1] In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal areas that are permanently submerged — known as the foreshore — and the terms are often used interchangeably.