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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]
Phosphorus has a different role in aquatic ecosystems as it is a limiting factor in the growth of phytoplankton because of generally low concentrations in the water. [13] Dissolved phosphorus is also crucial to all living things, is often very limiting to primary productivity in freshwater, and has its own distinctive ecosystem cycling. [17]
Temperature is an important abiotic factor in lentic ecosystems because most of the biota are poikilothermic, where internal body temperatures are defined by the surrounding system. Water can be heated or cooled through radiation at the surface and conduction to or from the air and surrounding substrate. [ 6 ]
Introduced species are especially devastating to ecosystems that are home to endangered species. An example of this being the Asian carp competing with the paddlefish in the Mississippi river. [30] Common causes of invasive species in freshwater ecosystems include aquarium releases, introduction for sport fishing, and introduction for use as a ...
Eutrophication is the process of abundant plant growth, a dominating threat to standing waters. [16] If chemical nutrients for aquatic plant growth that were previously limited become available, plant populations will increase rapidly. This excessive plant population growth decreases the oxygen content of the water, and other aquatic life ...
Other external factors that play an important role in ecosystem functioning include time and potential biota, the organisms that are present in a region and could potentially occupy a particular site. Ecosystems in similar environments that are located in different parts of the world can end up doing things very differently simply because they ...
All of the examples given so far are of direct interactions: Species A eat Species B or Species B eats Species C. Also important are indirect interactions [19] where, using the previous example, Species A eats so much of Species B that predation on Species C decreases and Species C increases in number. Thus, Species A indirectly benefits ...
Benthic macroinvertebrates have many important ecological functions, such as regulating the flow of materials and energy in river ecosystems through their food web linkages. Because of this correlation between flow of energy and nutrients, benthic macroinvertebrates have the ability to influence food resources on fish and other organisms in ...